The Curious Case of Buzz Williams

If there's one thing we should know by now as sports fans, the teams we follow are populated with people we don't know.  We know their faces, names, accomplishments, etc.  But in very few cases, we don't know them.

This is the one thing I try to impart on people when they talk about sports figures.  Don't put them on a pedestal, don't bury them because we don't know them as people.  So and so appears "classy" and then we find out he's a raging a-hole and so on.  I cheered for Brett Favre and he was/ is one of the bigger d-bags to ever play in Green Bay.  Knew it, didn't care.  My QB, won games and wasn't Randy Wright on the field.

That brings us to Buzz Williams.  Buzz abruptly left Marquette for Virginia Tech last March.  Gary Parrish of CBS tackled the question of why, yesterday http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaab/eye-on-college-basketball/24592329/new-faces-new-places-why-did-buzz-williams-leave-marquette-for-vtu.  

Paint Touches responded to the Parrish piece today http://painttouches.com/2014/06/20/buzz-offers-his-explanation-for-mu-departure/.  It asks the questions Parrish either didn't ask or get answered and paints Buzz in a bad light.

I don't know if I really believed Marquette was better off moving on after he left.  I'd convinced myself they were because that's what fans do.  Now, I'm pretty sure of it.  Buzz is a strange dude who did good things in Milwaukee.  Yet, it's clear he never invested himself into 2013-14 and while a man of many words and slogans, far too often, they were just cliches to him.