Buzz won't make it to 26/27

28,032 Views | 250 Replies | Last: 1 day ago by Divining Rod
AggieCrew44
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Divining Rod said:

Not sure this is true. But I'm open to seeing your data. I'm sure it's true for a few, but would be interesting to see someone who's not a blueblood program where this was the case (vs the numbers who made it made times and never got past a 16.)
It's not data. It's basic statistics that the more opportunities you have at something the better odds you will have at advancing

We make fun of Regional Rob (for good reason), but even that is a good example. One of his worst teams was one that got to Omaha, and his best team while here didn't. He made the postseason so often with average to above average teams that he was eventually gonna breakthrough just by purely having more chances to
Ag1188
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AggieCrew44 said:

Judging a coach purely by how they do in a single elimination tourney remains a fool's errand, yet people still do it
You mean like football? Also, we're not judging basketball coaches on one year in the tournament - multiple years. They get many tries.
Divining Rod
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AggieCrew44 said:

t's not data. It's basic statistics that the more opportunities you have at something the better odds you will have at advancing




Using that logic, no one should ever fire their coach if they're making tourney appearances fairly often. Ever.
bobinator
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Hot take: I think people using Kennedy's tournament results as a huge positive is worse than people using Buzz's as a big criticism.

We were Northern Iowa making one different decision in the last minute of a game away from getting knocked out by an 11 seed as a 3 seed.

And then both times we made the sweet 16 we got absolutely housed.
AggieCrew44
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bobinator said:

Hot take: I think people using Kennedy's tournament results as a huge positive is worse than people using Buzz's as a big criticism.

We were Northern Iowa making one different decision in the last minute of a game away from getting knocked out by an 11 seed as a 3 seed.

And then both times we made the sweet 16 we got absolutely housed.
Hot take or not it's a good take
bobinator
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I'd probably argue that that's correct for most schools. Though of course the reality is more complicated than that, it depends on how they're getting into the tournament, if they're squeaking in every year versus being a top four seed or whatever.
AggieCrew44
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Divining Rod said:

AggieCrew44 said:

t's not data. It's basic statistics that the more opportunities you have at something the better odds you will have at advancing




Using that logic, no one should ever fire their coach if they're making tourney appearances fairly often. Ever.
Did you even read my post before that. That is not what I said
NyAggie
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AggieCrew44 said:

NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

Judging a coach purely by how they do in a single elimination tourney remains a fool's errand, yet people still do it


See Sean McDermott

Dude was a consistent winner in the regular season with multiple division titles but continually failed in the playoff

Result?

Fired

Eventually you need to do some damage in the postseason or you'll be thought to have hit your ceiling and will get the boot

Marty Schottenheimer was another one who was really good in the regular season but a failure in the playoffs and got the boot because of it


Those are both nfl examples, but the same can be said for college hoops

Why do you think calipari jumped to Arkansas?

Because he was failing in March and knew that one more March failure and he'd be fired

So he reset his clock at Arkansas

Football and basketball/march madness are not even remotely the same

It would probably take me 5, 6, maybe 7 runs at the tourney with first round exits before i go "you know what maybe this isn't going to get much better and we should go a different direction".

The best predictor of a deep tourney run is how often you get there. You'll eventually break through.


I do agree with just get there a d let the chips fall, but I can also see the other dude where frustration starts to set in when you keep getting in but having early exits

There's definitely a breaking point

If you can't at least make a sweet 16 in 4 or 5 tourney appearances it might be time for a change

It does help Immensely to make a sweet 16 when you are getting high seeds instead of 8/9/10 etc..
Divining Rod
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AggieCrew44 said:



We make fun of Regional Rob (for good reason), but even that is a good example. One of his worst teams was one that got to Omaha, and his best team while here didn't. He made the postseason so often with average to above average teams that he was eventually gonna breakthrough just by purely having more chances to


Great example for those arguing against you. I GUARANTEE that if Texas A&M knew going in that Childress would only make 2 CWS appearances (and no semi-finals) in his 16 years at the helm, he would have NEVER been hired.

