Buzz Williams and SMU

[2012Warrior]

People are going to look at this for its face value....looking at a job at a school that scored 12 points in a half this year. 12! The intangibles might be pretty similiar in $, conference, and school prestige...but man it just doesnt look similiar on the surface.

Wait a second.....Buzz is looking at the Wisconsin job too?

[kneelb4zerg]

Come on. It's a step down, whether the money is there or not.

[IWB]

I didn't say it wasn't, what I was trying to say, is that it isn't a jump of the bridge. Crean took Indiana from 0 Big 10 wins to a Sweet 16 in four years. You honestly think it would take Buzz longer?

[warriorfan4life]

I think Buzz is a better coach then Crean, especially for a program like Marquette. However, there's no comparison of Indiana and SMU. Not too many Cody Zeller's in Dallas, Texas growing up as SMU fans. I think Buzz would do a very good job there, but it far from a sure thing.

[geneseewarrior]

Even though Buzz is a great recruiter - I think Crean may have that "it's Indiana, It's Indiana" thing going for him....

[IWB]

I agree on the "It's Indiana" point, but never underestimate the amount of talent in the state of Texas. And, when comparing to Nebraska, realize that Nebraska has never put serious money into their hoops program, whereas SMU is willing to do so.

Look, I hope it doesn't happen, I don't want it to happen, but the fact that SMU has always sucked has nothing to do with it.

[TulsaWarrior]

I've spent a lot of time on the SMU Campus, gone to church in Highland Park, gotten to know some of the schools money people and hired a lot of SMU grads. The school's backers can put together a mind boggling package. I hated living in the Dallas Metroplex but to each his own. Just like TCU in football -- SMU has the potential and the backing to get things done. The recent donations for Moody Coliseum prove that. Here's hoping Buzz stays in Milwaukee.

A side note -- in the next couple of years SE Wisconsin will be producing a bumper crop of high D1 recruits with the recruitment of Burton and the Wilson cousin and the Sweet 16 showing in the NCAA -- Buzz's recruiting life will be a hell of a lot easieer than it has been.

[TedBaxter]

My whole thought process on this situation and basically the situation for every coach is comfort level with the university and the comfort level with his or her athletic director. I have no doubt that Larry Williams and Buzz Williams have the same goals as far as winning games, but there has to be that comfort level for both of them on how those games are won and what is going on within the program. That's why you see AD's come in and in many instances, they clean house, albeit sometimes gradually. For instance, Larry Williams parted ways with Michael Holton as his basketball coach at the University of Portland after a year or so on the job and hired Eric Reveno, an assistant from Stanford.

College athletics is a business and Larry Williams is the CEO of the Marquette athletic department. For anyone who has every worked in the corporate setting, people are hired in management and there's often a mix of people let go and people who leave on their own who don't mesh with the new management and that may be what we are seeing right now. The problem is, management has to realize the negative of losing the most visible person in the company and what kind of impact this would have on your company. The visible employee may do things in a little different manner or have a different outlook on things than the CEO, but the CEO has to analyze if he can accomodate this different style into his company and if not, what losing this person does for the company's bottom line. In the end, there may be nothing the CEO can do if the employee doesn't feel the new way of doing business is what he will thrive in and it would be better to move on for his and his families future.

What I'm saying is that Buzz has to be happy where he's working and Larry Williams has to be comfortable with the working relationship he has with Buzz. If neither of them are totally satisfied, it's not going to work for long and it may be better to move on. I know that's tough for a lot of us to think about since we have enjoyed the success and then you have student athletes who made a commitment to Marquette and Buzz who would be left in limboland. A lot to think about right now for everyone involved and nobody but Buzz has a feeling for what he is thinking.

[Goose85]

Hopefully there is something to this one. I'm still worried that the powers that be at MU are going to screw this up.


http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/20...seth-greenberg