College Basketball Thread 2013-14

[LouisEly]

Buzz got 7 years, $18M from Virginia Tech. Marquette doesn't have that kind of $dough to spend on a coach. I had a feeling that eventually he would end up back down south somewhere. Can't blame Buzz for taking that kind of money.

 

Maybe that Mercer coach will think Marquette is an upgrade. Five of his top six scorers are seniors, so this would probably be a good time for him to leave. Or the coach from Stephen F. Austin - two tourney appearances the last two years, 58-7 combined record. Only one loss by 10 or more points the last two years - this year by 10 to Texas. Last year lost by one to #4 seed Stanford.

 

Or an assistant from Michigan State...

[brwrsfan]

My guess is they will talk to Wardle. Doing a good job at GB, he played at Marquette....

 

It's not an upgrade other than going to the ACC, but VT is a bottom tier ACC school, not to mention they will always play second fiddle to the football team there. I like Marquette, but it's annoying to see it used as a stepping stone program. I just never viewed it that way until recently.

[young guns]

Watching the Stanford-New Mexico game at the end when they were reviewing who gets the ball just before the flagrant foul stuff happened, it kind of bugged me that Stanford get awarded the ball because there wasn't a foul called when their player slammed the arm of the NM player causing the ball to go out of bounds. Also, I not convinced the VCU player committed a foul at the end of regulation on that 3.

[jjfanec]

Buzz got 7 years, $18M from Virginia Tech. Marquette doesn't have that kind of $dough to spend on a coach. I had a feeling that eventually he would end up back down south somewhere. Can't blame Buzz for taking that kind of money.

 

Maybe that Mercer coach will think Marquette is an upgrade. Five of his top six scorers are seniors, so this would probably be a good time for him to leave. Or the coach from Stephen F. Austin - two tourney appearances the last two years, 58-7 combined record. Only one loss by 10 or more points the last two years - this year by 10 to Texas. Last year lost by one to #4 seed Stanford.

 

Or an assistant from Michigan State...

 

Buzz's contract at Marquette was at least 2.5 million per year. Pretty much the exact same contract. Buzz didnt leave for the money or a better coaching job. He left for other reasons we might never know

[brwrsfan]

Yeah, NM kinda got hosed there. It was off of him out of bounds, but only due to the foul (which wasn't called). The VCU one was even more absurd. I'm not sure he even touched the guy, and if he did, it was a grazing at best. The guy then completely flopped. If you're going to make a potential game (and in this case, season changing call) at the end of the game, you better be sure. For all the things they let go with the game on the line, to get called for something like that I found to be pretty ridiculous. Watching it live, I didn't see much contact and watching it on replay, I saw even less.

 

This has really been an amazing set of opening days for the tournament. I think 6 OT games already (only 2 total in the last two tournaments combined), couple of buzzer beaters, some close games and even some 1-2 seeds being challenged. Plus of course the usual upsets with quite a few double digit seeds advancing. Oh and the Badger blowout, which was nice.

[Funketown]

VaTech has to be a brutal place to recruit...

[brwrsfan]

He may have left for his own personal reasons, which is fine, but this is likely career suicide for him IMO. Maybe he'll prove his greatness and recruiting and resurrect the VT program, which hasn't gotten to the Sweet 16 in I believe almost 50 years.

 

I always wonder if coaches egos get in the way in this situation. With both Buzz and Beliema, they were left with programs in awfully good shape. Crean left Buzz with a very good team and he took the reigns and ran with it, same with Beliema. I think these guys don't realize how hard it is to take a program from the toilet and build it into a winner.

 

VT has several issues. 1 - it's a football school. This isn't going to change. 2 - it's at the bottom of a super powerful basketball conference....Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Louisville (next year) are going to be near the top of that (and the nation) pretty much every year. Throw in others like UVA, Clemson, Wake, etc, and just getting into the top HALF of the ACC is going to be an extreme challenge. 3 - I don't think he's a good coach. Sure, he took some talented teams and won with them, but look at this year. IMO, much of what happened was due to his rotation and game management. They weren't a great team, but they had more talent than a barely over .500 program.

