[Cracked Sidewalks] Morning grinds

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

Morning grinds

Written by: NY Warrior

A few items of note regarding MU..........

Marquette Tribune's Steve Yanda paints himself green with envy at the opportunities that await Jerel McNeal.  Yanda rightly expects McNeal to declare for the NBA draft shortly -- but to do so without an agent, and ultimately return to MU.

Now for the main event.

Mike DeCourcy says it will be tough for MU (and PC) to recruit in the Big East because the league is, well, too tough -- and infers that new head coaches Buzz Williams and Keno Davis might be in over their heads.

Nobody is denying that the Big East is rough, but DeCourcy downplays MU's strengths to the point where he views PC as a program on par with MU.  Of course, this is not the case on any level, just look at the relative successes of each program in the last decade, not to mention facilities, fan support, television appearances, and NBA footprint.  MU certainly left itself open to criticism for hiring Buzz Williams -- but the PC comparison is a non sequitur.

Still, DeCourcy marginalizes Marquette's position in the Big East:

"When the Marquette job opened and its fans wondered if Xavier's Sean Miller would be interested in moving, the answer was obvious -- but not to them."

Few MU fans (any?) expected MU to land Miller.  The buzz on Miller's interest in potentially moving on from Xavier was more of a media creation than any Marquette fan's expectation.  When the Pitt job opens up, Miller will move on.  Fine with me.

"Marquette built one of the nation's best practice facilities and has shown a willingness to invest in coaching salaries, but it cannot change the fact it is at the Western edge of an Eastern league."

The 'western edge of an Eastern league' reeks of spin from competitive coaches, or even coaches formerly on the MU staff.  Despite their proximity to the Center of the Big East Universe, programs like Seton Hall, Rutgers, St John's and Providence have somehow struggled to be competitive for what, a decade or more?  To read this column, you'd expect that MU had failed miserably during its Big East tenure.

Players who grow up in Wisconsin generally dream of playing in the Big Ten, which is one reason the Badgers have enjoyed an edge in drawing the state's elite prospects

Marquette never was a program built on the backs of talent from the Dairy State.  MU has always gotten its share of local kids (Diener and Novak for example), but historically recruited with greater success regionally and nationally.  This is a non-issue for the program.

Both Marquette and Providence have hired promising coaches. But each has moved out of his geographic comfort zone and will have to overcome that.

Hmmm........After DeCourcy just pointed out that homestate kids don't flock to play ball at MU how can he now say that hiring a coach from outside the state (or Midwest) is now a disadvantage?  Should MU have doubled-down with a yokel so he could swim upstream in a state where the cultish following of the red-clad flagship institution is culturally ingrained?

When Marquette hired Tom Crean, geography mattered more than it does now.  With Marquette playing in an East Coast-based league, a coach with a national reputation as a strong recruiter just might be the right fit (process be damned), if for no other reason than being on the 'western edge of an Eastern league'.

Big East battles aren't confined to the court. In fact, the confrontations along the recruiting trail can be even more intense. No joke.

Agreed.  And let's face it, after landing the blowout class headlined by the Three Amigos, Tom Crean delivered a pair of decidedly underwhelming classes to follow.  Simply put, other than Lazar Hayward and maybe Trevor Mbakwe, Crean left behind a roster of questionable role players with marginal skills.   True to form,  it took Crean three years to land another promising class, one broken up by his Irsay-esque departure.  Crean often recruited his best talent when his back was against the wall  -- and heading into 2009, it would have been at Marquette because of the mistakes, misses, and reaches made in between.

In the end, maybe these perceived recruiting issues at Marquette had less to do with geography and more to do with the talent evaluation and roster development of the previous head coach.

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2008/04/morning-grinds.html

[AlumKCof93]

The media has long portrayed MU as a place where fans have unrealistic expectations of the program.  That said, I haven't seen a nationally respected writer like DeCourcy go to such lengths to detail the perceived shortcomings of our program.  Good job by CS in rejecting some of DeCourcy's jabs, its a shame the article weren't more balanced and speak to MU's tradition, and its history of recruiting in Chicago.  I typically like DeCourcy, but this article misses the mark in criticizing the program and not the search for the new coach.

[Daniel]

Marquette rarely gets a  fari shake from anyone but Bilas. 

You should post your replies as Comments for his article - excellent.

[NYWarrior]

its a shame the article weren't more balanced and speak to MU's tradition, and its history of recruiting in Chicago.  I typically like DeCourcy, but this article misses the mark in criticizing the program and not the search for the new coach.

great points.....especially the traditions point and specifics on recruiting.  MU has plenty to offer and some unique advantages.

this article has Tommy Traitor written all over it

[Marquette_g]

I'm not sure why DeCourcy gets defended so frequently on this board.  I've found very little value in any of his reports since TC left.  I'm not saying that as a bitter fan, but rather as someone who was trying to gain a better understanding of the situation and felt DeCourcy provided nothing of value.

I would rank Mr. DeCourcy right behind Andy Katz in terms of valueless columnists.

[lab_warrior]

That article is trash, I would say almost a borderline hatchet job--so many ignorant, pointless comments.  We're NOTHING like PC.  And we've been pretty good recruiting out of state, and have gotten some in-state gems at times.  And our proximity has nothing to do with win% in the conference, SJU, SHU, and Rutgers have been absolute trash for 15 years now. 
F*** you, DeCourcy.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Do you guys still not understand that this is spin by Crean to repair his image? This is a nonsense article about how hard poor Tom had it at Marquette and that, gee whiz, he had no choice but to leave (which misses the entire point about why people are angry).  The guy is hitting every single national writer whose phone number he has. It's guilt!

Personally, I'm far more annoyed at our hiring process than the fact that we no longer have to deal with the complete tool who was the face of our basketball program for nine years.

If we can just get our nickname back, I'd no longer even have to post here.

[79Warrior]

That article is trash, I would say almost a borderline hatchet job--so many ignorant, pointless comments.  We're NOTHING like PC.  And we've been pretty good recruiting out of state, and have gotten some in-state gems at times.  And our proximity has nothing to do with win% in the conference, SJU, SHU, and Rutgers have been absolute trash for 15 years now. 
F*** you, DeCourcy.

Just becuase you don't like what he has to say does not mean it is a hatchet job. He pointed out thing that are obvious to people outside wisconsin. Mu is a tough place to recruit , period. The fact we hired an assistant speaks volumes.

[jmayer1]

Do you guys still not understand that this is spin by Crean to repair his image? This is a nonsense article about how hard poor Tom had it at Marquette and that, gee whiz, he had no choice but to leave (which misses the entire point about why people are angry).  The guy is hitting every single national writer whose phone number he has. It's guilt!

If you seriously believe this, you may be downright crazy!!

There are a few certainties in life:
the sun will rise in the east every morning
you will die eventually
you have to pay taxes
prn will bitch about whatever mu does

[ZiggysFryBoy]

If we can just get our nickname back, I'd no longer even have to post here.

I'll call Fr. Wild today.   

[muchalktalk]

I would say there is a little concern here.  Since Texas is his recruiting base, we will have to see if he can have continued success getting a large number of Southern kids to come up to the very distant, cold North.  Furthermore, what happens if he has a couple of kids transfer due to MU being too far from home or too cold.  Future recruiting could be problematic.

One could say why worry about that now; let's worry about that if the time comes.  However, I don't think you can dismiss the possibility.