Some need a reality check.

[Smee]

I have been telling everyone who asks me, most of whom know I am a die hard MU fan that they have not given up and are playing well, but they don't have all the tools...or some of those tools are not honed yet. They think I am nuts when I say I am proud of this team.

Bob

[The Reptile]

You're right to be proud. Sometimes, the best coaching jobs do not happen when a coach has more talent than the competition it's when he does more with less. That's exactly what Wojo is doing this year - making due with the players he has right now and doing his best to make them play 40 minutes. I'd like to see this year's COY do that because I bet he comes from a program with a full roster leaving the talent and experience discussions for later.

[mufan2003]

Well said Crisco. When you said 2 of our 3 seniors are role players at best....that is a very complimentary statement, others might have a harsher analysis. Fischer, Duane have been good, but this is their first year playing college basketball. JJJ has been good and bad, but also his first year playing college basketball. Sandy Cohen is a true freshman, he has shown good and bad, as expected. Carlino has been what we expected, he can light it up. Steve Taylor should be better by now, but the knee issue seems to have really set him back.

That's our team, playing games with 8 guys, sometimes 7 or 6 in a very good conference....what can we expect? Especially that this late in the season, people can still get so worked up over a loss as if it is surprising. For some reason, I still enjoy watching this team play. Seeing Duane, Fischer, moments of Cohen and JJJ, Carlino can be fun to watch at times.

At this point, if Juan is truly under 50%, I would sit him this entire week, get him as healthy as possible for the Big East tourney and "let it all hang out."

[Phantom Warrior]

Crisco,

Of course a team's record does not determine whether or not someone did a good coaching job. The most talented team I ever coached had a 21-game winning streak and ended up 21-1, but it was probably the worst job of coaching in my career. On the other hand, I had a team two years ago with below-average talent/ability, and ended up with a record of 10-8, but that may have been the best coaching job I've ever done.

And I'm certainly not saying you should not be proud of your team this year. Pride in a team is a consequence of a whole lot more than its record. I was extremely proud of my team two years ago. I was not particularly proud of the group that went 21-1.

As far as the views of other posters, I guess I just see things differently. "Awful" (with respect to performance) to me has nothing to do with effort or attitude. I took piano lessons both as a kid and as an adult. I really wanted to play well. I wanted to "make music." I worked as hard as I could during lessons. I practiced hours and hours and hours. But wanting and wishing did not make it so. In terms of playing piano, I was, and still am, awful. My piano instructors would have said I had a great attitude and that I put forth tremendous effort. That didn't change my level of playing.

I wish I was one of those people who have a knack for fixing things around the house, but I'm not. I'm much more likely to make matters worse than improve them. But it's not a result of lack of effort. I do the best I can. And it's not due to a poor attitude. But the outcome, the reality, is that when it comes to repairing things, I am pretty damn awful.

For those offended by my use of the term "awful," would "mediocre" be more acceptable? How about "well below average"? I am not knocking any individual kids; nor am I knocking the coaches. Nor do the reasons underlying my assessment of "awful" really matter. I understand the reasons and can list them right along with everybody else.

I am curious. Take the 70-75 "high-major" programs. Where do we rank among those 70-75 teams. What percentile?

[Markedman]

Phantom....
Everybody knows this team isn't good....there is no argument on that.....but why do you feel the need to revisit the issue time after time? I think the push back you are getting is because it seems like you are looking for somebody to blame.

It has been a bad year.....we all get it....do we have to define how bad it has been by where we rank among the 75 high major teams? Really? For what purpose?

Time to turn the page and look forward not back

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I said at the beginning of the year that this was the season of zero expectations. Buckle up, keep the hopes low, and enjoy the process. We're clearly not a top team this year. But while some of those early wins may have given us a false sense of hope, this is just a case of reality setting in. We have some guys that are good supporting cast members best suited to come off the bench (Anderson, Derrick). We have some guys that simply haven't shown themselves to be consistent high-major talents (Taylor, Johnson). We have some guys that have promise but are just too young to give us that night in, night out performance (Duane, Fischer, Sandy). And we have one guy that is a legit high-major scorer, though on a good team Carlino is probably a second or third option.

And we have no depth behind them. On a good team, guys like Anderson and Derrick would play sparingly. Guys like Taylor and Johnson wouldn't play at all. But we don't have the depth for that, so those guys average around 100 minutes between them when healthy. Half our minutes are going to guys that are probably at best supporting cast members. They play hard. They compete and they don't give up, but this is the roster we are left with. They are the core of the roster Buzz gave Wojo.

To answer the question, I'd say probably in the 10th to 20th percentile. There are some teams that I'd put below us, but not a ton. I'd say there are 8-10 teams we are better than (one of them beat Wisconsin) and another 8-10 teams we are about on par with. That's not good, but it's not terrible, and when you have no expectations, it's fine. It's all about the process. I've seen Duane progress a ton. I've seen Derrick and Juan play at a higher level than most thought they were capable of. I've seen Carlino put up a career year despite everyone in the building KNOWING he's getting the ball and shooting. I've seen Jajuan improve by leaps and bounds (with occasional stumbles mixed in).

If you just look at the record, it's disappointing. But if you look at the team's progress and accept that this is not a high-major roster yet most nights they are competing with high-major teams, I see a lot of reason for optimism. I can't wait to see what Wojo does with a roster of his own guys and time to develop these kids. The glimmers are there. Even in defeat, you can see the start of something good. You just have to temper your expectations to zero and forget about the teams we beat a few months ago. Fool's gold, they weren't very good either. The real gold is yet to come.

[MUAlphaBangura]

Phantom....
Everybody knows this team isn't good....there is no argument on that.....but why do you feel the need to revisit the issue time after time? I think the push back you are getting is because it seems like you are looking for somebody to blame.

It has been a bad year.....we all get it....do we have to define how bad it has been by where we rank among the 75 high major teams? Really? For what purpose?

Time to turn the page and look forward not back

Thank you Mark.

[Nukem2]

Phantom....
Everybody knows this team isn't good....there is no argument on that.....but why do you feel the need to revisit the issue time after time? I think the push back you are getting is because it seems like you are looking for somebody to blame.

It has been a bad year.....we all get it....do we have to define how bad it has been by where we rank among the 75 high major teams? Really? For what purpose?

Time to turn the page and look forward not back

Yep. Now, if next year's recruiting class was suspec, I would be worried. But we have a good group with the prospect of 2 or 3 more. Phantom, lighten up.

[Mucrisco]

I finally was able to watch the last 10 minutes of that game. That team did not quit. When things aren't going your way, there are two ways you can go. You can either whine about it, make excuses, and give up, or you can fight back. These players worked their whole life to play basketball at Marquette, spending hours in the gym when kids their own age were fooling around. They're working their tails off at Marquette while their classmates are partying. They didn't quit in this game. Duane Wilson got pissed off and lit a fire in that team. He spoke up. A coach loves it when it comes from the players. IWB told us that something like that would have never happened last year. In the timeout before that, Wojo was firing up the team, trying to get them to show enthusiasm. Now he has his player giving the same speech. That means Wojo is having an effect on his team. Despite all these losses, Wojo still has their ear. I don't know about you guys, but I love that. I believe that game was another step in the right direction. You have a young kid not only challenging his teammates but going out there and performing. He's showing them what he was screaming about in the huddle. Smee, I'm proud of them too.

[TheSultan]

Another question to ask is, if the best college basketball coach ever (whomever that might be) was coaching this team, how many more wins would you realistically think they could have achieved? I hardly think Wojo is perfect, but let's be realistic here.