And A&M HOF coach Mark Johnson was fired despite 2 CWS appearances in his 21 years. Eventually it comes down to winning the big one, or being close enough to winning it in a reasonable time.
AggieCrew44
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NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

Judging a coach purely by how they do in a single elimination tourney remains a fool's errand, yet people still do it


See Sean McDermott

Dude was a consistent winner in the regular season with multiple division titles but continually failed in the playoff

Result?

Fired

Eventually you need to do some damage in the postseason or you'll be thought to have hit your ceiling and will get the boot

Marty Schottenheimer was another one who was really good in the regular season but a failure in the playoffs and got the boot because of it


Those are both nfl examples, but the same can be said for college hoops

Why do you think calipari jumped to Arkansas?

Because he was failing in March and knew that one more March failure and he'd be fired

So he reset his clock at Arkansas

Football and basketball/march madness are not even remotely the same

It would probably take me 5, 6, maybe 7 runs at the tourney with first round exits before i go "you know what maybe this isn't going to get much better and we should go a different direction".

The best predictor of a deep tourney run is how often you get there. You'll eventually break through.


I do agree with just get there a d let the chips fall, but I can also see the other dude where frustration starts to set in when you keep getting in but having early exits

There's definitely a breaking point

If you can't at least make a sweet 16 in 4 or 5 tourney appearances it might be time for a change

It does help Immensely to make a sweet 16 when you are getting high seeds instead of 8/9/10 etc..
Oh I agree. Say buzz had stayed and had 2 more straight first rounds bounces, I'd be frustrated too and probably wanting to go a different direction at that point because I expect more out of our program than that. I just personally feel like a 3 year sample is still pretty small in a tourney that is kinda flukey at times with matchups and stuff
bobinator
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Well yeah, you might call that a temporal knowledge bias, lol.

Anyone would choose the randomness of whatever could be in Box A if they know Box B doesn't result in a championship.
AggieCrew44
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Divining Rod said:

AggieCrew44 said:



We make fun of Regional Rob (for good reason), but even that is a good example. One of his worst teams was one that got to Omaha, and his best team while here didn't. He made the postseason so often with average to above average teams that he was eventually gonna breakthrough just by purely having more chances to


Great example for those arguing against you. I GUARANTEE that if Texas A&M knew going in that Childress would only make 2 CWS appearances (and no semi-finals) in his 16 years at the helm, he would have NEVER been hired.

And A&M HOF coach Mark Johnson was fired despite 2 CWS appearances in his 21 years. Eventually it comes down to winning the big one, or being close enough to winning it in a reasonable time.
I mean, if I could actually see into the future I'd be 100% with all my hires too lol

I was more talking about the opportunity thing than anything. Childress wasn't good enough here despite ample opportunity. 14 years is WAYYY more than enough to win a game in Omaha
Divining Rod
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Quote:

Well yeah, you might call that a temporal knowledge bias, lol.

Anyone would choose the randomness of whatever could be in Box A if they know Box B doesn't result in a championship.



Well the point was stronger, because we did indeed fire him after knowing what was in that box. Making it there (many times) to have a chance was not enough. The question was if it is a fool's errand to fire someone based solely on those data points.
bobinator
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I'm a pretty big "Buzz was actually a good coach" person on here but even I was ready to move on last year. Though that had as much to do with his off the court persona than the actual on-court results.

The whole Wade Taylor jersey night was absolutely ridiculous and maybe one of the most self-centered things I've ever seen in my entire life.
AggieCrew44
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Yeah I mean I'm not really alluding to the off-court stuff, mainly just the on court product. There were people that genuinely hated our team despite them being a 4 seed lol

That Wade thing was cool in person but that was the night I was convinced he was gonna try to leave if he could
Divining Rod
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Bob, with due respect, I recall that you were actually opposed to moving on from Buzz. I remember arguing that we know what we have in Buzz (a good coach), but that Aggie basketball was deserving of something better and we should take that chance.

