danzig6767

So don, i take it a young coach in the Anthony Grant mold isn't something Marquette is considering?

I think you underestimate Knight's appeal. Marquette hiring Knight would certainly bring the university tons of media attention along with national TV exposure early on at least. I'm sure he's still able to coach well also, the biggest question i'd wonder about is how well he'd be able to recruit. Marquette would be an easier sell to recruits than Texas Tech was, but his reputation is one that a good percentage of top recruits today may not find appealing. I really wouldn't know whether to think Knight would win a lot here if Marquette hired him, but it sure would be a pretty damn interesting hire to watch and follow.

Stay had me confused, i had to watch the ending multiple times

Yep, it's not having a midrange or turn around post up jumper that's held him back at this point in his career. The frustrating thing is he could shoot in college, but he gets to the NBA and suddenly he can't make a shot farther than five feet from the rim and his free throw percentage took a nosedive. I'm at a loss to how this happened? If Andrew could start making a midrange jumper, defenders wouldn't be able to sag way off him like they do no in the high post. Plus, i think Bogut scores best in the paint when he's moving, like on flash cuts vs strict post up plays. If Andrew ever gets that midrange shot down, defenders will be forced to play him closer on the high post and Bogut could then drive on them or pass without a big sagging back by the rim.. Be able to hit a jumper or two a game and make free throws at a decent clip, then i could see Bogut enter that 18ish points per game area.

Haha, would that be crazy or what if MU hired Knight after Indiana hired Crean. The only shame in that would be the teams aren't in the same conference and wouldn't have play twice a year.

I don't buy it, there are more quality big men in the NBA than there are quality PG's. Duncan Boozer Garnett Ming Camby West Stoudemire Bosh Dirk O'Neal Brand Gasol Jefferson Howard Chandler Bogut Bynum Kaman Horford Aldridge Okafor The only point guards in the NBA that i'd rather have than some of these big men are Nash Paul Williams Davis Billups Miller maybe over J.O'Neal only because O'Neal is hurt so much. Kidd i didn't list because he's old and almost finished. Big men in the NBA who can score and rebound are easier to find that really good point guards, it's just a fact. The Hornets had an easier time finding a quality PF/C combo without needing a high draft pick than they would have been able to land a very good point guard like Paul. Same for the Jazz, they didn't need to use a single pick to get Boozer/Okur, but without trading up for Williams, they would have had almost no chance to land an upper tier PG. That's why both teams would laugh and hang up if the Bucks called offering Bogut for Williams or Paul. It's not all that hard to find a big man in the NBA who can provide around 14/9.5 like Bogut does, it's near impossible to find a PG that provides 21/11 like Paul does or 19/10.5 like Williams does for the Jazz. Hell, i didn't even add Brad Miller and Illgaskus who both average 13.5/9.5 like Bogut does. There is a serious lack of real quality point guards in the NBA right now, far more than big men who can score and rebound. Many fans like to focus to much on just the centers when it really doesn't matter if you get your most production inside from your power forward or center. There wouldn't be that many guys on that big man list that the Jazz or Hornets would trade Paul or Williams for, with good reason and certainly not Andrew Bogut.

You may as well get an HDTV because fairly soon pretty much everything will be broadcast in HD and prices have really dropped for the TV's. If you watch sales, you can get a nice 37-42 inch LCD or plasma from 800-1200 dollars.

Simple answer, the picture is vastly better, vastly better. I'm assuming then by your post that somehow you've never managed to see a TV that's broadcast in HD. If that's true, stop into a Best Buy, Sears, Wallmart, etc etc and look at an HD TV and then think of what you get on your TV.

I rarely read any blogs regardless the topic, but after seeing firejoemorgan mentioned so much, i finally gave it a try after it was linked in the Dusty Baker thread. The stuff they wrote about Baker was pretty damn funny. I just never get interested enough to regularly read any single blog. I'll read one and even if it was interesting or funny, i forget about it for long stretches. It's amazing to me how many blogs exist out there on so many topics, i wonder who reads all these things.

I think it's a big sham that coaches can bail on a program whenever they please, but if a player wants to transfer, he has to sit out a season.

