Buzz Williams leaving Marquette for Va Tech

[marquette]

It is probable I will quit reading this forum because of SteveR!

Put him on ignore, you'll thank me later

Yeah, he raises interesting points occasionally but this gloom and doom stuff is becoming mind numbingly repetitive. Time for a Stever break.

[Bill Marsh]

I'm not saying FS1 is doomed, I'm just saying that it's not a guaranteed sucess like you and others here make it sound like it is. They get more content and they will improve a lot. But they have to get that and there's not much to get... If they don't get the content, what exactly is going to change?

The 2014 class which will be going into schools in August- a lot of that recruiting was done pre-split, and pre-FS1. The 2015 class is the one that will have the full impact of the split and FS1. If we have the great classes, that's to me way more impressive than 2014- especially on the heels of such a mediocre season.

Stever is the most glass half full--no, glass completely empty guy--I ever met. Now Jay Wright may leave for the NBA? Recruiting is strong NOW but just wait until 2015. Nova has another 2 Top 100 kids ready to plug in for 2015. Will they compete for recruits with Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and UNC? Maybe not but this years tourney is showing that teams that are deep with Jr's and Sr's usually do well vs the teams built around Frosh stars. The BE can build with solid kids ranked 25-100 and do just fine thank you. Really Stever you need to give the gloom and doom talk a rest. FS1 just started. How can you possibly make summary judgements against it this soon? Are you this depressing outside of the HLOH? God, I hope not.

LOL. Steve will tell you on the one hand that teams and conferences are judged by what they do in March, but I'm the next breath he'll turn around and say that the future for the Big East is hopeless because their TV contract won't support what's happening November-February.

[aughnanure]

Here's why you don't want Ben Howland.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-college-basketball-mens-tournament/news/20130325/ucla-ben-howland/

Always thought this just made UCLA dysfunctional. Dealing with the boosters and LA recruiting culture is a messy job (makes sense they ended up with Alford, ya think?) and Ben eventually found himself on the wrong side of some relationships (notice his recruiting became more national).

I love the idea of him. He just wasn't a UCLA guy and doesn't care for the spotlight as much as needed.

[BEhomer]

this comparison between FS1 and ESPN is just meaningless and unfair. we all know ESPN is the king of sports network and FS1 is just in its inception. we get it.

but people who are complaining about the TV deal and breakup of old BE just need to ask themselves this one question.
what was the alternative? stay with espn for A10 type of deal and continue to have association with football schools who have one foot out the door? the same espn that was hell bent on destroying the old BE?

the BE is not better than where we were 2-3 years ago. if that's the argument some people are making then that's not a groundbreaking revelation. but just remember this league could be in far worse shape if it wasn't for fox deal.

[WaitingPatiently]

What's most laughable to me is that stever says FS1 doesn't go over with recruits. How would you possibly know what recruits want? They are 16-18 year old males who don't know what they want! I'm fairly certain most of them have no idea what the ratings are. This generation doesn't judge things by ratings anyway. They judge it by trending on twitter. It's different with each kid. One kid may have his heart on being an ACC player and choose Va Tech or the bottom of the barrel there over any BE offer. Another kid may value something completely different. When the BE starts to fall way back on recruiting rankings, then I'll start to believe that FS1 is harmful. But when half of this conference is in the top 30, that seems to be a poorly supported stance.

Another thing to factor is the spin on things. If the mothership still had the BE, the Goodman, Bilas, etc of the world would be waxing poetically about how great it is to see a league that puts basketball first, plays a true round robin the way conferences should in basketball, is tough top to bottom with no nights off, on and on. But since it's broadcast by a rival, they throw the grenade about a tv deal driving a coach to what they even know is a step down. Even if that is true, that isn't an indictment. That's just Buzz' prerogative. It's not a fact. It is a point of spin. If the rumors are true that Marshall has initiated things to express his interest, that speaks volumes to me. He's a guy who spurned UCLA and other big fish last season because of how good he has it in Wichita with pay, environment, etc. He must think things are pretty rosy on this side of the fence.

[Bill Marsh]

I'm sorry, but . . . This year was a pretty mediocre year for us all in all.

And now with Marquette, odds pretty good that they're going to lose some of their 2014 class with Buzz gone.

And to act like he didn't like everything with FS1 is low percentage- you have no way of knowing it. Everything just isn't rosy with FS1. You act like FS1 has no chance of failing at all and anyone talking bad about FS1 is a traitor. At best, FS1 is a C right now.