I think your main point was who do we KNOW is better and KNOW is available, or something to that effect, while I was "well, we KNOW what we have if we don't make a move, and we should aim higher."
Belton Ag
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Quote:

Football and basketball/march madness are not even remotely the same

It would probably take me 5, 6, maybe 7 runs at the tourney with first round exits before i go "you know what maybe this isn't going to get much better and we should go a different direction".

The best predictor of a deep tourney run is how often you get there. You'll eventually break through.

I believe some what you are saying, but NCAA tournament wins are ultimately far more important for a school, and for a coach's legacy. Norm Stewart and John Chaney are two of the better college coaches in modern college basketball, but few outside of the Temple and Missouri fan bases or basketball nerds are familiar with them. They were always in the tournament, seldom past the first weekend.

Rick Barnes is a current coach that suffers from the same perception. Most horn fans are fond of Barnes as a person, but mostly remember not being able to get over the hump (the 2002 Final Four notwithstanding).

Would you rather have Norm Stewart's ~700 wins with no Final Fours or Jerry Tarkanian's ~700 wins with 4 Final Fours and a Championship?

agtrevino07
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I don't see Buzz's model working going forward, particularly with NIL/Pay-to-Play becoming the norm in college sports. This new model requires coaches to be involved with donors, the community/alumni, and, in sports like basketball and baseball, to have leaner staff and lower operational costs. Buzz does none of those two things; he is completely uninterested in engaging with the fan base, and he demands a lot of non-essential resources (e.g., Dir. of Process).

The bad news for Maryland is that they guaranteed his entire contract, so either they pay him 30 million dollars, or they just wait for his contract to expire.

I thought he did a decent job with us, but it was hard to follow his ongoing, complex narratives and his overall indirect communication style.
AggieCrew44
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Belton Ag said:

Quote:

Football and basketball/march madness are not even remotely the same

It would probably take me 5, 6, maybe 7 runs at the tourney with first round exits before i go "you know what maybe this isn't going to get much better and we should go a different direction".

The best predictor of a deep tourney run is how often you get there. You'll eventually break through.

I believe some what you are saying, but NCAA tournament wins are ultimately far more important for a school, and for a coach's legacy. Norm Stewart and John Chaney are two of the better college coaches in modern college basketball, but few outside of the Temple and Missouri fan bases or basketball nerds are familiar with them. They were always in the tournament, seldom past the first weekend.

Rick Barnes is a current coach that suffers from the same perception. Most horn fans are fond of Barnes as a person, but mostly remember not being able to get over the hump (the 2002 Final Four notwithstanding).

Would you rather have Norm Stewart's ~700 wins with no Final Fours or Jerry Tarkanian's ~700 wins with 4 Final Fours and a Championship?


I don't think anyone is denying that tourney performance matters the most
bobinator
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I worded that wrong, because you're right I wasn't ready for us to move on in the sense that I didn't think it made sense (nor did I have any sense that we'd even consider) firing a coach with his track record for what it would cost to do it.

It would be more correct to say that I was ready for him to move on if he could find someone to take him.
Divining Rod
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Buzz was a snake oil salesman that sold a weak aspirin that actually worked. They hype and mystique were far above the results.
Belton Ag
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AggieCrew44 said:

Belton Ag said:

Quote:

Football and basketball/march madness are not even remotely the same

It would probably take me 5, 6, maybe 7 runs at the tourney with first round exits before i go "you know what maybe this isn't going to get much better and we should go a different direction".

The best predictor of a deep tourney run is how often you get there. You'll eventually break through.

I believe some what you are saying, but NCAA tournament wins are ultimately far more important for a school, and for a coach's legacy. Norm Stewart and John Chaney are two of the better college coaches in modern college basketball, but few outside of the Temple and Missouri fan bases or basketball nerds are familiar with them. They were always in the tournament, seldom past the first weekend.

