BIG EAST Roundtable Wraps Up

Here is the final BE Roundtable. The last question asks around for the league perspective on whether the BIG EAST is "down" and what that means. Certainly there's a bias, but the different responses and approaches are interesting.

There was more Milwaukee Pro-Am this past weekend. Only three more opportunities to get out and watch these games for your summer MU Hoops fix. Can't make it to the event? Clips, clips, clips (HT: YoungMUFan4 with the dynamite effort)

Marquette released another player interview. This time it's with lightning-quick Reggie Smith.

Morning Video

Start your day off right. Hit up this interview of Jamil Wilson.

Jamil is definitely going to be another player that represents well. His answers are well thought out. I was particularly impressed as Jamil rattled off the list of all the areas he is working to improve as he sits out this year.




Also, this article about "What's wrong with college basketball?" is super-interesting.

Buzz makes what?

UPDATED

... and more below

Don Walker from the Journal-Sentinel has an article on Buzz Williams' salary in 2008. Evidently he made $841,160 that year from Marquette. However, note a few things.

That means that Williams was paid $841,160 that year, but one should not assume that was his annual salary at the time.

Pfeil said it would be fair to say Williams is paid a higher salary now. She noted that Marquette reports all facets of compensation in its tax return.

She's right. Many colleges and universities, in reporting coaches' salaries, often report a salary figure, but often do not report additional compensation.

Keep this in mind when digging around USA Today's Salary Database to compare coaches. This ties us back to the other conversations about the budget Marquette has for basketball. For instance, think about this when one reads that Marquette has the highest budget in the BE, (and the second highest budget for hoops overall) but we're getting little bang for the buck. Repeat after me. It is never an apples to apples comparison, and different schools have different incentives for how they handle the accounting of what is a basketball expense versus what is not. (do you think a taxpayer funded state school has an incentive to show a large or small AD budget?) Our budget includes things like Bradley Center rent. Suck it, yahoo. Considering 95-97% of AD revenues come from hoops, continued strong investment in the coach and the program is fine.

Speaking of that...

Williams' salary was believed to have been bumped this off-season to around $1.4 million, sources told Rosiak.

While digging around, Kevin found Marquette's 2007 Tax Return. $448M in revenue for our beloved alma mater that year versus $382M in expenses. Just some extra numbers that I thought were interesting.

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Wesley Matthews is officially a TrailBlazer, with a story on ESPN. Here's his official Blazers fan page. Plus, there is a great article about Wesley from the Portland Tribune. It really speaks highly of Matthews and represents Marquette well. I still can't get over the notion of Matthews doing 41 chinups his senior year. That is insane.

Part Three of the BIG EAST Roundtable is now available. Today's question looks at 2011 recruiting. Catch up on Part One and Part Two at the links.

Jimmy Butler is getting a little coverage out there, as Rivals.com lists him as one of their Most Underrated Players. Not by us.

Marquette also launched a new website called WeAreMarquetteAthletics. There are some video clips on there, but I've not spent too much time digging around.

Finally, it's got nothing to do with hoops, but I'm a big fan of the Daily Show and saw this from MU. A Director on the Daily Show is a Marquette Alum.

More Big East Roundtable

Part Two of the Big East Roundtable is now up. Today's question is "Tell us about your recruiting class for next year?" You already know the Marquette piece (or maybe you don't). However, the scan around the league is well worth it. Did you miss Part One? Find it here.

In the continuing adventure of sequels, here is Part Two of the story on Jae Crowder and his dad. I already think this kid is great. Oh yeah, Part One is here.

Chris Grimm is going to be paid to play professionally in France (HT: 77ncaachamps). Insert your own French joke here.

In case you've encountered issues reaching CS yesterday and today, we've been experiencing a bit of DDOS attacks. Seems someone wants to keep us from getting the Marquette news out there. Evidently they don't realize it's summer and we can do that all on our own, thank you. Just be patient if you're not getting through. Or go read it on MUScoop.

More Media Updates

Don't forget. The Warrior Day Golf Outing is next Monday, July 26th.

Do check out the Big East Roundtable that is hosted by SJU blogger "The East Coast Bias". Pico does a nice job coordinating these, and this is part one. Cracked Sidewalks is there with our two cents. Personally, I think it's a great way to catch up on the other teams in the league. More coming later.

There was more Milwaukee Pro-Am. Here are the results from the last set of games. More games coming up this Friday and Saturday. But if you can't make it, hit up these sweet video clips (HT: YoungMUFan4). Yeah, they're highlight videos, but still... Sure would be great if the stats people could find TO's and FGA. oh well. Of course, Rosiak had a really good blog post on "Catching Up" that also looked into the Pro-Am and much more.

Marquette continues to release the non-conference schedule one game at a time. Sure, I know they're doing it to drive clicks to their site. Wake us when it's all finished. Plus, Marquette has run a few live chats. The Cottingham chat was the AD version of "it was a good game, both teams played hard", but the Jimmy Butler live chat was interesting.

