Wojo out at Marquette

[patrick_o'brian]

Well........let’s see how this plays out.

[Da Coach]

Marquette Director of Athletics announcement-
Head coach Steve Wojciechowski has been relieved of his duties as head coach after seven seasons.
The university will immediately begin a national search for the next head men's basketball coach.
https://gomarquette.com/news/2021/3/...ball-mubb.aspx

Expect Bradley's Brian Wardle to get some consideration.

[egib52]

Marquette Director of Athletics announcement-
Head coach Steve Wojciechowski has been relieved of his duties as head coach after seven seasons.
The university will immediately begin a national search for the next head men's basketball coach.
https://gomarquette.com/news/2021/3/...ball-mubb.aspx

Expect Bradley's Brian Wardle to get some consideration.

My guess is this last season will eliminate Wardle pretty early in the process.

[Da Coach]

You may be right, and in the end, I doubt Wardle gets the job. But I think he will get support from some of the Marquette boosters and some in the administration. Coaching searches will look at his body of work, not just this year. Marquette will need a major re-build, and Wardle has rebuilt 2 programs into winners. So I would not be surprised if he's a candidate.

There are articles like this one (requires subscription) which list Coach Wardle among the top candidates (though this is not official).
https://theathletic.com/2464390/2021...-john-beilein/

What might work against Wardle more than this year's issues is that the Marquette Athletic Director does not have a very long history with Marquette. Bill Scholl is at Notre Dame grad, and spent his first 23 years in athletic administration in the Notre Dame athletic department before spending 2 years as the AD at Ball State, then taking over the Marquette AD job in 2014.

Names I have heard from a Marquette insider include Darian DeVries, Dennis Gates (former Marquette grad assistant, now head coach at Cleveland State), and Tod Kowalczyk (former Marquette assistant and current Toledo head coach).
But Marquette has the money (Wojo's salary was well over $2 million/year) to make a push for Porter Moser, John Beilein, or even an established major head coach like Eric Musselman (HC at Arkansas), Nate Oats (HC at Alabama- but is a Wisconsin native) or Cuonzo Martin (HC at Missouri- was a finalist for the job in 2014 when they hired Wojciechowski).

[patrick_o'brian]

My guess is this last season will eliminate Wardle pretty early in the process.

I think you will be surprised. I agree with DC. He has accomplished way too much to allow one crazy COVID season to erase it. And he did it from scratch. That’s raw, God given, talent. Period.

[egib52]

I think you will be surprised. I agree with DC. He has accomplished way too much to allow one crazy COVID season to erase it. And he did it from scratch. That’s raw, God given, talent. Period.

I highly doubt I'll be surprised. His GB past, the fact that he has not won a reg season title, had a ranked team, or ever recruited NBA talent will significantly limit him. Factor in as DC said that they can pay big money, and are a fairly attractive destination, I'd keep my eyes on Belein or Moser.

For the record, I really like Wardle. However, for him to make the jump he has to improve recruiting.

[ihatetea]

I highly doubt I'll be surprised. His GB past, the fact that he has not won a reg season title, had a ranked team, or ever recruited NBA talent will significantly limit him. Factor in as DC said that they can pay big money, and are a fairly attractive destination, I'd keep my eyes on Belein or Moser.

For the record, I really like Wardle. However, for him to make the jump he has to improve recruiting.

I think this is right. Coach Wardle was 95-65 at Green Bay in 5 years and 92-101 in 6 years at Bradley. If you look at narrative overs results, he greatly improved both teams standings. But trying to sell him to donors requires a sales pitch to each. Add in that his latest season ended up 11-15 with outwardly appearing serious disciplinary issues and he becomes a hard sell.

However, he’s a formerly great player who has actually been very successful at each of his stops. He would be a solid higher. I doubt he’ll be the first option. But if the first few options decline, for instance DeVries honors his extension and Moser decides he likes Chicago better, I could see Marquette moving strong towards coach Wardle.

