TheTastyGreek

Actually, SMU has two message boards: http://countingposts.com/phpbb2/index.php They've even got a complete subforum dedicated to GWTOGMT over on AlternaPonyLand. Passed us by?

Well, if Shawn Forrest is headed east at 65 miles per hour, and Tony Benford has been in league with Satan for a number of years equal to the square root of 25... How many days does it take until we finally pull the trigger and hire Fran Fraschilla? Show your work on the scratch paper provided.

Steve Lavin and Mark Gottfried say that you're looking at the wrong sports.

Look on the bright side- he had that folding chair on lockdown. If ULM does resort to throwing furniture out on the floor, Coach Fran would know exactly how to diagram a defense for that situation.

Hat tip, sir. That's a damn good joke.

Unreal... Thank you for sharing that. So now I guess we can add "I used to bang the woman your coach married" as recruiting pitch to the list of reasons to dislike Buzz.

It's not just the fact that he abandoned UNO at the worst possible time, costing them their recruiting class and arguably becoming the most devastating non-meteorological domino in the process that ultimately knocked their entire athletics program out of Division 1... It's also the complete lack of ethics (and basic human decency) that the man has shown since a cruel and unjust universe rewarded his scumbaggery with a Big East coaching job. Just last week, Williams "released" Aaron Durley from the LOI he signed back in November. Durley had a bad Senior year, and Williams was kind enough to "release" him to pursue other opportunities. Just in time for Marquette to bring in a transfer from Arizona State. And they just so happened to announce the "release" at the end of the day on Friday- standard procedure for any story you want to bury in the news cycle. Durley is playing this pretty graciously, all things considered. The worst he's said publicly was a Twitter post saying: "I'm not gonna lie, this hurts." I don't know if I'd be so polite about making a commitment to a man and a program and then being told, 2 weeks into signing period and 5 months after I'd signed a piece of paper saying I was going to Marquette, that instead I was now "released" to pursue opportunities at Chattanooga or any other school that wanted me before but may or may not have a scholarship available anymore. Contrast Durley's "release" with the clear screwjob Williams pulled on D.J. Newbill. Newbill signs an LOI in April of 2010. 2 months later, at the end of June... Williams refuses to honor the scholarship. You can't even blame that one on a weak performance, because the high school season was long over by that point. Williams made promises and took a commitment from a kid, then yanked the rug out from under him 8 weeks later. After signing period was over, and the kid literally COULD NOT get a binding agreement (whatever that's worth, looking at how coaches like Williams treat them) from any school under NCAA rules. Every year, it seems like some kid gets lied to, screwed over, or jerked around like that by Buzz Williams. It's so understood as his general process that his critics (within the Marquette program!) have a term form it: getting Buzzsawed. And that's to say nothing of the guy whoring himself out every offseason to anyone and everyone looking to make a splash hire. He goes on an interview tour, gets himself another raise, and settles back in at Marquette. So, to summarize, in reverse order of morally horrifying behavior: He's a jobslut; basically the Todd Graham of college basketball. His surprise abandonment was the railroad spike (too big to be a simple nail) in UNO's athletic coffin. And he habitually screws over teenage kids who've pledged themselves to play for him, signed binding paperwork committing to attend his school, and then ultimately found themselves without the scholarship they'd signed paperwork accepting. Sports are full of scummy people. College sports are often some of the worst. Buzz Williams is a selfish, dishonest, exploitative, conniving piece of crap who, in a just universe, would have absolutely no power to influence or control the lives and educations of young men.

Another thing to consider is that ESPN analysts who take time away have had a pretty good run of success at their new destinations, at least in college basketball. Steve Lavin took 8 years away, Mark Gottfried just 2... But both of them were able to get right back into the swing of it and succeed immediately in their new jobs.

We may just need dedicated threads for Git Sum Twitterin' and Git Sum Bleacher Reportin'.

No, he'll still have to sit a year. I believe it's called the "year in residence" or something very similar. The biggest weapon schools have over a kid who wants to leave is that they can decide whether or not to release him from his scholarship. If he gets a release, the destination school is able to financially support him like any other member of the team. This is what happened with George Odufuwa and other D-1 transfers we've received here. They can't play, but they are on scholarship and they can practice with the team. But if a school refuses to release a player to a school (or list of schools... check out the current situation with Bo Ryan and a Wisconsin player), that player has to either go somewhere on the approved list of destinations, stay put, go to a non-D-1 school, or pay their own way at the school of their choice. For most kids, that isn't a viable financial option. But apparently Clarkson can tell Tulsa to shove it, pay out of pocket for a year, and end up anywhere he wants (that's willing to put him on the team after his sit year).

