• Shaka Smart To Marquette DoneDeal

    Ok, time for me to step up. For the last seven+ years there has been a running joke around the internet about #DoneDeal.

    #DoneDeal goes back to when Buzz Williams left Marquette and it was reported on Twitter that Shaka Smart was going to be the new coach at Marquette, and that it was a "Done Deal".

    When Smart turned down the job, #DoneDeal was born and lived on in message boards, the blogosphere and on Twitter ever since.

    Last month Shaka rumors started swirling again after Marquette dismissed Steve Wojciechowski, and that once again kicked up the #Done Deal Tweets & comments. I received texts, e-mails and voicemails giving me plenty o' crap. Why?

    Because I was #Done Deal.

    Yep, indeed I was.

    Truth be told, when I did Tweet it out, I had three sources. All of them good. All of them valid. I still stand by my report that Shaka was to be the next Marquette Coach. Why? Because I know what I was told, I know who had told it to me and I know what happened.

    No, I won't go into detail about what I was told and by whom, because I don't burn my sources or people involved. Never have, never will. So no, I do not regret that Tweet.

    What made it worse for me at the time, was that when questioned about the source, I replied that "I was the source". Yes indeed, pretty arrogant, but let me explain.

    I had been in the info business for so long, that most everyone trusted the information when I said things and I was never questioned because of my track record. Hell, many of the national guys who report on recruiting and basketball rumors today? The people that are never questioned? Go back 10-15 years, I sent some of those guys information constantly. The only person that ever questioned my info was one of my brothers. Constantly. Hell, I could tell him that its 4:30 and he would reply, "Source?"

    What I wasn't prepared for with that comment was the fans from VCU that attacked. Really? People from the A10 think that their coaches can't get poached by a team from a power conference? Really? Not a smart Tweet, but again, I knew what I knew.

    So yes, seven years later Shaka Smart takes the job at Marquette hopefully putting #DoneDeal to bed for good.

    Thanks for putting me through hell for seven years Shaka and welcome to Marquette!