I had the misfortune to cover and witness Marquette not even show up Saturday night against Seton Hall in an awful 85-72 loss for the alma mater, a loss that more than likely (and deservedly so) sends the Golden Eagle Warriors into the NIT instead of their sixth straight NCAA tourney.
What was more disconcerting from a sportswriter's standpoint was the obvious disregard for everyone else except himself by Marquette coach Buzz Williams, who decided to hold a closed-door meeting with his team for an ungodly 75 minutes after the loss _ ignoring the media that was waiting for him to speak.
The NCAA and Big East Conference have regulations that the coaches are supposed to adhere to after games. There's a 10-minute cooling-off period, followed by the losing coach and losing players, then winning coach and winning players. It's a policy that is religiously enforced during the entire NCAA Tournament.
But bonehead Buzz decides Saturday night that he doesn't have to follow any rules. He's going to hold everyone up and make them wait until he's good and ready to face the media.
Bonehead Buzz didn't realize that other people had a job to do. He didn't realize that he was holding everyone hostage for his selfish team meeting. Not just sportswriters, but security personnel at the Prudential Center, Seton Hall school officials, you name it. No one could go home until Bonehead Buzz left his locker room and he decided to stay there with no regard for anyone else.
Now, if he wanted to lambast his team for their hideous performance, go right ahead and do it _ but on your time. Go meet the media, live up to your obligations and then go back into the locker room and address the team.
As we stood there and waited and waited and waited, nothing was being said from Marquette officials. When Bonehead Buzz finally stepped out of the locker room, all he could say was "Sorry for the delay."
Sorry for the delay? For almost an hour and a half? The team could have flown home to Milwaukee faster than he came out of the locker room.
There was another problem with Williams' selfishness Saturday night. Apparently, there was a recruit, a good-looking 6-foot-9 player who sat patiently outside the Marquette locker room, waiting for Bonehead Buzz to rear his bald head. Gee, think there's a chance this kid now signs with Marquette after waiting that long?
There's no excuse for such selfish behavior. John Thompson, the father, didn't pull such crap when he was the coach at Georgetown _ and he invented Hoya Paranoia because he hated the media. Other Big East coaching legends like Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino _ all of whom are Hall of Famers or will be _ have never pulled such stunts, because they all know their place and they all know the rules and regulations that have to be followed.
Sure, it stings a little more because it's the beloved alma mater. But someone has to address this issue with Williams, because he's apparently done it a few times this season, according to someone involved in the Big East Conference. Apparently, it's a regular problem.
Well, Williams should be penalized, punished, reprimanded, reminded about being such a selfish clod.
This is the same clown who when hired as Marquette's coach, replacing Tom Crean, after Crean departed for Indiana, tried to save one of Crean's top recruits, Tyshawn Taylor from St. Anthony of Jersey City.
Taylor had signed with Marquette, but was looking to get out of his letter of intent after Crean left. So Williams tried to convince Taylor and his high school coach, none other than Bob Hurley, to stay with the Golden Eagle Warriors. He wanted to set up a meeting with Hurley and Taylor, to introduce himself and try to keep the talented Taylor.
So Williams called Hurley _ at 1:30 in the morning.
"Did I wake you, coach?" Williams asked. Uh, yeah, it's safe to say that. "Sorry, it's 12:30 here."
Williams then went on to call Taylor himself about 15 minutes later after waking Hurley. Yes, at 1:45 a.m.
Needless to say, Taylor backed out of his initial letter and headed instead to Kansas, where he's had a great career.
Since Williams has been the head coach at Marquette, he's brought on a host of junior college transfers and not many four-year players. The last group of four-year studs, like Wesley Matthews, Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Lazar Hayward, were all Crean recruits that Williams inherited. Williams' recruits have been JUCOs and Vander Blue, who has basically been a big disappointment as a freshman.
But this latest fiasco is just another example that Bonehead Buzz is over is head in this big-time environment.
There, I said it.
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Hudson County has had only two wrestlers ever to win state championships. North Bergen's John Bott in the 1980s and my former neighbor David Cordoba of Kearny in the 1990s. That's it.
Well, today in Atlantic City, the county has a chance to crown two on the same day, when North Bergen's Luis Gonzalez and St. Peter's Prep's James Fox both go for state gold. Pretty impressive.
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You can read more of my work at http://www.hudsonreporter.com/, http://www.theobserver.com/ and http://www.dailyrecord.com/.