[owbc]

I'm guessing that he was having trouble recruiting after the Big East fell apart. It was only one bad year and Marquette had the talent to get back to the NCAA tournament.

 

Marquette really needs to get out of the Big East and into the Atlantic 10.

[paul253]

I'm guessing that he was having trouble recruiting after the Big East fell apart. It was only one bad year and Marquette had the talent to get back to the NCAA tournament.

 

Buzz had probably his best recruiting class last year. Unfortunately injuries to Duane Wilson and Vander Blue's ridiculous decision to turn pro really hurt the back court. Overall a lot of Big East teams are recruiting fairly well. Georgetown Marquette Providence and Seton Hall all have top 25 classes and Xavier has 3 recruits in Scout's top 100. I don't think the Big East breakup has affected recruiting all that much.

 

Overall I'm not overly upset about Buzz leaving. He was never really able to successfully recruit a big man other than Gardner and next year's team is going to be woefully undersized because of it. It seemed like a good percentage of his recruits have been busts (Anderson, Taylor Jr., Erik Williams, Jujuan Johnson so far) or transferred (Maymon, Reggie Smith, Jamail Jones, Jamal Ferguson, TJ Taylor). I guess you can't argue with 3 straight Sweet 16's but this year's team, and I have a feeling next year's team, aren't nearly that good. I can't help but think someone who can recruit a more balanced roster and can develop the talent better will have more success.

[stalton]

Watching BA call the Florida game makes me excited for the regular season to get here in 2 weeks. I'm stoked for tonight for Bucky to kick duck tail!

[lcbj68c]

Scoring defense and opp FG% is killing the Badgers already. Oregon on pace for 110 through the first 10 minutes.

[pitchleague]

This is the michigan state game from last Saturday all over again.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Badgers defense is like a sieve, but the officiating in this game is sketchy at best.

[fondybrewfan]

Officiating may be iffy but when you let them shoot 60% and run all over the place it won't matter.

 

Jackson needs to get his head out of his rear. Not a good first half at all.

 

That being said Oregon looks like a really good team.

[adamb100]

This second half so far...wow.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Badgers are hot to start the 2nd half.

[fondybrewfan]

Well that is more like it. Erased that deficit really quickly

[DuWayne Steurer]

This is like a completely different game in the 2nd half.

[lcbj68c]

What a 2nd half Bucky. They might have just outlasted the best offense in Division 1.

[fondybrewfan]

Great win.

 

Really like the matchup against Creighton or Baylor

[DuWayne Steurer]

TOugh game.

[DHonks]

wow...crazy. I'm bummed since I had the Oregon moneyline. But Oregon did this to themselves....not in blowing the lead, but in the last 1:30 they had 4 rebounds that were fought over by 2 ducks and 0 Badgers, and yet the Badgers got all 4 boards after the Ducks inexplicably tipped the balls away from eachother. Was a fun weekend in Vegas...I can't imagine how crazy the sportsbook was since it was Wisc -6, and they covered thanks to the end of the game.

[young guns]

Wow, just wow. What a great game to watch. Love the toughness they showed coming out of halftime. Looking forward to the next game which I believe is Thursday.

[jjfanec]

This Badgers team is so much fun to watch. it will be nice if they can play a full 40 minutes in the Sweet 16 game

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Huge three from Brust. Big free throws from Trae. Sweet 16 is nice.

 

Hoping for Gonzaga over Arizona, though I won't hold my breath. SDSU-Arizona would be a slugfest. Agree that either Creighton or Baylor is a good matchup, though McDermott is just truly terrifying. We'll see what happens.

 

Mostly, I love getting to relax for a few days and know there'll be a game.