Ok, that's enough. Here is the basic handbook on transfers: http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/TGONLINE2011.pdf For anyone who can't be bothered to read...There are no exceptions for a D1 to D1 transfer in men's basketball other than a hardship exemption. Unless we decide to stop sponsoring the sport of men's basketball or end up ineligible for the postseason, the rules don't go away. A coaching change not only doesn't guarantee immediate eligibility... It doesn't even guarantee a scholarship release if the school doesn't grant it. If North Texas decides not to let any scholarship athlete out of their commitment, they'll have to pay their own way during their sit year at whatever destination D1 school they choose. Whatever any player thinks they may or may not have permission to do... Without some grounds for a hardship exemption, they will indeed have to sit out a year. Topic locked. Don't turn this into some sort of paranoid situation with everyone freaking out over something not possible per NCAA regulations.

Or a blanket institutional waiver for someone leaving a school under APR penalty (like Patton coming here last year from postseason ineligible Grambling). There is absolutely no rule I'm aware of that would grant any such waiver, especially not for everyone we just so happen to be afraid of potentially bailing out if Tony leaves. Even if someone wants to transfer because of a coach that left, they'll have to do it under NCAA rules with a sit out year (if they go to a D1).

Both are signed, neither seems likely to request a release. We do have 5 ships to fill (at least) next year, though. It'd be very helpful if our new coach has relationships/connections with the same targets that we've been pursuing, or at least a good head start on some similarly talented prospects of his own.

Let's just hope that our candidates for head coach don't feel that this job has... ...lost it's Luster.

The other thing that would make me very, very anxious about Bob Marlin as a head coach here is his heavy reliance on JUCOs. There's a couple of really good articles on ESPN about NCAA eligibility rule changes that will be implemented between 2013 and 2015. One of the big changes to JUCOs is coming within the next year- instead of a 2.0, JUCO prospects have to have a 2.5 to be eligible for D-1 basketball. http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/58001/ncaa-reform-will-have-big-effect-on-jc-level Again: Bob Marlin = Good Coach. But- When you're talking about a guy who has, in 14 years as a head coach, recruited a grand total of 3 high school players out of the Metroplex... 2 of whom didn't finish their eligibility with him at SHSU... A guy who has always been very reliant on a pool of JUCO talent that will start drying up significantly within the next calendar year... And a guy who not only lost some of the most talented players at ULL when he took over the job (Gradnigo and Bureau? Outlaw? Help me out, CBL), but has also lost the best player he's recruited in JJ Thomas due to some sort of personal friction... Hiring Bob Marlin here, now, would make me nervous as hell. He doesn't have the connections to our traditional (and particularly our recently fertile) recruiting areas. Whatever his virtues, his most recent move has shown that his style can push guys away. And he may lose his strongest resource for incoming talent due to NCAA rule changes. Despite his experience, Marlin would be pretty far down on my list.

SMU actually does have a very nice roster of talent, but that's not the best illustration of Lutz's skill as a recruiter. Lutz's recruiting value is most obvious when you look at the talent Creighton hauled in from the Metroplex in the year after they brought him on staff. Geoff Groselle and Austin Chatman in the 2011 class (and Nevin Johnson from Spring, TX... All 3-stars). Creighton only had 2 ships to give this year, and they gave them to other players besides the Houston and DFW targets Lutz was working. But Lutz was recruiting a 4-star from College Station (I think) who wound up with A&M. Before Lutz came on staff, Creighton hadn't pulled a commit from a Texas high school kid with their previous 25 scholarships. In his first year, they land three 3-star Texas high school prospects, two of them from the Metroplex. You can also make a case that the best talent Danny Kaspar has ever been able to bring in was when Lutz was with him as an assistant.

Shortest answer: High school/AAU recruiting, DFW in particular and statewide in general. Corollary for the style similarities: Sadler did a pretty good job of using the team available to him in his first year in charge at UTEP. Whatever his personal leanings, he did have them playing a relatively fast paced and high scoring style. You obviously had a closer view of him, and I'm not waving the banner for Coach Doc. But if we had to choose between Sadler and Marlin, it's a very easy choice to me.

I wish him the best of luck with it. Great coach, not a good fit for what we need here right now, but I'd definitely love to see him move up in the world.

I know he landed and lost TJ Taylor in the space of a semester. I remember that because he was one of the suspects we were tracking down the night the "Big Transfer News" rumors (that wound up being Tony Mitchell) were swirling.

Apparently I like Sadler better than everyone else around here. I'm not campaigning for the guy, but I'd be satisfied with him as the hire. Marlin is a very good coach who seems like he'd be a very bad fit here.

I guess this means Coach Luster is definitely moving on to somewhere else?

Short answer: Buzz is a despicable human being who should never have any control or influence over the lives of teenagers or the rise and fall of college athletic programs. Long answer, I'll leave to CBL.

He had some very nice things to say about our administration, our coaching staff, our fans, and the success we've had here.

I miss you, Coach. Good luck with my new 2nd favorite basketball team.

I think the shared fondness for sweater vests sealed the deal.