Greg Doyel On Buzz Williams

That's the buzz ?

 

Marc Marotta, a former Marquette basketball star, prominent supporter of the basketball program and chairman of the BMO Harris Bradley Center board of directors, said Friday that Buzz Williams' decision to leave for Virginia Tech was a mistake.

"For him to leave Marquette is one of the most idiotic moves I've ever seen anyone make," Marotta said. "I like Buzz but this is a move that is inexplicable."

"There is not one good reason for him to leave to go to that program. That job is a dead end. It's a bad move," Marotta said.

"To me it's obvious Buzz felt that he wasn't getting the kind of love he was used to getting," Marotta said. "If coaches feel like they aren't loved, they get upset. That was the case here. I'm sure people were unhappy with the season. But these guys have big egos and they want to have them stroked."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/one-of-the-most-idiotic-moves-ive-ever-seen-b99230865z1-251576821.html

Ben Howland's name has surfaced, so Marquette could keep the good coach/possible raging asshole hypocrite vibe going.

 

Buzz obviously looking to corner the market on Hatfield/McCoy hoopsters.

Del Curry ain't walking through that door.

 

Taking the Calipari-Carroll express out of Milwaukee...

 

it's college basketball in the ACC. All it takes is convincing 1 stud HS player and 1 really good HS player and you've turned a program around. ACC is a widely televised and covered league and you'll play St K, Prince Pitino, Roy, Boeheim ...

A charismatic coach with flexible ethics who can teach the game and has a track record can succeed anywhere.

The BigEast will become the old A10, nice schools who play basketball.

It's really simple, ESPN > FoxSports1

 

I've read Buzz totally wrong. I figured he'd haul ass back home as soon as he could. But at the bucks he's making, he can fly back and forth and spend every weekend skipping stones into the East Fork of the Trinity River from April to October.

 

The move by Buzz Williams to Virginia Tech makes absolute sense.

No athletic director or even president at Marquette. Who's running the ship up there? Is it sinking?

How will either of the two new hires feel about the basketball coach - who is not their guy - making in the neighborhood of $4 million? How would either of the new hires feel about Williams leaning so heavily on junior college kids?

Williams clashed with former AD Larry Williams, who had Buzz fire one of his assistants last year - and suspended the head coach for a game - for recruiting violations. That gave Buzz a good indication where he stood when the school's powers backed the AD, who ultimately left, instead of the hoops coach.

The Big East? Please. It's become a mid-major conference with a television deal that the head coaches despise - half the games seem to start at 9 p.m. Williams probably believes he should stand alongside Boeheim and K and Williams and Pitino.....here's the chance.

Williams was going to take the first train out to a big-time league. That train pulled out Friday afternoon. He jumped on the chance to be aboard.

Williams gets to feel love from new Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock, who gets his home-run hire. And he also gets $18 million for seven years. So it doesn't work out? Get fired in a few years, collect your cash and find another school.

That's life in college basketball.

I don't think anyone in Blacksburg is planning any NCAA tournament viewing parties at Cassell Coliseum anytime soon with Buzz aboard. Find a way to finish in the top half of the ACC and they''' build him a statue.

Shrewd money move Buzz. Well done.

 

Greenberg was recruiting quite well at Virginia Tech circa 2007. I don't quite understand the move by Buzz Williams, but I can see how a coach might look at VT and say "if Seth can bring in a class with Malcolm Delaney, Jeff Allen and Dorenzo Hudson I can do it too. And I sure as hell wouldn't miss the tournament every year I coached them."

 

In 2007, Virginia Tech also had a bit of a recruiting challenge due to that one incident...

People join companies but usually leave because of bosses. I wonder if that's the case for Williams at Marquette. He's surrounded by interim bosses but he's also the "money coach" at Marquette. This means, if he has a new ND and Williams gets the NIT next year, his job might be in peril.

Maybe Williams simply felt unappreciated. The guy got Marquette into the Sweet 16/Elite 8 the last three years before 2014. If he felt the support waning, he may as well jump. I do think a "hot coach" should always leave for a better opportunity. He probably wasn't as hot this year as in 2013. If he has another NIT season, then he slips into "Chris Lowery-ville" -- an overpaid coach who is seen as underdelivering.

With Virginia Tech, Williams enters at the absolute bottom which, in college basketball, is a good place. He can run it with a clean slate, build it up. If he makes the NIT in year 2 and the NCAA in year 3 or 4, Williams will be able to stick around for much longer than at Marquette.

 

The Providence situation has been in the news here since November. Cooley sat the two players down even before the university took action to suspend them for the year. The victim made the criminal complaint only two weeks ago, with no charges filed yet. The Providence cop probably dropped the dime this week for maximum effect, since some town/gown issues exist between PC and the PPD (not involving athletes).
PC is not a school known for coddling miscreant athletes (at least since Marvin Barnes left).