If Marquette offered Sean Miller the job, it would be interesting to see what he chose to do. He's had good success, but moving into the Big East you would think has to be appealing. This is such a critical hire for Marquette. Crean has greatly helped elevating the program to from it was when he took over to where it is now, but he also hasn't really had any success in the tourney since Wade left. Make the right hire and hopefully the new coach can raise the level of success even higher, but bring in the wrong guy and in a tough conference like the Big East, Marquette could quickly sink to the lower levels of the conference. Cords annoyed me with his handling of the Warriors name, but i do kinda wish he was in place to make this choice.

Bogut has developed a ton this season. His potential is why I continue to support the Bucks' decision to take him first in 2005. As I've said before - teams that live on the perimeter don't stand a chance against teams that have solid inside-outside games in a 7-game playoff series. We saw all too well how living and dying by the jump shot worked for the Bucks back under George Karl. I'll pass on that happening again. I will admit that both Paul and Deron Williams have nice inside scoring options to compliment their outside playmaking. As I said earlier in this thread, if the Bucks drafted either of them, they'd be making the playoffs but... they'd be eliminated rather quickly due to a lack of an inside presence. There are plenty of ways to find inside scoring options without needing to use a first pick in the draft on one or getting it from the center, both the Jazz and Hornets are prime examples of this. Make no mistake about it though, it's William and Paul are the biggest cog in the success of either team. There isn't a GM in the NBA who would choose Bogut over Paul/Williams if they were starting a team from scratch. Bogut has played better this year which is great to see, he at least looks like he should be able to have a nice career has a very good second tier player. If the Bucks can sign him to a reasonable contract and then somehow find a first tier talent at any position like Paul/Williams are, then the Bucks future could look much brighter. Finding those elite talents aren't easy though, the Bucks will need some good scouting and maybe a bit of luck to. As for Sessions, it's a pleasure watching a hungry kid like him play. Seeing him hustle and play tough hardnosed defense is something my brain almost had forgot existed for a Milwaukee Bucks PG. Not only that, the kid has great size to go with his nice athletic ability. For the last five years i've had to watch either a moody midget in TJ Ford or soft Mo get totally abused/picked on as defenders waving their red capes. Hopefully LK will give Session 35 minutes for all the rest of the games. I have little doubt the Bucks will look to move Mo in the offseason and hopefully Redd also, now is the time for the team to see how Sessions does vs NBA player given we may consider drafting a PG in the first round. I really really hope Sessions can pan out to be starter quality with more experience, i love the thought of having a tough big point guard. BTW, if anyone wants to see a prime example of a hungry player vs a soft lazy overpaid player, look at the replay of Sessions chasing down that loose ball with one second left where he called the timeout. Sessions jumps on the jump ball and a Wizards player throws the ball down the court the other way. Mr. Max contract Redd stands in the same spot and never moves at all while Sessions busts his asss down the court to beat a Wizards player for the ball, that hustle play saved the game. Minimum salary Sessions had the hunger and heart to chase down the loose ball while 16 million per year Michael Redd chose to stand around and watch.

I share your concerns about Gwynn as a hitter, but i think he's better than a just slightly better than average defensive player which also happens to be at a premium defensive position. So i wouldn't be comfortable having Gwynn be handed the everyday CF job right now for 162 games, but in a role as the primary CF while Cameron is out, i'm fine with Tony getting that gig. I'd rather have a very skilled defensive CF with lesser offensive abilities than a guy like Gross with better offensive abilities, but a questionable defender at such an important defensive position. Overall though, i think what each guy brings in positives/negatives would pretty much cancel each other out and bring roughly equal end results. I just on a personal level don't like/trust having guys fumble out there on defense, particularly a very important one like CF.

I think overall that Buster Olney does a pretty good job for ESPN, but think he's nuts to think the Twins will miss Hunter more than Santana.

Gwynn has a good game and you translate that into fearing that now Melvin will suddenly rush to give Tony a big long term deal that buys out his arby years and first year of free agency?

Nearly every team that has a good shot at landing the first or second pick in the draft will be a very bad team and would have zero need for a SG who does nothing but score points and is due to make 16/17/18 million the next three seasons.

Marquette should be a pretty damn attractive job compared to years past. They play in a great conference, play in a nice arena, have a fabulous practice facility, and if McNeal stays, there is good talent on hand to win right away. There likely won't be that many more attractive job openings than this the next few years. Being an MU fan, Crean leaving makes me both a bit nervous and excited. He did help restore Marquette to a much loftier status than when he was hired and it's possible the next guy hired could do a fairly poor job, but at the same time the program only has one NCAA tourney win since Wade left.

