One Shining Moment

Last night the college basketball season officially wrapped up, after a thrilling championship comeback by Kansas, with the annual CBS "One Shining Moment" montage. And yesterday evening as the nation was building up to that, news of Marquette’s hiring of former Tom Crean assistant Buzz Williams as head coach leaked to the Milwaukee media. This begs the question of whether today’s hiring of Williams will be “One Shining Moment” for Marquette and Buzz Williams, or whether it will simply be looked at by Williams as his “One Shining Moment” when he is looking for employment in a few years.

Unfortunately, it was a late game last night, so I've not had time to fully jot down my thoughts. My gut reaction? I don't know enough about Williams to form a valid opinion about whether or not he's going to be a decent coach. But I think that taking less than a week to hire an unproven assistant coach from within the program and inking him to a six-year contract reeks of panic and ignores the fact that Marquette is probably the most attractive job in the country that's open right now (unless, of course, you’re Bill Self, in which case Oklahoma State’s willing to insulate your home with $100 bills if agree to be their coach). Maybe Williams is the right guy, but it sure feels like a lot more thought could have been given to this process.

But like I said, I'll give some more in-depth thoughts on the matter tomorrow. Maybe they'll tell us something surprising at the press conference this afternoon.