Rick Barnes is a current coach that suffers from the same perception. Most horn fans are fond of Barnes as a person, but mostly remember not being able to get over the hump (the 2002 Final Four notwithstanding).

Would you rather have Norm Stewart's ~700 wins with no Final Fours or Jerry Tarkanian's ~700 wins with 4 Final Fours and a Championship?



I don't think anyone is denying that tourney performance matters the most

I don't think I said you were denying it. I do think you're downplaying the importance and difficulty of advancing, though.
JJxvi
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Divining Rod said:

Bob, with due respect, I recall that you were actually opposed to moving on from Buzz. I remember arguing that we know what we have in Buzz (a good coach), but that Aggie basketball was deserving of something better and we should take that chance.

I think your main point was who do we KNOW is better and KNOW is available, or something to that effect, while I was "well, we KNOW what we have if we don't make a move, and we should aim higher."


Firing or "moving on" from Buzz was never going to happen and we would indeed be very stupid to have done so. Buzz IS a good coach, and who after a rough start, was achieving to the level of expectations and could have easily made the sweet sixteens people apparently crave.

This year's results also don't do anything to change that calculus. I doubt our roster makeup looks quite as good if boosters were asked to pay for it after digging out $15 million to make Buzz Williams go away.
Hardworking, Unselfish, Fearless
bobinator
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Yeah this is where I was at. It was insane to think we'd even consider paying $15M to fire a basketball coach coming off a tournament win. Never gonna happen.
St Hedwig Aggie
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Buzz is an adequate coach who achieved tolerably adequate results A&M with a mind numbing brand of dull basketball. Had he been a coach that was into all things Aggie and excited to be at Aggieland, his departure would have been sad for many. It's amazing that our new coach not only seems to like it at A&M, but thinks he can anttain elite level success. Can he? Maybe…I mean if stinking UH can, there's no reason a behemoth of an AD like A&M can't. It is pretty simple.
PJYoung
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St Hedwig Aggie said:

Buzz is an adequate coach who achieved tolerably adequate results A&M with a mind numbing brand of dull basketball. Had he been a coach that was into all things Aggie and excited to be at Aggieland, his departure would have been sad for many. It's amazing that our new coach not only seems to like it at A&M, but thinks he can anttain elite level success. Can he? Maybe…I mean if stinking UH can, there's no reason a behemoth of an AD like A&M can't. It is pretty simple.


The unfortunate part about Bucky is that he is on the express train to Bama whenever Nate Oates leaves assuming he continues to have success here. I'm not sure how we could avoid that other than Nate sticking around long enough for Bucky to put down some serious roots here.

But that's kind of silly to even think about at this point.
kcar1020
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PJYoung said:

St Hedwig Aggie said:

Buzz is an adequate coach who achieved tolerably adequate results A&M with a mind numbing brand of dull basketball. Had he been a coach that was into all things Aggie and excited to be at Aggieland, his departure would have been sad for many. It's amazing that our new coach not only seems to like it at A&M, but thinks he can anttain elite level success. Can he? Maybe…I mean if stinking UH can, there's no reason a behemoth of an AD like A&M can't. It is pretty simple.


The unfortunate part about Bucky is that he is on the express train to Bama whenever Nate Oates leaves assuming he continues to have success here. I'm not sure how we could avoid that other than Nate sticking around long enough for Bucky to put down some serious roots here.

But that's kind of silly to even think about at this point.

I am afraid you are right on this and it worries me some. Not sure what can be done to keep him here actually, other than the AD making every effort to support basketball and hopefully he will have enough early success here that he will be able to make A&M home.

I lived in Alabama for a few years and it is a pretty place and the people are very genuine. CS offers the same type people ayways.
FTAG 2000
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Buzz is a charlatan. His system of ball hasn't worked in over a decade, and he is too egotistical to adapt to the new paradigm in the era of NIL.

we were paying him anywhere from top 5 to top 15 pay in all of college basketball and never ever came close to his pay reflecting the on court outcomes when it mattered in March.