I think Mo could start on some contenders, but it would depend on how their team was put together. I think he'd be ideal in Cleveland next to LeBron where Mo would play a half PG/half SG role, plus they play great team defense and could cover for Mo's sad defense. Two years ago Dallas/Miami were in the finals with Terry/Jason Williams the starting PG's. Speaking of Miami, i'd love to see our next GM call the Heat and see if they still would like Mo. With Miami having Wade who handles the ball a lot and defends well, i think Mo would be a good fit next to Wade. If say they landed the 2nd pick in the draft and the first pick was Beasley, I'd offer them Mo/6th-7th pick and take bad a few of their ugly contracts. I doubt they'd accept, but Rose from Memphis would be ideal for the Bucks. Hell, i'd even include Redd if that's what we needed to get it done. Regardless of what moves the Bucks make, they won't have any chance at all to contend the next 2-3 years, during which Redd will be getting paid 16/17/18 million dollars. I'd trade pretty much anyone on the Bucks to land Rose, only Bogut would make me pause. If though Miami would only trade Rose for Andrew, i'd likely have to do it.

While we may not agree exactly why Mo should be traded, i'm no doubt in the camp he should go along with Redd. With that said, you vastly overrate how much Mo is the reason the Bucks don't win more. A few weeks ago Mo missed five games via injury, the Bucks went 1-4 and a truly amazing thing happened. As poor a defender as Mo is, incredibly the defense was even worse with him out. The defense got lit up in four of the losses to field goal FG% between 50-60 percent. When your defense gets even worse with Mo out, nothing else needs to be said about how deep the defensive problems on the Bucks are. Also, the Bucks this year are 2-7 in games Mo missed and last year were 4-10, that's 6-17. The Bucks stink not mainly because of Mo, they stink because their roster has been woefully short on talent overall the last two years and this year especially. Yea, Ford shows every game how he makes his teammates so much better by the team being 20-12 in games he missed and 16-25 in games he played this year. You're kidding right? The last few months, Yi for whatever reason lost every bit of usefulness in nearly every facet of the game. On a good team with playoffs in their future, Yi would never get off the bench except for garbage time. Villanueva is a 6'10 PF that is addicted to hanging by the three point line and bricking jumpers, he's shooting 42% on the season. Mason just might be the worst starting SF in the NBA and on a good team, he might be a decent option off the bench for 10 minutes a game. Bell is shooting 38%, he's a walking bricklayer. Simmons is shooting 39% and my grandma might have more athletic ability left than Simmons after all those surgeries. The above scrub brigade are a huge reason the Bucks are 24-48 this year and the last thing they should be doing is shooting more and denting more rims. What? Paul shoots almost 17 times a game and has West/Stojakovic, both of which are so much better than our starters at PF/SF it's a not funny joke. Williams has Boozer who makes Yi/CV look like garbage found in the trash bin, Williams himself who averages 20, and Okur is a solid center. Thankfully for their teams, they aren't just mainly passing point guards. Now obviously both PG's are vastly better than Mo and are franchise players, but both teams defend way way better and have much superior overall talent. Sadly, we could have either guy if Harris hadn't put to much value on size/need over talent. Unless you mean an elite PG in the franchise player mold like Paul/Williams/Nash etc, which every team lacking one would get way better with, how would just a solid PG make this current roster/team much better? The defense has been either as bad or worse when Ivey/Bell played PG in games Mo missed. Besides Memphis, the Bucks are the worst defensive team in the NBA and Bell/Ivey were signed partially for defense they play, yet the defense is still deplorable when they fill in for Mo. Redd is a bad defender and has no other skills besides scoring and choking in the clutch. Villanueva just might be the worst defender i've ever seen and i'm not exaggerating. If we don't have the worst bench in the NBA, it's close to it. We have nobody on the roster even close to being starter quality at SF. Villanueva shoots a terrible percentage for a PF because he treats the paint on offense like it comes with herpes and he couldn't guard a statue. Hopefully Yi is just worn out and will look better next year because he's shot 36/42/30 percent the last three months, looks completely lost on defense, and can't hold on to the ball in the paint if a feather touched him. The final kicker is our head coach looks to be in way over his head. The Bucks have only three players on the roster who do anything well and then tons of bad fitting overpaid crap. The talent overall is terrible compared to good teams. We have nobody close to being a franchise player. We big big time lack defenders. The roster is loaded with soft players. None of our three best players is anything special and two of them ignore defense. The team has no leaders. This roster doesn't just need a new PG and a little tweaking, it needs a nuclear bomb dropped on most of it.