[elmerb]

Porter Moser will not leave a good thing. He's smart enough to understand money won't buy you happiness, but winning games will. He has an elite mid major team now. I thought at the beginning of this past season, Bradley was on the right direction of becoming a very good mid major program. I'm not as sure now

[Da Coach]

But maybe Moser is also smart enough to realize that things could be different after Cameron Krutwig is gone, whether that is this season or next season. And all coaches eventually lose some of their luster and most eventually move on. So it's better to move when you are at the top and will get top dollar in offers. And it seems that every successful head coach, even the ones who claim money doesn't matter to them, eventually get lured away with bigger money offers.
Moser is reported to be making a little more than $1 million per year at Loyola. He is from the Chicago area and he has said he loves Chicago. So I could see him considering DePaul if they made him an offer in the range of $2 to $3 million per year (I don't know if DePaul has that kind of money to offer since they owe Dave Leitao $1.3 million/yr for 3 more years). Marquette has more money to offer, but I'm not sure Moser would want to leave Chicago.

[Tommy]

Porter Moser will not leave a good thing. He's smart enough to understand money won't buy you happiness, but winning games will. He has an elite mid major team now. I thought at the beginning of this past season, Bradley was on the right direction of becoming a very good mid major program. I'm not as sure now

Money talks and most everyone has their price - few idealists left. Maybe Moser is one of them and this year may be the year we find out.

[Stryker]

Posted this in another thread but meant it to go here:

Moser’s resume the past 4 years -

2017-18: Conference champs, conference tournament champs, 30+ win season, NCAA final 4

2018-19: Share of conference championship, 20 win season, NIT first round loss

2019-20: 2nd place finish in conference, 20+ win season.

2020-21: Conference champs, conference tournament champs, 25+ win season, Sweet 16 appearance, and likely an E8 or even F4 appearance again imo.

so in four years, 3x 1st place conference champs, 2x conference tournament champs, 4x 20 win seasons, 2x 25+ win seasons, NCAA final 4, NCAA S16+?.

IMO Moser has the strongest mid major coach resume since Brad Stevens coming off two NCAA championship game appearances. Especially if Moser advances past the S16 next weekend, which personally I expect it to happen.

If Moser wants a nice job upgrade after this season he is going to get it no question in my opinion. Does he want it? Who knows. But a $1-$2M/yr raise would be awful hard to turn down.

[egib52]

Posted this in another thread but meant it to go here:

Moser’s resume the past 4 years -

2017-18: Conference champs, conference tournament champs, 30+ win season, NCAA final 4

2018-19: Share of conference championship, 20 win season, NIT first round loss

2019-20: 2nd place finish in conference, 20+ win season.

2020-21: Conference champs, conference tournament champs, 25+ win season, Sweet 16 appearance, and likely an E8 or even F4 appearance again imo.

so in four years, 3x 1st place conference champs, 2x conference tournament champs, 4x 20 win seasons, 2x 25+ win seasons, NCAA final 4, NCAA S16+?.

IMO Moser has the strongest mid major coach resume since Brad Stevens coming off two NCAA championship game appearances. Especially if Moser advances past the S16 next weekend, which personally I expect it to happen.

If Moser wants a nice job upgrade after this season he is going to get it no question in my opinion. Does he want it? Who knows. But a $1-$2M/yr raise would be awful hard to turn down.

Not to be too technical, but I think Mark Few still retains that title

[Da Coach]