It's silly to say well look at all the regular season wins, you can't expect to win in March all the time. March madness is the standard by which all college basketball coaches are measured. Programs don't pay a lot of money just to win games in the regular season, they pay to be a team playing into the second and third weekend of the tournaments, and this guy never even came close to sniffing that.

We all owe Maryland some significant gratitude for taking this bum off our hands so that we didn't have to watch the athletic department extend him and anchor us to him for several more years of mediocre results with high pay.

The games were brutal to watch, and the post game press conferences were even worse. You can't even listen to the guy talk post game because he just talked in circles about nothing to cover up for the fact he had no answers for what happened on the court when we lost, or why he recruited a bunch of kids who could not shoot in a game where putting the ball in the hoop is the most important driver for winning. He was just cringe with all the bus one BS and dumb stuff like 'omg look how many thank you notes the team wrote' while going on the road and getting boat raced.

The only thing I am even slightly bummed about is that the NCAA won't be able to pair us in Maryland in the tournament this year because Maryland has no chance of making it. It would've been a fitting punctuation mark to his time here to see Bucky ball destroy buzz ball on the big stage.

Good riddance.


NyAggie
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AggieCrew44 said:

NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

Judging a coach purely by how they do in a single elimination tourney remains a fool's errand, yet people still do it


See Sean McDermott

Dude was a consistent winner in the regular season with multiple division titles but continually failed in the playoff

Result?

Fired

Eventually you need to do some damage in the postseason or you'll be thought to have hit your ceiling and will get the boot

Marty Schottenheimer was another one who was really good in the regular season but a failure in the playoffs and got the boot because of it


Those are both nfl examples, but the same can be said for college hoops

Why do you think calipari jumped to Arkansas?

Because he was failing in March and knew that one more March failure and he'd be fired

So he reset his clock at Arkansas

Football and basketball/march madness are not even remotely the same

It would probably take me 5, 6, maybe 7 runs at the tourney with first round exits before i go "you know what maybe this isn't going to get much better and we should go a different direction".

The best predictor of a deep tourney run is how often you get there. You'll eventually break through.


I do agree with just get there a d let the chips fall, but I can also see the other dude where frustration starts to set in when you keep getting in but having early exits

There's definitely a breaking point

If you can't at least make a sweet 16 in 4 or 5 tourney appearances it might be time for a change

It does help Immensely to make a sweet 16 when you are getting high seeds instead of 8/9/10 etc..
Oh I agree. Say buzz had stayed and had 2 more straight first rounds bounces, I'd be frustrated too and probably wanting to go a different direction at that point because I expect more out of our program than that. I just personally feel like a 3 year sample is still pretty small in a tourney that is kinda flukey at times with matchups and stuff



Yeah, 3 years maybe not enough but when you tack on a couple of years of not even making it before that, it's easy to see why fans would want to go in a different direction

Fairview20
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Another thing with Buzz is I wouldn't be surprised if our team had he stayed would be exactly the same as that Maryland team being trotted out right now.

Wasn't he recruiting some of these portal guys during that 2 week stretch between our season ending and taking the Maryland gig?

He was blessed with a core group of players that bucked the transfer era trend and stuck with the program over the course of multiple seasons (which I give him a lot of credit for). I'm not sure how sustainable that model can be year in and year out now.
AggieCrew44
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NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

NyAggie said:

AggieCrew44 said:

Judging a coach purely by how they do in a single elimination tourney remains a fool's errand, yet people still do it


See Sean McDermott

Dude was a consistent winner in the regular season with multiple division titles but continually failed in the playoff

Result?

Fired

Eventually you need to do some damage in the postseason or you'll be thought to have hit your ceiling and will get the boot

Marty Schottenheimer was another one who was really good in the regular season but a failure in the playoffs and got the boot because of it


Those are both nfl examples, but the same can be said for college hoops

Why do you think calipari jumped to Arkansas?

