Comments on: The Process Matters http://gop3.com/2008/04/18/the-process-matters/ Fighting Like Warriors and Thinking Right. Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:53:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: The General http://gop3.com/2008/04/18/the-process-matters/comment-page-1/#comment-228878 The General Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:00:51 +0000 http://gop3.com/2008/04/18/the-process-matters/#comment-228878 Daniel, why I agree with you that going through a process like you illustrated is the best option for positions in the academic realm, it's not always a realistic option when it comes to hiring coaches, especially a position the profile and caliber of men's basketball coach. Crean basically pulled the wool over MU's eyes with the way he left; he let his players find out thru the media, left a voicemail for Cottingham while he was on a plane to Colorado, and Fr. Wild didn't even speak to him until Crean's private jet was on the tarmac in Bloomington. Not to mention he left the basketball office in arrears from what I have been told (much of MU's basketball paperwork concerning recruiting was MIA, and the remaining staff was scrambling to get in touch with recruits). When you are competing against 20+ other major D1 programs for a new coach, it has to be a MANAGEMENT decision who you hire, since it has to be done so quickly. All good ADs, like Cottingham, always have a list of replacement sprepared for a situation like this, and once we dug thru the first 24 of chaos, we handled this situation as well as could be expected. MU went thru a process, to the extent of which we won't fully know, but we do know this. We know that Cottingham ran the decision thru many members of the Board of Trustees, including many minds in the know such as Doc Rivers. I've also been told the BoT gave clearance to Cottingham to offer whatever he wanted for a new coach, to the extent that Tony Bennett reportedly turned down $2+ million a year. And other names, like Sean Miller, were reportedly contacted as well, but were not interested. So it came down to Buzz, the #3 choice. It may not be the community-centric approach you want, but it's a far different type of decision than hiring a new Provost. Students will continue to come even if you don't have a provost, but you can't guarentee your current team will stay or incoming players will come without a coach. So long as Cottingham knew that Buzz was his man after going thru his process, why wait to pull the trigger? I think people are going to be very surprised in the next couple of months as we start seeing the vision Buzz Williams has for MU basketball. From what we have heard from some of his incoming recruits so far, Buzz will be selling Marquette University as not just a basketball program, but as an experience, and is going to bring in a staff that will sell the complete Marquette experience beyond basketball, which would prove to be quite a refreshing change from the previous regime. Daniel, why I agree with you that going through a process like you illustrated is the best option for positions in the academic realm, it’s not always a realistic option when it comes to hiring coaches, especially a position the profile and caliber of men’s basketball coach.

Crean basically pulled the wool over MU’s eyes with the way he left; he let his players find out thru the media, left a voicemail for Cottingham while he was on a plane to Colorado, and Fr. Wild didn’t even speak to him until Crean’s private jet was on the tarmac in Bloomington. Not to mention he left the basketball office in arrears from what I have been told (much of MU’s basketball paperwork concerning recruiting was MIA, and the remaining staff was scrambling to get in touch with recruits).

When you are competing against 20+ other major D1 programs for a new coach, it has to be a MANAGEMENT decision who you hire, since it has to be done so quickly. All good ADs, like Cottingham, always have a list of replacement sprepared for a situation like this, and once we dug thru the first 24 of chaos, we handled this situation as well as could be expected.

MU went thru a process, to the extent of which we won’t fully know, but we do know this. We know that Cottingham ran the decision thru many members of the Board of Trustees, including many minds in the know such as Doc Rivers. I’ve also been told the BoT gave clearance to Cottingham to offer whatever he wanted for a new coach, to the extent that Tony Bennett reportedly turned down $2+ million a year. And other names, like Sean Miller, were reportedly contacted as well, but were not interested. So it came down to Buzz, the #3 choice.

It may not be the community-centric approach you want, but it’s a far different type of decision than hiring a new Provost. Students will continue to come even if you don’t have a provost, but you can’t guarentee your current team will stay or incoming players will come without a coach. So long as Cottingham knew that Buzz was his man after going thru his process, why wait to pull the trigger?

I think people are going to be very surprised in the next couple of months as we start seeing the vision Buzz Williams has for MU basketball. From what we have heard from some of his incoming recruits so far, Buzz will be selling Marquette University as not just a basketball program, but as an experience, and is going to bring in a staff that will sell the complete Marquette experience beyond basketball, which would prove to be quite a refreshing change from the previous regime.

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