Now some content worth checking out on their site is Jamail Jones' first week on campus. Marquette is also making podcasts available for free this summer. That kind of implies at some point they will be... not free.

Please make sure you go read Part One of a two-part series about Jae Crowder and his dad. Great stuff.

The final RSCI came out a bit back. Vander was #48 and Jones was #74. And in case you didn't realize this, Jamil Wilson was #40 a year ago.

Finally, Scoop poster Dr. Blackheart gave a great writeup about efficiency and protecting the ball. Worth reading.

Summer Hoops and Show Me the Money

UPDATED

Jonesing for some Marquette Basketball? Well, there are still several weeks to go on the Milwaukee Summer Pro-Am. Several posters attended the games, and you can check out the informal scouting reports here. Heck, even GoMarquette.com had a report on the games. You can see the box scores for each game here.

However, for those involved with the pro-am, could we get a collection of turnovers and offensive rebounds in the box scores? Yeah, I know that it's a pro-am game and summer ball and blah blah blah. But all of the rest of the box score stats aren't very informative without some sort of frame of reference for the total possessions used (and wasted).* Of course, that's a minor quibble when there is hoops that could be watched. Just keep it in mind when you see that Player X had 18 points.

*I'm really just annoyed because the box scores don't allow us to generate tempo-free stats.

Here is the video recap from GoMarquette.com



The next set of games are Friday night and Saturday morning at Homestead High School in Mequon. Admission is free to the public.

Back on the Marquette Alumni news, we forgot to mention that Dominic James is working out with the Bucks this summer. Best of luck to DJ as he continues to chase his dream. The transformation of his game his senior season, including his suffocating, I-will-crush-your-soul defense, made me a big fan for a long time. In other news, congratulations to Wesley Matthew. The Portland Trail Blazers signed him to a five-year, $34 million deal. The Utah Jazz still have the opportunity to match. But either way...

Friday Media Updates

Anything happen in the world of basketball last night?

Well, there's been plenty of action in the Marquette Universe, so here are some links that you may or may not have seen.

First things first, don't forget that the Warrior Day Golf Outing is coming up on Monday, July 26th. This is the third annual outing, and the coverage is starting to bloom as Journal-Sentinel gives a great story about Bo and the event. Here's a PSA about the event to get you ready. Take a vacation day... it's summer!



Buried in the story is also a note about Coach Hank Raymonds being ill. Our prayers are with you, Coach.

As many of you know, Vander Blue was part of the US team that won a gold medal in the U18 FIBA Championship. Want to go deeper on Vander's performances? Stellar Villanova blog Villanova By the Numbers gives some more detail on the entire tourney. Check out his initial view here, and then his recap of the USA-Canada game and the championship game against Brazil. Honestly, the early view of Vander's offensive performance has some questions. Despite some efficient shooting in the final game, his offensive rating numbers were sub-par, which was most likely impacted by a higher number of turnovers. Buzz will cut those turnovers down, but if Vander isn't making the floor early that may be a good indication why.

Rosiak also had more on Jamil Wilson, with a follow-up interview of Jamil and Buzz.

Speaking of roster turnover, there's a new walk-on. Dave Singleton is a 6'3 guard that played two seasons at High Point University under current MU Director of Basketball Operations Bart Lundy. He will sit out in 2010-11 and have two seasons of elibility left. Checking out his bio from High Point, Singleton does not appear to be your typical walk-on. As one poster on MUScoop said, this is exactly the type of player we wish was around when Diener broke his hand. One wonders if there might be a scholarship in Singleton's future.

On former MU players, follow the efforts of McNeal and James in this MUScoop thread.. In addition, former player Mbao is transferring to Marshall. We wish the very best luck to Yous.

If you are around Milwaukee the next few weekends, check out the Milwaukee Summer Pro-Am, which was initiated by IWB. The team rosters are a who's who of former Marquette and other local Wisconsin players. Here is the detailed schedule of games. The first set of games are this Saturday, concluding with a championship game at The Al on August 8th. Very cool, especially if you're jonesing for a little MU hoops action.

Finally, GoMarquette.com launched a revamped website. Go click around and spend some time. Start with the Men's Basketball Page, and maybe the rosters.

Go Marquette

Does Jamil Wilson = 30 wins in 2012?

Last year Syracuse and West Virginia were the two Big East teams who hit the 30-win mark, and the addition of Jamil Wilson gives MU the opportunity to do the same and be a true contender in 2012.