You dont honestly think you are a sports writer do you? I tell you what, if you dont like the coach just come out and say it that way the rest of us can avoid wasting quality minutes readng that drivel. Hang up the keyboard and take up something you might be better qualified for. Like say, working at the DMV????
ReplyDeleteDone with your tantrum Jim? Heaven forbid anyone makes the great Jim Hague have to wait for an interview. This just in . . . you're a blogger and no one cares what you think or how long you have to wait.
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for reading, guys...means a lot
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'm more than a blogger. I am a pretty respectable sportswriter and have been for over 25 years...at least, I think I am...To James, I don't think it's drivel. Other people have read it and agreed with me. Wasting quality minutes? Then don't read it. DMV? Nah, not my style...
To Steve, as for no one caring, then why did you bother to read and then write me? You must have cared a little bit, no? And I don't mind waiting, but for an hour and a half? It was absurd...
But again, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!!!
You realized that this was the first time Buzz did this in almost three years of coaching at MU. Why do you write like this is common occurrence?
ReplyDeleteThen you slam him over the Ty Taylor recruiting. Did you know that Buzz and Taylor's family are so close that the Taylor's went to MU's Rutgers game earlier this year to cheer MU? Did you know that when MU played Duke in KC last November, Ty Taylor drove to the game from KU's campus to meet with Buzz. They shared a hug and some quality time.
If Buzz was a "clown" over his recruiting of Ty Taylor then someone should tell Ty and his family because they appear not to think he is a clown. They love the guy.
Further, Maybe Hurley should warn his son that Buzz is a clown because part of the reason you waited 75 minutes is Buzz also met with St. Benedict's Center Philip Nolan. MU is heavily recruiting him and he is coached by Danny Hurley, Bob Hurley Senior's son.
I agree with the other posters above. If you want to paint Buzz in a bad light, keep yourself out of it. By whining like a school child about waiting you turn this into a story about your arrogance and not Buzz's arrogance.
Dear Arbor,
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not the first time Buzz has pulled this routine...In fact, he did almost the same thing last year at Newark and Marquette won that game. He wasn't found for about a half hour last year. This was far worse.
And no, it's not the first time this year, because I received assurance from the Big East office that he had done it ''several times'' and was already once warned.
As for his relationship with Tyshawn. If it was so close, then why did the kid flee to Kansas? Who cares if they share hugs? Bottom line is that he went somewhere else to play.
And the coach at St. Benedict's is Roshown McLeod. Danny Hurley is the head coach at Wagner. If this kid is seriously considering MU, he more than likely is going somewhere else now after being ignored for an hour. The kid sat outside the locker room with me. He wasn't in there with the team.
This has nothing to do with my arrogance whatsoever. I'm not whining either...just stating the facts. This wasn't waiting my turn. This was a blatant slap in the face to me and other members of the media, not to mention the recruit you mentioned.
20 minutes? I'd understand it. An hour and a half? That's ridiculous. One thing is for sure. Crean would have never done it.
Thanks for reading, but this was the move of a very selfish coach.
Fortunately, sane MU fans couldn't care less about their head coach and his relation to the happiness of the media.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it sucks you had to wait, but quite frankly, I would rather my head coach concentrate on the feelings of his own team and staff before a reporter's. So if you want to call Buzz out for not following regulations, that's fine, but trying to frame this move as one that suggests he is a bad coach or is "in over his head" is laughable.
This is a petty article of you venting frustrations. If you have problems with Buzz as a coach, write about them in a separate article. Trying to tie all of your critiques in with one post-game action does not make logical sense.
Take a page out of Todd Rosiak's book and write like a class act. He had to wait the same amount of time that you did. But instead of bitching on a blog, he put aside his personal feelings and wrote objectively about the significance of that post-game media and how it may affect the team in the future.
meeting*
ReplyDelete(at the end)
30 minutes? So what is an unacceptable amount of time according to you. I think Buzz thinks 30 minutes is acceptable as that is his standard length of time in the locker room after a game.
ReplyDeleteTy Taylor did not go to MU because Bob Hurley ran the recruiting of Taylor after Crean left and directed, almost forced him, to go to Kansas. You mis-state that Ty wanted out. Ty took the lead from Hurley and Hurley was quoted as such and saying he did not want to send his kid to an unproven coach.
Ty is happy at KU and he and his family have a good relationship with Buzz. If you want to call him a clown, find a better example.
