jalen wilson

[flickr user Tatters]

The things you see when you're a doctor in Burundi. There's an entire continent on which the recent history of Michigan basketball is downright spectacular:

A few weeks ago, we were out on the frisbee field playing on a Sunday afternoon.  The usual crowd was standing around watching.  While running by one side of the field, I noticed that a spectator had a UM shirt.  Nothing that special in that, but on my second pass, I noticed the words "National Champions."  I started to think of the last national championship that UM had won in a sport that would print t-shirts.  It seemed a while ago, which piqued my interest.  How old was this shirt?

I got close enough to see that it was, in fact, a 2018 NCAA Division 1 basketball championship shirt.

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Naturally, a trade was made.

Bajema: in. Cole Bajema reaffirms his commitment. So does Zeb Jackson. The Daily got Bajema's father on the phone to talk about the decision:

“Juwan and (Cole) had a conversation and basically agreed that Cole’s his first real recruit in his college coaching career,” Shane said. “The baton, basically, handed from Beilein to Juwan in recruitment of Cole and that’s what really put Cole over the edge and reassured that he could become Juwan’s guy too.

“… It was genuine, it was real, it wasn’t this recruiting talk. (Howard) is genuinely ecstatic to be the coach. And he seemed genuinely pumped to have Cole.”

And when Beilein called, telling the Bajemas that “Juwan’s gonna be a great guy,” and calling it “a perfect fit,” the comfort level only grew.

Bajema's been doing his own version of Camp Sanderson before his arrival; his father says he's added 22 pounds. That might take him from a version of freshman Caris to a guy who can play significant minutes. It's looking like he might have to.

[After THE JUMP: RJ Hampton takes the flight of the conchords]

Head coach: check. Seven more things still need to get resolved. Those are Howard's three assistant coaches and S&C guy plus the three open scholarships Michigan currently has.

COACHING CAROUSEL

Even if Michigan wasn't getting hit in the face with giant amounts of money from the conference's new media deals they'd have some extra assistant money. Howard's contract is relatively modest:

Beilein was making almost double that. If Howard wants an expensive assistant money should be no barrier.

Per Brendan Quinn, Howard is reaching out to various experienced college coaches and thinking about hiring a former HC as one of his assistants. Beilein taking guys to the NBA is receding as a threat per "multiple sources." Yaklich is being given "time to sort things out at Michigan," which again implies that if Howard pursues Yaklich he can get him.

I strenuously disagree with internet folk who are suggesting that Yaklich is expendable because Howard was more or less the Heat version of him. Next year's team is going to be defense first and continuity there is important; also Howard just got a ton of stuff dumped on his lap and if he can confidently delegate a big chunk of that to a guy with back-to-back top three defenses that lets him focus on all the other aspects of running a college program.

FWIW, Brian Snow put together a list of former head coaches currently looking for gigs:

Tim Miles (formerly at Nebraska)

Phil Martelli (formerly at St. Joe's)

Bryce Drew (formerly at Vanderbilt)

Bob Hoffman (formerly at Mercer)

Brian Fish (formerly at Montana State)

Kareem Richardson (formerly at UMKC)

Tony Shaver (formerly at William & Mary)

Miles knows the conference; Drew is an intriguing option because he recruited like gangbusters at Vandy. I'd still bet that Howard's assistants have an existing connection to him. Webb brought up Jay Smith, who had a decade-long tenure at CMU on either side of the millenium. Smith is dealing with cancer, however, and may not be able to act in an assistant capacity.

[After THE JUMP: three open scholarships. Can Howard fill them?]

man o nam [Bryan Fuller]

Sponsor Note. It's that time of year again! The time of year when, overcome with some nonsense on the final play of a game, you wander into the street after one or several too many and do regrettable things to BoJack Policehorseman that land you in the slammer. And I cannot emphasize enough: if this happens do you DO NOT CALL RICHARD HOEG, LAWYER. hoeglaw_thumb[1]_thumb (1)

Mr. Hoeg isn't that kind of lawyer. He cannot get you out of a jam. He does not know any bail bondsmen. He can file incorporation papers for you, which is of absolutely no use when you are being held in the county lock-up for shenanigans that, while delightful in the moment, are certainly illegal.

HoegLaw could talk to you about Michigan's prospects in the NCAA tournament after the precipitating events, and that's not nothing, but really if you're going to call HoegLaw it should be because you want someone to look over a contract, or draft one, or help you when an existing contract goes sideways. These are his areas of expertise.

So I must repeat: if you find yourself in jail, remember this number: (734) 263-1001, because under no circumstances should you call it.

TEN YEAAAARS. Ten years ago today on this here site:

MBB: So… you look good.

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Tourney: Thank you, you may have, uh—

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TEN YEARS, MAN! TEN! Where have you been for ten years?

MBB: I freaked out… hired Brian Ellerbe. Recruited Avery Queen and Kevin Gaines and Maurice Searight. Got put on probation for kids taking money from a Detroit gambling kingpin. Fired Ellerbe and hired a guy who took a Sweet 16 team that returned virtually everyone and added an NBA lottery pick to the NIT: Tommy Amaker. Recruited Anthony Wright and Kendrick Price and Reed Baker. Turned the ball over on every other offensive possession for six years. The one year I was going to be back everyone got injured and the starting point guard got suspended for some sort of domestic violence thing. Walk-ons started at point guard. Then I hired John Beilein. We have basically one guy taller than 6'5", we still have walk-ons at point guard, and we're here.

It is impossible to overstate how much different the basketball is now. It is very different.

If you'd like a less silly take on Michigan's first bid in a decade, The Athletic's Chris Burke may be your speed. You may remember that those rat bastards announced the field such that Michigan was the very last at large team announced:

A little after 6:30 p.m. ET, a good half-hour after the Selection Show began, Gumbel brought CBS back from break and introduced the South Region. The final quarter of the bracket. Realistically, there were five spots — seeds 8 through 12 — where Michigan could land, but at least two of those were reserved for the remaining mid-major conference-tournament champions and their guaranteed bids.

The 8-9 matchup came and went (LSU vs. Butler), as did the 12 seed (Sun Belt champ Western Kentucky). CBS’ graphic shifted down to the bottom half of the bracket to reveal an Oklahoma-Morgan State matchup at 2-15.

Gumbel kept rolling. “The No. 7 seed in the South, the Clemson Tigers, the seventh team out of the ACC. Oliver Purnell has now led three different schools to the NCAA Tournament …”

Call it a premonition, call it desperation, but as Gumbel read through his Clemson blurb, a buzz grew in the Crisler crowd. Maize Ragers jumped up and down, with shouts of “Come on!” and “Let’s go!” as if it were possible to will Michigan into the bracket. Sims started clapping along. Harris and senior forward Jevohn Shepherd leaned back, Shepherd with his hands on his head.

“… And they will face, coming out of Ann Arbor, the seventh Big Ten team, the Michigan Wolverines.”

I was dying for this whole period.

[After THE JUMP: a different world man]