Bad Headline Writers Rejoice: Yous Mbao Leaves Marquette.

That’s a major whiff on my part. Yikes.

1. Rumors were swirling about Mbakwe’s happiness or lack there of before Crean even left for Indiana. He has issues at home that are far too distracting for him to concentrate on D1 basketball and “academics”, so Mbakwe’s departure was inevitable. Further, there is speculation that he has resently requested release from his committment at Univ of Minn. Yikes!
2. Acker – Do you honestly think that Mo was asked to leave the team when we had trouble fielding enough players to conduct a practice? Really? Even if Mo were that bad, which he isn’t, he’s a competent body to use in practice and if he isn’t worthy of PT, Buzz can simply leave him on the bench. We will never know how Mo’s academic situation was, but I for one trust Buzz when he says that’s the issue. Buzz is all about work ethic both on the court and in the classroom, so I can see him telling guys they need to put more time in either on the court or in the classroom if they want their “free ride” scholarship.
3. Hazel – Forced out? Hazel wasn’t talented enough to compete with the likes of Lazar and Jimmy, or the rest of the Big East forwards for that matter. As is Buzz’s nature, he is strikingly honest and probably bluntly tells Pat that he isn’t talented enough to see the court. So, what likely was Pat’s decision to leave so he could seek greener pastures, was negatively labeled as a “force out” by Buzz. I liken this to this craptastic philosophy that ALL kids should see the field in little league because it’s PC. Screw that! It’s a dog eat dog world. If you’re not good enough….you don’t play…..period. This is especially true today where college sports are raking in money hand over fist. In order to be relevant, you need to win. That being said, no sense wasting an EXTREMELY valuable scholarship on players that 1) aren’t talented enough or 2) not willing to put forth the proper effort. I think the last 2 seasons have epitomized how valuable depth is when you’re faced with a handful of unfortunate injuries. A team is dealt 13 scholarship opportunities, 2-3 of which should automatically be chalked up to losses due to injuries and/or lack of effort, thus leaving a coach roughly 10 to play with. He needs to make every one of those count, as his livelihood depends on it. I think it’s best for both parties that the coach is brutally honest with the players, thus allowing them to either step up or step out. I lump the Mbao situation into what Hazel went through.
4. Maymon – I think we can all agree that it wasn’t the Maymon/Buzz relationship that went sour. I’ll lump this one with Mbakwe’s situation.

I say 3: Hazel, Roseboro and Yous. Lumping Mo into the other 3 is disingenuous. His circumstances were completely different. Mbakwe doesn’t count either as he had one foot out the door before Crean even left. Maymon doesn’t count, as his dad was/is just flat out delusional.

Hazel – Was a Crean recruit, figured he give Buzz a chance. Realized he wasn’t going to get playing time, decided to transfer. And after thinking about it even more, I don’t even count that one. We’re down to two.

Roseboro – Buzz took a chance on the kid and made a mistake. Roseboro realized he couldn’t cut it, missed home, sick family. Whatever. At MU you’re gonna have to take a chance at some recruits.

Yous – Desperate for a big man, Buzz took a chance. From all accounts, loved by his teammates and coaches. it didn’t work out. Yous still thinks he can play and wants to transfer. For all we know, Yous could have told Buzz after the NCAA tournament that he wanted to go elsewhere. The fact is, more and more kids toward the end of the bench, want playing time. So most kids end going closer to home and too a smaller school.

Things that also need to be considered. When Crean left we also lost Nick Williams and Taylor adding to the roster shake-ups. Buzz needed to fill the roster with bodies and took a chance on some long shots.

As time goes on, I hope we’ll see less and less of the transfers, we’ll see.

What are the statistics regarding general students that can’t hack 1 semester in college? I would guess 5-10% either fail out or simply can’t adjust to the lifestyle. That said, shouldn’t this number be applied to athletes as well?

Saw this one coming from light years away.

I wish Mbao the best and I hope gets himself a good education and has great time as a gangly, uncoordinated shot-blocker on some team in the Atlantic Sun. The fact is that he really isn’t that good at basketball. So I’m not going to lose any sleep if Buzz sat him down, assessed his situation with him reasonably, laid out the path that his career at MU would probably follow (ie. lots of time on the pine), and left it up to him. He read the writing on the wall and opted to get while the getting was good. I don’t think there’s any shame in saying “Look kid, here’s where you stand. If you’re ok with that, fine we’ll do the best we can for you here and see what happens. If you’d like to make a move, now’s the time.”

I’m not denying the “Look son” talk is code for “Look son, you gots to go because we found someone better”. It is. I know that. Everybody can see that, and making the claim that this is the same thing as a kid transferring because he’s homesick is just dumb.

That said, I don’t feel that Marquette is doing a disservice to Yous. He’s still going to play somewhere, get an education, and he’ll be fine. Hell, maybe the inspiration to stick it to MU will prompt him to become the next mid-major big man to turn himself into a lottery pick. Or maybe the fact that he speaks like 8 languages will lead him to become the tallest ever UN ambassador.

What I don’t like, and totally agree with Rubie on, is that the pattern that we see developing here is not good for the program. I’m not so much concerned with lippy Badger fans talkin’ noise. But I do worry about anyone else using the things that the Badger fan would say in recruiting against Marquette down the road. Why wouldn’t someone point to this when they know a kid is considering playing for Marquette? I know it’s largely born out of our desperation for a competent big man, but it makes us look bad and makes Buzz look bad. That concerns me far more than the “injustice” that we’ve allegedly perpetrated against a 19 year old kid. He’s gonna be just fine.

all the points. Something I keep coming back to in my mind is that there is something that can erase all of this. If we start winning and we have even just 1 or 2 big men that come in, make a difference, and stay, this will all be forgotten. Gardner comes in next year and plays better than a 5th grade girl and sticks around for another year, well that’s a start. By the end of year two he’s even better and comes back, even better. Imagine if he’s here for 4 years! Throw another competent (the definition of one of those is on a sliding scale of course) and it will help erase this turbulent time.

Of course this could all blow up when half the team leaves for some reason.