Redd isn't Gadzuric/Simmons/Bell which is who we'd have traded for Randolph. While Redd is very overrated and vastly overpaid, he isn't three bench scrubs with terrible long term contracts. On a team like say Cleveland or a few other contenders, he could help them win because they have talent, leadership, someone to take shots late in close games, and defense on their teams already. The return might not be as great as some may wish, but shedding him and his contract would be well worth it. Redd needs to go. Kobe isn't exactly the most likable guy, but he's easily one of the best players in the NBA. If you actually wouldn't want him on the Bucks, all i can say is i'm glad you're on a message board and nowhere near a GM role for the Bucks. Well duh. No NBA player is good enough to lead a team to elite status without any talent around them, Wade and Garnett are prime examples of this. That doesn't mean a legit star or two aren't easily the most important thing an NBA team needs if it wants to become a real contender to get far in the playoffs. Garnett/Pierce/Allen aren't all stars/franchise players, but Garnett is and the other two are on the next tier and those three have lead a group of castoffs and spare parts to the best record in the NBA. The only two players you listed that i'd consider a legit star/franchise player is Wade and Garnett. Kidd is to old and i said on a different board that Dallas would regret that trade. He's a terrible shooter, is a pass only PG because he shoots so poorly, and Devin Harris is a better defender. Marion is a very good player, but a second tier guy, not a franchise player. Ray Allen is just a slightly better version of Michael Redd. C.Anthony is only a media star, the guy defends like Big Dog, he's just a better scoring version of Glenn. Like i said above, even though franchise players are essential to be an elite team, obviously they can't wins games by themselves. Can't agree at all. You have no idea if Riley would have traded down given how highly he thought of Wade, but there is zero doubt we could have drafted Chris Paul. Now i'm not saying Harris/Kohl completely brainfarted because most GM's would have drafted Bogut since we had no center and we already had TJ/Mo, but a situation like that is where a great GM would have proved his eye for talent. The ability to see Paul was special talent and a franchise player, while Bogut was neither. We draft Paul instead and trade Ford, the Bucks franchise is in vastly better shape. That's largely because there are almost no decent centers in the East, don't forget that a nothing special at all Magloire made an All-Star game some years ago. A center doesn't even have to be a special player at all to be a top center in the East. They are like catchers in MLB, you could be one of the top catchers in the NL and not even be a top 50 player in baseball. Who cares if centers are harder to find? Are you actually implying that you'd rather have Bogut than Paul or Williams? Paul is a franchise player and top 5-7ish player in the whole NBA, Bogut might not be a top 30-40 player in the NBA. Even if the Hornets/Jazz had nothing at center, if you called them and asked if they'd trade you Williams or Paul for Bogut, both teams would laugh before hanging up and check to make sure it's not April Fools day. You don't have to have a center to score inside and win. If we had drafted Paul/Williams, then the next task would have been to find anyone that helped inside, be it a PF or center and add defenders to the roster. Very few of the better teams in the NBA have a great center, most get their big man scoring from the power forward position and their center's main job is to rebound and defend. Look at Paul/Williams, their big man scoring comes from Boozer and West. One guy was drafted 18th overall and the other in the second round. Detroit hasn't got scoring at center in ages. The Suns scoring inside came from Stoudemire, drafted 9th overall. Dallas has won for years with a jump shooting PF drafted 11th. Bogut is my favorite player on the Bucks, the teams best player overall, and last guy i'd consider trading. With that said, one big reason the Bucks stink is that Andrew is our best player. To be a top 8-10 team in the NBA, Bogut should be at most our second best player, maybe third best. If you look at the top 10 teams in the NBA, all have at least one player better than him, some have two or three. Maybe if Andrew can ever learn to make a shot farther than 3-4 feet from th rim, he could be a top shelf second tier player. Learn to make a midrange jumper like almost all top bigs can, a turn around post up jumper, more posts moves besides that flip hook, and actually make free throws, defenses would stop sagging way off him and daring Andrew to shoot. I'd also like a bit better rebound, his rebound rate isn't bad, but it's nothing special either.