The Jucos were recruited to fill a hole left after Crean bolted as the team had no sophomores or Juniors. He did that to balance the classes and it has largely worked well. Not only did Buzz manage a coach them into a top ten ranking his rookie year (about what Crean was expected to do), he also kept them from falling to SH or Rutgers levels in the interim. Let's see how SJU does next year with all its Freshman instead of balancing out with Jucos.
I understand you don't like Buzz and that is fine. Their are better things to hit him about. Complaining that he made you wait and mis-stating the Taylor situation reflects on you, not Buzz.
Lastly, the Recruit, Nolan is from Milwaukee and moved to St. Bendicts this year. Time will tell of the wait proved as devastating to him as it is apparently to you.
Go have another donut and shut your pie hole....
ReplyDeleteHow self important are you.....
To Arbor, sorry to say, but rules are rules...especially when sportswriters are on a deadline...I don't think 30 minutes is acceptable and I certainly don't think 75 minutes is acceptable...
ReplyDeleteAs for your knowledge of the Tyshawn Taylor recruiting, you couldn't be more wrong...and I know how everything went down....Hurley, someone who I've known for over 40 years, did not influence Taylor one way or the other...He let Taylor make the decision, but the early morning phone call certainly didn't help....
And I am not wrong about Taylor...In fact, I was trying to persuade Taylor to come to Marquette and taught him the fight song and sang it with him on many occasions prior to him making the commitment....
And when Taylor made his commitment, Hurley made sure that I was the first one he told, because it was my alma mater.
Do you actually think I want to see my alma mater fail?????
As for Jim, I will not dignify such idiocy with a response....I'm as important as I want to be and I must be somewhat important if you read what I wrote.
Ryan, as to your comment, Todd Rosiak did not have the same deadline dilemma that I had, which was supposed to be immediate....Rosiak was operating with an hour head start, because it was only 8 pm in Milwaukee when Buzz was locked inside the locker room, not 9 pm like it was in New Jersey. Big difference...
ReplyDeleteSignificance of holding people hostage for 75 minutes? Like there was something good out of it?
C'mon...let's see how good it was this week in the Big East tourney, with $400,000 worth of an NCAA Tournament berth on the line
I'm sure he was quite irritated, regardless. Besides, if you have an "immediate" deadline, he doesn't? I frequent his publications, he seems to post articles ASAP after games.
ReplyDeleteAgain, you respond with only your own interests in mind. I've already stated that I do not care about the feelings of the press after games. I really don't. I have no stake in your time. Call me inhuman, but very few else do either.
The "good" that came out of it just may be a freshly motivated team. MU was in free-fall last week (if you want to criticize Buzz for that much, do it in a different article). Clearly, something was needed to stop the bleeding. An extended post-game discussion sounds like a good remedy to me (or at least a good start).
So maybe that could have waited for 30 minutes after press conferences. But maybe it couldn't have. If Buzz thought it was more important to address whichever issues he addressed immediately after the game-- while the loss was as fresh as it could be in the players' minds--then I more than support him in the decision he made on Saturday. As a fan, I care more about the mind state of my team--and how it affects them on and off the court--than the mind state of the press. Even if that entails 75 minutes of lost time on your end.
I don't mean to sound rude. I understand you have a life outside of writing. I can feel for that. But you crossed out of that territory when you brought the discussion into Buzz's performance as a coach. And from that new territory is where my argument stems.
Wow, your involvement with Ty Taylor sounds like three or four NCAA violations for tampering.
ReplyDeleteI think you found a way to get back a "bonehead Buzz" ... turn yourself in and get MU put on probation.
Also, it sounds like Buzz was not "addressing" the team. It was more a discussion and he felt it necessary not to pull out to talk to you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/117501823.html
asked Butler about the state of the offense following MU's closed-door meeting at the Prudential Center.
"I think we worry about a lot of peoples' opinions most of the time -- 'Is this a bad shot? Can we get a better one?' instead of just playing our game, " Butler said. "Nobody gets mad at anybody for shooting shots, so shoot the shot that you know you can make, that we know you can make. The shot that we know you should take.
"Everybody knows who's going to shoot what shot when they touch the ball, or what they're going to do with it, so that person has to do that. We can't always take a more open or perfect shot. When you get a good look, you've got to take it. We've got to get back to doing that.
"That's killing us right now."
The first ever press conference that Buzz had, he was 8 minutes late. He apologized for over 5 minutes about how his time is no more important than anyone else. Relax, Jim.
ReplyDelete