Look How Far MU Has Come

[Phantom Warrior]

Check out the roster Deane had put together his last season at MU. Care to highlight players on the roster who were viewed as consensus Top 100 recruits? It won't take long as there were none. The closest was Wardle who was pretty much viewed as just outside the Top 100. Henry was probably in the 125-150 range, Harris maybe just outside Top 150 (though he was honored as St. Louis Metro POY as a senior. Nnamaka was a solid recruit as a foreign player.

Contrast this roster to our present roster which includes a half dozen players who were ranked in RSCI Top 100: Jamil, Juan, Steven, JaJuan, Duane, and Deonte. And had Vander stuck around, the number would have been seven.

Next year, we lose Jamil, but Harris could well end up RSCI Top 100 and so could Cohen, assuming he commits to MU. That would mean seven of 13 players would have been seen as at least four-star recruits coming out of high school, and that wouldn't even include Jameel, a first-team juco A-A.

I'm not trying to dis the 1999-2000 team. It had some decent players who gave it what they had. Nor am I trying to imply that rankings are the end-all, be-all, as we know that's not true. But I am trying to show the enormous upgrade in talent in the program over the past 13-14 years. It really is remarkable.

As much as people bash Crean, he got the ball rolling, and Buzz has taken it up a notch or two since he's taken over. For those who questioned the dismissal of Deane at the time the decision was made, just think of what our roster might be like now had the administration stuck with Deane. And think of the other teams that would likely be our conference mates.


12 Brian Barone Junior 6-0 160
55 Greg Clausen Junior 6-11 260
4 John Cliff Senior 6-2 210
33 David Diggs Sophomore 6-4 215
34 Jon Harris Sophomore 6-7 225
4 Cordell Henry Sophomore 5-10 160
40 Krunti Hester Freshman 6-6 230
32 Bart Miller Senior 6-5 205
35 John Mueller Junior 6-10 240
14 Oluoma Nnamaka Sophomore 6-7 225
42 John Polonowski Senior 6-8 235
22 Brian Wardle Junior 6-5 205

[The Reptile]

Nnamaka was not Deane's first choice either. He wanted to land Frederek Jonsson who went on to OK State IIRC. Still, I don't think his first choice made any noise after arriving in the US so your point remains valid. In the end Nnamaka turned out to be a good, steady player for us and I'm happy he's the one we ended up with.

[MU88]

While everything you say is true, you are not comparing apples to apples. Deane never had the support from the administration like Crean and Buzz. You had situations like when MU wouldn't admit Wally Szczerbiak, even though he was qualified, leaving Deane to scramble to get Polo, I believe. There was no Al Mcguire Center, even though it was promised to O'Neil back in 89. The list goes on and on. I think Cords had an awakening after Deane left, and his level of support for the program changed. The years of fighting over charter planes was over.

I don't want to diminish what Crean, and especially Buzz, have done. Crean brought excitement back into the program. He got us back to the Final Four, something most fans could not have even imagined a few years earlier. But, he won 1 NCAA tourney game without Wade. MU as become much more consistent and much more talented under Buzz. Buzz is rock star and let's hope he stays for a very long time.

[Phantom Warrior]

Look at Deane's final recruiting class - Krunti Hester. That was the direction the program was heading.

Look at Crean's first recruiting class: Merrit, Wade, ODB, and Sanders.

Do you think Deane could have landed the Amigos in '05, even with more administration support? I don't.

I shudder to think of what our program would have become had Deane stuck around.

[Gato78]

Thank God for Coach Strong.

[TheSultan]

Thank God for Coach Strong.


And Father Wild.

[MU Viking]

It sticks in my head that Henry was ranked 101.

[Goose85]

Fr. D and K.O. Did not see eye to eye on Budget, especially as it pertained to recruiting. Limited budget and Fr. D said K.O. Had to limit himself on recruits. Thankfully there is different funding now for hoops.

[unclejohn]

Look at Deane's final recruiting class - Krunti Hester. That was the direction the program was heading.

Look at Crean's first recruiting class: Merrit, Wade, ODB, and Sanders.

Do you think Deane could have landed the Amigos in '05, even with more administration support? I don't.

I shudder to think of what our program would have become had Deane stuck around.

Yeah, but that is really unfair. Deane's last recruiting class was limited by the fact that everybody knew he was going to be fired. He also ran into bad luck. He just missed on several good recruits. Whether Deane should have been fired or not had to do with more than wins and losses. But I have always thought he got a bad rap on recruiting. People have suggested since Deane left that O'Neill turned to team around, and Deane drove it into the ground. After all, O'Neill left behind a Sweet Sixteen team! Well, actually, O'Neill left behind a team that had to play a pretty much perfect game and pull off an upset to make the Sweet Sixteen, and then his three seniors, who accounted for about 70% of the team's scoring, all graduated. People like to say that O'Neill left behind Chris Crawford, which he did, but people at the time were not impressed. He was a distant third in his recruiting class, which consisted of Anthony Pieper, Faisal Abraham, and that other kid from some smaller school in Michigan. Crawford flourished under Deane's coaching, and often said so.

Again, there were other factors in Deane's departure. He might well not have been the guy to take the team to the next level. But he did a better job than most people give him credit for.

[Markedman]

I think Deane's biggest problem was when he said MU fans and alumns should be happy with going to the NIT. I don't recall the exact quote but lowering expectations to take pressure off himself looked very self serving at the time and was really the end for him.