You're right, though, the Simmons and Gadzuric contracts are atrocious. So atrocious, in fact, that the only thing that the Bucks could get in return is a bad apple who would most likely do nothing but tear that locker room apart, like he did in POR and is doing in NY. I wonder seriously if either of them would accept a buyout... I expect the Bucks to target a PG in the draft this year... if they land the Beasley lottery I would expect them to do a draft & trade (a la Nowitzki) to someone in exchange for the best available college PG. A top-end PG makes the rest of his team look great - look at what Deron Williams and Chris Paul have done with relatively limited surrounding talent in Utah and NO. Having pieces such as Bogut and Redd in place would give the new PG passing options. 1. You forgot another person in the atrocious contract group and that's Michael Redd. He is maybe a 10 million a year value player that is due 16/17/18 million the next three years. Redd is paid a max contract like a superstar, yet is nowhere near a superstar. He does one thing well and that's it, he scores points. Besides that, Redd is a poor defender, poor leader, he doesn't pass well because he can only dribble with his head down staring at the floor, he doesn't rebound well, and in close games Redd has a permanent choke collar on. 2. You say, the Bucks would be so much better if they had D.Williams or Chris Paul at PG. Well duh, that's like saying it's profound to think the Bucks would be way better if they had Garnett or Kobe instead of Redd or Villanueva. Chris Paul is a legit MVP candidate and and one of the best players in the NBA, not just a great PG. Put him on almost any team and they instantly get much better, same goes for Williams. The biggest mistake the Bucks franchise has made in a long time is taking Bogut instead of Paul. That was their chance to land the franchise type player that nearly every very good team has, but we took the wrong guy. 3. I agree with you that Mo needs to go, but not for the main reasons you think and i also think Redd has to be shipped out with Mo. This season will be the second year in a row the Bucks will end up being the second worst defensive team in the NBA. Nothing comes close to being a bigger problem player wise for the Bucks than their yearly horrid defense, terrible defensive teams go nowhere in the NBA. The largest culprit in the Bucks terrible defense is their backcourt, neither Mo/Redd have any ability to stop penetration which breaks down any defense. They are the disaster duo at "trying" to get over/around screens or defend the pick and roll. Both are soft and pure finesse. Having a pair of soft turnstiles who combined make about 26-27 million a year needs to end ASAP. I don't even care if we get ideal return on both, i just want them gone so the franchise can move forward. 4. The last and most important need then is a star, regardless of the position that guy plays. Nearly every title winner the last 25 years had a star player and pretty much every real contender in the current NBA has a star. Trying to win and compete against teams with a stud player along with a few other solid pieces is like trying to race someone while wearing ankle weights. Of course they aren't easy to get or find, but it is a must.

Yep This close game vs another elite team should finally squash this nonsense belief some had that the Badgers just played a bad game which Davidson took advantage of and that UW would easily win say a seven games series against them. Kansas which many thought was the best team in the nation only beat Davidson by two points even though Curry missed quite a few open threes that he was making pretty much all season.

Anytime you have a small school advancing this far and on top of that, one of their players is dropping 40/30/33 points in the games, tons of hype will follow. What else was the media going to carry on about? How good N.Carolina and Kansas are? We already know that. Plus, with so many cable shows out there that have time to fill, they need things to talk about. A small school beating the power conference teams while being led by a player who looks like he's 12 years old and is the son of a former NBA player, that's sound like a story i'd talk about if i'm running a cable show about sports and need things to talk about.

The Badgers aren't built to press, especially with Hughes out. Flowers then was the only really good athlete left on the floor. The Duke game was the only other time the Badgers got way behind and with our style of play, a comeback was extremely unlikely. Don't underestimate how good Davidson is, if the Badgers played them 10 times on a neutral court, i really question if we'd win more than half the games. Davidson played Duke closer than UW did, were way up on UCLA, only lost by 4 to North Carolina, beat Georgetown, and destroyed us in the second half. They weren't some small school that just got hot late in the year.

Well, i'm obviously not going to change your mind, but you're the only Badgers fan in a couple forums i browsed that thought the refs played even a very minor role in the loss, much less a big one. I was going to check out Scout.com, i'm curious to see if i'll see a single fan upset with the refs. You said i don't know what game you were watching, but you're the one pretty much by yourself who was upset by the refs. Curry got his points against the Badgers the same way he did the first two games and on the season where he averaged nearly 26ppg, teams couldn't figure out a way to stop him. So far he's dropped 40/30/33 on good teams, i think he deserves all the hype he's getting. Props to Bo though, i thought the Badgers would be pretty good this year, but certainly not 31-5.