MU projects to win at least 29 games in 2012 based on the 10 players who will have eligibility left, and would be projected to top 30 wins with even one additional 4-star recruit for next season. As shown in past posts, the following is the table of the average progression of Big East players based on their star-ratings:

How many wins to expect based on a player's year and stars

Stars	Fr.	So.	Jr.	Sr.
0-2 Stars	0.1	0.7	0.9	1.1
3-star	0.3	1.2	2.1	3.2
4-star	1.7	3.1	4.3	4.4
5-star	2.4	4.7	6.3	NA

The addition of 4-star forward Jamil Wilson joining as a sophomore skyrockets MUs projected wins for the next few years, even assuming he is only an "average" 4-star as rated by Rivals, rather than a player who just missed being a 5-star as suggested by the other services. Based on stars, season, and Win Credits in the past year from returning players, MU projects to equal the 25 win performance of 2008 and 2009 in the upcoming season:

Blue 2.4 + Butler 5.8 + Buycks 2.5 + Cadougan 1.7 + Jae Crowder 2.1 + Frozena 0.0 + Fulce 1.1 + Gardner 0.3 + DJO 4.8 + Jones 1.7 + Otule 0.6 + Smith 0.8 + Williams 1.3 = 25.1 projected wins in 2011. If Jamil were given eligibility this season, then MU would project to win 28 games this season.

However, the addition of Jamil after sitting out a transfer year projects to put MU in the national elite:

Blue 4.7 + Cadougan 3.1 + Crowder 3.2 + Gardner 1.2 + DJO 5.3 + Jones 3.1 + Otule 0.8 + Smith 2.0 + Williams 2.3 + Wilson 3.1 = 28.8 projected wins in 2012 PLUS WHATEVER THE THREE NEW RECRUITS WOULD ADD.

Buzz has now put together four big JC stars (DJO, Butler, Buycks and Crowder) with five players rated 4-star or higher (Blue, Cadougan, Jones, Wilson and Williams). Even the two new 3-stars are looking a lot like four stars as Reggie Smith just missing a 4-star rating to be one of top few 3-stars in the country, and Davante Gardner was selected ahead of 4-star players for the Virginia All-State team.

The Win Credits system projected 19 wins last season, which MU exceeded by three wins. But 2012 always looked like the huge opportunity, since 5-star players like Vander Blue usually take over their sophomore season. However, the addition of Jamil Wilson truly gives the team a shot at their first Big East title and a deep NCAA run.

While this system gives a good measurement of the impact of players year-to-year, it also does not account for the team balance that MU now has. Subjective factors such as reports of Chris Otule's big improvement and the fact that Gardner finally gives MU size and a guy who can catch the ball inside and convert from 12 feet or the foul line are not factored into the projected wins.

Nor is the fact that MU looked like world beaters in the Disney classic last year due to their ability to steal the ball at will, only to have to slow games down dramatically due to the bench being so short. With another 6-foot-7 star in Wilson, MU now has a team with ample height across the front line in various combinations, as well as the depth to rotate two lines that can press full court or half without the threat of collapsing like they did against Florida State last year.

The following is the updated table with the additional of Jamil:


Projected Wins from each player from 2010 to 2013 seasons

Player	2010 actual	2010 proj	2011	2012	2013
Maurice Acker, Grad G, 0 Stars	2.7	0.8	G	G	G
Vander Blue, Fr G, 5 Stars	HS	HS	2.4	4.7	6.3
Jimmy Butler, Sr. G-F, 0 Stars	5.3	2.0	5.8	G	G
Dwight Buycks, Sr. G, 3 Stars	1.7	2.1	2.5	G	G
Junior Cadougan, So. G, 4 Stars	0.0	RS	1.7	3.1	4.3
Jae Crowder, Jr. F, 4 Stars	JC	JC	2.1	3.2	G
David Cubillan, Grad G, 0 Stars	1.7	1.3	G	G	G
Robert Frozena, Sr. G, 0 Stars	0.0	0.0	0.0	G	G
Joseph Fulce, Sr. F, 3 Stars	0.5	0.9	1.1	G	G
Lazar Hayward, Grad F, 4 Stars	6.6	6.4	G	G	G
Davante Gardner, Fr.. C, 3 Stars	HS	HS	0.3	1.2	2.1
Darius Johnson-Odom, Jr. G, 3 Stars	3.5	1.2	4.8	5.3	G
Jamail Jones, Fr. F, 4 Stars	HS	HS	1.7	3.1	4.3
Jeronne Maymon, So. G-F, 4 Stars	0.0	1.7	T	T	T
Youssaupha Mbao, So. C, 3 Stars	0.0	0.3	T	T	T
Chris Otule, Jr. C, 2 Stars	0.0	0.6	0.6	0.8	1.0
Reggie Smith, Fr. G, 3 Stars	HS	HS	0.8	2.0	3.0
Erik Williams, So. F, 4 Stars	0.0	1.7	1.3	2.3	3.2
Jamil Wilson, So. F, 4 Stars	Ore	Ore	RS	3.1	4.3
Projected Wins on known roster	22.0	19.0	25.1	28.8+++	28.5+++++

THE BOTTOM LINE
Key = a number indicates how many wins the player is projected to give MU that season, HS is a player in high school that year, G indicates graduated by that year, T indicates transferred out of MU, RS indicates red shirt season, JC indicates in Junior College that season. Each + sign by the season projection indicates additional wins for that many open scholarships to be signed, so the 28.8 indicates that is the total projected wins for the 10 players listed with three additional players still to be added to the rooster.