Speaking of Mark Few and Porter Moser.... Gonzaga has one huge advantage that Loyola doesn't have. The MVC requires that any NCAA revenues that come from a member team playing in the NCAA tournament must be shared with all other MVC teams.
So, Loyola has to share all the NCAA revenues they get among the rest of the MVC. The MVC rules do give the winning team one extra share (for a total of 2 shares), but every other MVC gets one share as well. That revenue, even with the extra share, doesn't cover Porter Moser's $1.1 million/year salary. And Loyola doesn't get much from TV coverage, which is non-existent in Chicago, other than the paltry amount the MVC TV Network and the ESPN deal generates and shares evenly among the 10 teams. They don't get much from ticket sales, either. Their attendance did peak in 2019-20 averaging 3215 per game, but this season (2020-21), that dropped to 425 per game. Still, they rank near the bottom of the MVC in attendance nearly every year. So they rely mainly on donations to pay Moser's salary, and there is no guarantee that money keeps coming each year. And, of course, Loyola, like many in the MVC, does not get a dime of football money. After paying Moser's salary, that doesn't leave as much for the rest of the athletic department. Thus, they likely cannot afford to boost Moser's salary if they need to try to match other offers that are sure to come.
On the other hand Gonzaga has a sweetheart deal with the West Coast Conference that allows them to keep the biggest chunk of all the money they get from their NCAA tournament success. In 2019, after they had brought in more than $51 million to the WCC between 1999 and 2019 from 21 straight NCAA appearances, one Final Four and, five straight trips to the Sweet 16, Gonzaga had lucrative offers to jump to other conferences. They leveraged that, and it allowed them to renegotiate a unique deal with the West Coast Conference to keep most of their winnings. Thus, the tens of millions of extra dollars they earn from their deal can keep Mark Few at Gonzaga, as long as they keep winning.
Gonzaga strikes a deal to get more out of tournament success
https://apnews.com/article/275680042...b71a4fbca0ff10

[egib52]

Speaking of Mark Few and Porter Moser.... Gonzaga has one huge advantage that Loyola doesn't have. The MVC requires that any NCAA revenues that come from a member team playing in the NCAA tournament must be shared with all other MVC teams.
So, Loyola has to share all the NCAA revenues they get among the rest of the MVC. The MVC rules do give the winning team one extra share (for a total of 2 shares), but every other MVC gets one share as well. That revenue, even with the extra share, doesn't cover Porter Moser's $1.1 million/year salary. And Loyola doesn't get much from TV coverage, which is non-existent in Chicago, other than the paltry amount the MVC TV Network and the ESPN deal generates and shares evenly among the 10 teams. They don't get much from ticket sales, either. Their attendance did peak in 2019-20 averaging 3215 per game, but this season (2020-21), that dropped to 425 per game. Still, they rank near the bottom of the MVC in attendance nearly every year. So they rely mainly on donations to pay Moser's salary, and there is no guarantee that money keeps coming each year. And, of course, Loyola, like many in the MVC, does not get a dime of football money. After paying Moser's salary, that doesn't leave as much for the rest of the athletic department. Thus, they likely cannot afford to boost Moser's salary if they need to try to match other offers that are sure to come.
On the other hand Gonzaga has a sweetheart deal with the West Coast Conference that allows them to keep the biggest chunk of all the money they get from their NCAA tournament success. In 2019, after they had brought in more than $51 million to the WCC between 1999 and 2019 from 21 straight NCAA appearances, one Final Four and, five straight trips to the Sweet 16, Gonzaga had lucrative offers to jump to other conferences. They leveraged that, and it allowed them to renegotiate a unique deal with the West Coast Conference to keep most of their winnings. Thus, the tens of millions of extra dollars they earn from their deal can keep Mark Few at Gonzaga, as long as they keep winning.
Gonzaga strikes a deal to get more out of tournament success
https://apnews.com/article/275680042...b71a4fbca0ff10

Very savvy deal by them, I hadn't heard that. The WCC benefits too from the exposure I suppose.

[Da Coach]

Yes, but the WCC still gets a nice chunk of the revenues brought in by Gonzaga by the deal they have, since Gonzaga almost always advances and accumulates a lot of "units".
Plus, St. Mary's also has made the NCAA 7 times in the last 15 years, and BYU has made the tournament 3 times in the last 8 years, including this season. So the WCC does pretty well for a conference with a lot of teams that most college basketball fans couldn't even name.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/standings/_/group/29