When a player in any sport makes a huge mistake late in a game, we tend to give the player some leeway. Why? The human element, compassion for letting a big moment get to you and a host of other reasons. When a coach makes a major blunder, it is hard to forgive that. But if it happens one time, you are willing to accept it and move on. When it keeps happening, that becomes a problem. Marquette’s coach Steve Wojciechowski instructed his player, Brendan Bailey, to foul tied with 20 seconds left. Wojo owned it after the game saying he thought Marquette trailed by two. They did not. Nor had they been trailing for quite some time. This is yet another key blunder from Marquette’s head coach. This cannot keep happening.

He told Bailey to foul. That is unacceptable for a D1 head coach. #mubb https://t.co/CmWYJmWnPM

— Matt Trebby (@trebby) January 25, 2020

There is not a single way to explain our way out of this mess. He truly struggles to coach in late-game situations. Wojo fails to understand the push/pull of his team. Look at LaVell Jordan on the other sideline, he calls a timeout after 10 seconds burn off down four because he doesn’t like the set that Butler is in. Jordan fixes it and leads to a Kamar Baldwin make. That’s good coaching. Wojo had an opportunity to do that but decided to let Markus Howard play it out which led to him dribbling the ball off his foot for a turnover.

The other part of Wojo’s coaching issues is that he rarely adjusts in-game. Marquette had so many opportunities to do the right thing on both sides of the ball. Golden Eagles went away from the offense that killed Butler in the first half. They never went back to it. Markus Howard didn’t seem the same after the borderline cheap hit on him. It didn’t appear the team tested him for a concussion, but man, I feel if this was a 3:00 pm Saturday game, we would have been talking about that more nationally. Howard never seemed the same, but Wojo kept letting him do his thing.

The problem for Wojo is that he unleashes Howard with no real gameplan around the Marquette guard gets cold. Once that happens, everything is out the window. And instead of trying to find new solutions to get baskets, Wojo almost throws his hands up in the air like ‘What am I supposed to do?’

Wojo isn’t on the hot seat because Dawson Garcia is coming next year who is a McDonald All-American, but this is the second time where his coaching played a role in a Big East loss. Marquette leadership wants to know why this team hasn’t even won an NCAA Tournament game in his tenure, they should use these as examples.

Charlie.