Because he was failing in March and knew that one more March failure and he'd be fired

So he reset his clock at Arkansas

Football and basketball/march madness are not even remotely the same

It would probably take me 5, 6, maybe 7 runs at the tourney with first round exits before i go "you know what maybe this isn't going to get much better and we should go a different direction".

The best predictor of a deep tourney run is how often you get there. You'll eventually break through.


I do agree with just get there a d let the chips fall, but I can also see the other dude where frustration starts to set in when you keep getting in but having early exits

There's definitely a breaking point

If you can't at least make a sweet 16 in 4 or 5 tourney appearances it might be time for a change

It does help Immensely to make a sweet 16 when you are getting high seeds instead of 8/9/10 etc..
Oh I agree. Say buzz had stayed and had 2 more straight first rounds bounces, I'd be frustrated too and probably wanting to go a different direction at that point because I expect more out of our program than that. I just personally feel like a 3 year sample is still pretty small in a tourney that is kinda flukey at times with matchups and stuff



Yeah, 3 years maybe not enough but when you tack on a couple of years of not even making it before that, it's easy to see why fans would want to go in a different direction


Sure. The sport was also different then when he got the job. It was impossible to flip a roster like you can now. The portal wasn't a thing. It was almost expected to have a 2-3 year rebuild

What Bucky has done in year one is incredible. We can also acknowledge that this wouldn't have been possible 7 years ago with the rules
bobinator
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Fairview20 said:

He was blessed with a core group of players that bucked the transfer era trend and stuck with the program over the course of multiple seasons (which I give him a lot of credit for). I'm not sure how sustainable that model can be year in and year out now.


If you're like me and look at Buzz as a pretty-good-but-flawed coach, this is actually probably his greatest strength. For how annoying the Buzz Cult is from the outside, the players do buy into it. I watched their game last night and even though they suck and this is a totally lost season, those dudes are still playing hard.

Now the bad side of it is that he does hold on (and pay too much) to players that aren't good enough to take the next step in winning something of note.

But this is why one of the big complains people seem to have "he was recruiting for Maryland while still our coach" doesn't bother me. If the Maryland job falls through, then those are our players instead of Marylands.

Whether the cult was in College Station or College Park, it still needed players.
AggieCrew44
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bobinator said:

Fairview20 said:

He was blessed with a core group of players that bucked the transfer era trend and stuck with the program over the course of multiple seasons (which I give him a lot of credit for). I'm not sure how sustainable that model can be year in and year out now.


If you're like me and look at Buzz as a pretty-good-but-flawed coach, this is actually probably his greatest strength. For how annoying the Buzz Cult is from the outside, the players do buy into it. I watched their game last night and even though they suck and this is a totally lost season, those dudes are still playing hard.

Now the bad side of it is that he does hold on (and pay too much) to players that aren't good enough to take the next step in winning something of note.

But this is why one of the big complains people seem to have "he was recruiting for Maryland while still our coach" doesn't bother me. If the Maryland job falls through, then those are our players instead of Marylands.

Whether the cult was in College Station or College Park, it still needed players.
The people that get mad about the recruiting thing always baffle me. People love to get butthurt about everything if in the end it doesn't benefit us.

There was a very real situation he was still gonna be our coach

Ace Glass would've been nice to have held on to lol
sodycracker
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Not to be condescending, but Coach is smarter than I'll ever be with regards to offense.

As it relates to the method in which we transform our defense into offense, we are not good enough to initially put the ball through the hoop, but transparently, we have to literally crash the boards after each shot, knowing there is less than a 23.6% chance that it will go through the first time.

It is incumbent upon our team to outwork our opponents, not to be dismissive of their skills, so that H, Solo, 4, Q, et al, can get to the line and have a 47.9% chance of making a free throw to even keep it close in any game, not being sarcastic and giving all respect to coach and his team.



"Miss me yet?"

-Buzz
Angry Jonathan Zaludek
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1-10 in the B10 and 8-14 overall. Is this bad?
 
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