Marquette "aBuzz" With Excitement

Well, that was fast. Marquette hired Buzz Williams right away. A 5-day "search," which might have encompassed their entire campus, ended up picking Mr. Lightyear. He seemed like a good guy based on his press conference, but this blog is not thrilled with the hiring process. Not Williams's fault, granted, but here goes.

Number one - Okay, so you don't get Tony Bennett, Sean Miller, or Anthony Grant because they aren't interested. No one can blame you on that. That's a good reason to interview other candidates, like Wright State's Brad Brownell, Davidson's Bob McKillop, Southern Illinois's Chris Lowery, or Ohio State assistant John Groce. (As mentioned earlier on Pun City). By all accounts, it doesn't look like Marquette ever made any overtures toward these candidates. Which brings us to....

Number two - In five days, with most coaches in San Antonio for the Final Four and coaches convention, there's no chance they interviewed any of them. Buzz Williams may end up being a phenomenal coach. However, no one is of the opinion that Buzz Williams was a hot coaching name yesterday. There was no reason to move this quickly and "snatch up" Williams before someone else did. Pun City is not condemning the choice of Buzz Williams. Pun City is condemning the choice of Buzz Williams in 5 days without a national search. If they made the search, took another week, and still ended up with Williams, this blog would have been satisfied.

The 5-day "search" screams either "lazy" or "held hostage by 18-year-olds," depending on whether you believe they wanted to keep continuity by hiring an assistant with 9 months on the job; or if you believe they wanted to keep all of their incoming recruits at the expense of a better game coach. (Pun City would say Lowery, Brownell, and McKillop are all better game coaches. If they all turned MU down, be this blog's guest, hire Williams).

This blog has a hard time believing anyone came away from MU's search thinking, "That was really thorough." Oh well, Williams seems cool enough to take over. Problem is, if he's not at the level of some of the coaches MU didn't interview, then he's not likely to last his 6-year contract. Best of luck, Buzz Williams, Marquette didn't do you any favors.