Yes, he has no way of knowing it. Just as you have no way of knowing anything to the contrary. . . But that doesn't stop you from treating it as if it were fact.

As more and more articles have come out about Buzz's departure, it seems that any concerns about the TV contract were a minor factor in his decision if any. More likely he threw that out there as a smokescreen to cover for the real issues.

You're claiming that the Big East getting 40% of its teams into the tournament is mediocre, but you them rave about the A10 getting 46% of their teams in. Wow! What a difference! Let's just ignore the fact that the Big East got a 2-seed and a 3-seed while ignoring the fact that the A10's best seeds are on the 5 line. Let's also ignore the fact that one of those 5-seeds is now gone after losing to one of college basketball's nobodies so that their hopes for advancement now rest partially on an 11-seed who barely snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the opening round. Yeah, the A10 looks great at this point. I'm sure the rest of the country is sitting up and taking notice while they're dismissing the "mediocre" Big East teams who are likely to still be playing next week while the A10 teams are sitting home watching with the rest of us.

BTW, you're not sorry.

[Bill Marsh]

Here's why you don't want Ben Howland.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-college-basketball-mens-tournament/news/20130325/ucla-ben-howland/

Always thought this just made UCLA dysfunctional. Dealing with the boosters and LA recruiting culture is a messy job (makes sense they ended up with Alford, ya think?) and Ben eventually found himself on the wrong side of some relationships (notice his recruiting became more national).

I love the idea of him. He just wasn't a UCLA guy and doesn't care for the spotlight as much as needed.

Actually, Howland was totally a UCLA guy. He grew up there and it was his dream job. What he isn't is a Midwest guy, which is why he bolted from Pitt as soon as the UCLA offer came his way.

[WaitingPatiently]

Another tiring narrative being bantered about is that this BE is so much lesser. While there's no argument that the top of the BE from mid-2000s to last season is clearly superior, they ignore that fact that the bottom 1/3 wasn't even solid mid-major quality. There were nights off in that schedule for the top teams. Those in that bottom part had no shot of rising out of that hole either. I think the BE as it sits now has a much better chance to replicate the BE of the 80s and pre-expansion 90s. That's the BE that the fans romanticize about. The mothership romanticizes about the recent one because it was their ratings leader. This is top to bottom tough. Night in night out war. Teams will feel like March is easier than the grind of conference play. It may not have worked out that way this season, just like the initial BE didn't, but give it 4-5 years and I think that is what will happen. I can envision replicating the 7/9 dancing that the BE had once upon a time.

[aughnanure]

Here's why you don't want Ben Howland.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-college-basketball-mens-tournament/news/20130325/ucla-ben-howland/

Always thought this just made UCLA dysfunctional. Dealing with the boosters and LA recruiting culture is a messy job (makes sense they ended up with Alford, ya think?) and Ben eventually found himself on the wrong side of some relationships (notice his recruiting became more national).

I love the idea of him. He just wasn't a UCLA guy and doesn't care for the spotlight as much as needed.

Actually, Howland was totally a UCLA guy. He grew up there and it was his dream job. What he isn't is a Midwest guy, which is why he bolted from Pitt as soon as the UCLA offer came his way.

A West guy, sure, but LA? I don't think so.

[Bill Marsh]

I'm not saying FS1 is doomed, I'm just saying that it's not a guaranteed sucess like you and others here make it sound like it is. They get more content and they will improve a lot. But they have to get that and there's not much to get... If they don't get the content, what exactly is going to change?

The 2014 class which will be going into schools in August- a lot of that recruiting was done pre-split, and pre-FS1. The 2015 class is the one that will have the full impact of the split and FS1. If we have the great classes, that's to me way more impressive than 2014- especially on the heels of such a mediocre season.

The Big East already has 4 commitments for the Rivals 150 list for 2015 with very few commitments announced yet. That's as many as the A10 has for 2014 with 95% of the recruits already announced. The A10 has none for 2015. So much for the Big East being hurt by exposure relative to the A10.

The AAC had 8 Rivals 150 recruits for 2014. The Big East is already half way to that number for 2015. The AAC also has 4 commitments for 2015, but those are for the same old, same old - UConn, Memphis, and SMU. No signs that the bottom half of the AAC has benefitted from ESPN exposure. What's been exposed to recruits is just how bad those programs are in losses like the 60 point drubbing that Houston received from Louisville. Heck, Manhattan had to look better to a prospective recruit than Houston did.

All signs point to the big east being just fine in the 2015 recruiting wars.