SI article about diversity and Howard's impact in new CBB hires
I'm the first to point out that Michigan's not the first program to hire alumni as their HC and Howard also walked into a great situation due to Beilein's prior success. But I am really glad to see that his success has opened gates for more diverse hires across all of CBB, and especially opening pathways for new first time HCs in the sport.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:13 AM ^
Like most industries, people tend to hire the people they know or have strong connections to through a third party. With a majority of school leadership being white....we know how that tends to go (but also somewhat surprising since Black people are around a majority of participants in basketball and football yet don't have that same representation amongst coaching ranks). And while hires like Woodson and Howard are former players are their schools and probably wouldn't have been candidates without those connections, I'm hoping this means the beginning of turning a corner for hiring practices.
And I know some people will just say, "hire the best candidate regardless or race, connection etc" but that's a cop out. If you asked every single AD what qualities make up the "best candidate", you will get different and vague answers. It's like when coaches get hired and talk about "culture."
April 15th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
According to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, 22.7 percent of the coaches in men’s Division I basketball in the 2019-20 season were Black, while 53.2 percent of the players were.
Blacks make up 13% of the population in the US and have 23% representation in head coaching spots currently. Based on that, I don't agree with your statement that you'd expect to have the exact same proportion representation head coaches to ethnicity of players as it's already at a 2:1 ratio compared to the current demographic percentages.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
And yet Black people make up less than 10% of athletic directors, who are the people making the final decisions. And I imagine they make up no more than 10% in terms of school presidents and board members.
You can't just say they're 13% of the population is Black, so there's not a race problem because more than that are HC in D1 basketball. But I think you know that and aren't engaging in this topic honestly.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
Typical, call someone dishonest when they don’t agree with you.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
I feel it’s fine to disagree with me but when someone brings up the general population in an industry that isn’t representative of the general pop, it’s a dishonest approach
April 15th, 2021 at 12:09 PM ^
That's a fair point. Although I would also argue that with only 350 schools in D1 basketball, the universe is relatively small. Borderline there for statistical significance, but I digress.
April 15th, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
The basketball industry consists of more than just players with D-1 college basketball experience. For example, John Beilein and Shaka Smart.
April 15th, 2021 at 12:45 PM ^
Yes, there are exceptions to every rule. But in general, there are not very many coaches that were not former players. Which makes it perplexing that there are not more Black coaches. Basketball is doing a much better job than football.
April 15th, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^
You're also assuming that all players want to become a coach, a head coach or even continue to be associated with organized sports after their playing days are finished. Obviously this doesn't apply to anyone other than me, but baseball got me into college. Never wanted a coaching career and I haven't done more than play catch since my last game. Perhaps some players want to do something else and use sports as a mechanism to get an education or create other opportunities for themselves outside of sports.
I feel like you're looking for every possible excuse to say there isn't a problem. But Black former and current players and coaches - and the numbers - say otherwise.
No, not every coach is a former player. No, not every former player wants to become a coach. Nobody has said anything contrary to those statements. But we do know that a significant portion - a vast majority - of coaches are former players. And we know that many former players want to become coaches. And history tells us that it's been harder for Black former players to get HC jobs than it has been for white former players to do so.
You can continue to make excuses and point out the exceptions. But that doesn't take away from reality.
Just because black former players are frustrated they didn't get the job doesn't make it "reality". Unless there's hard evidence that more qualified black coaches are consistently getting passed over for jobs, this argument is completely baseless.
I think the numbers we have already discussed point to that Black coaching candidates do not get the same opportunities as white coaching candidates. The "more qualified" portion of it is subjective and ambiguous and I don't know how you would go around putting that into a study or research.
Historically, yes. Currently, no.
Shaka Smart went to Kenyon College. So did I. Not really relevant to the discussion. I just love that a Kenyon Lord is a high level D-1 coach...despite his recent tourney results. But I digress.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:53 AM ^
You seem to think there's an "injustice" going on here. And while I'm not absolving every athletic department from racism, as there most certainly has been and probably will continue to be, I also can't buy into the notion of "Hey! 50% of the players are black so 50% of the coaches have to be?" What kind of rationale is that? And I'm asking this honestly. I don't understand that reasoning - if that's indeed what your argument appears to be?
April 15th, 2021 at 11:05 AM ^
I think our common ground is that if black athletes continue to comprise greater than 50% of the players, the coaching numbers will continue to climb and eventually reach that organically. You can’t look at current player demographics and say that means the coaching ranks need to match because your current players aren’t part of your pool of coaching candidates since they are still playing. A better measure would be to look at historical data, say 15 to 20 years ago. I have not looked at those numbers so I don’t know what they would say.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:24 AM ^
Although by that logic, coaches only come from the player pool - which is not true. I'd agree there is a correlation but not a direct 1:1. There are numerous coaches who have never played at all (looking at you Richard Pitino!)
April 15th, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
It's a fair question. The argument (or at least an argument) is this: coaches tend to be former players. From John Wooden to John Thompson to Coach K, playing is how a lot of coaches get into the game. Something seems amiss, then, if you've had 50% black players but you have 25% black coaches. There may be reasons for this that aren't rooted in racism, but racism seems like a decent guess as to one of the possible causes...And I should add that, when I say "racism," I'm talking about relatively subtle stuff and not "our AD is the grand dragon of the KKK."
April 15th, 2021 at 11:37 AM ^
There is an injustice when certain demographics represent the playing population but struggle to get jobs within that same industry. And I never said there was a threshold for what is and isn’t good or bad. That was you that decided 13% and 22% meant we are good.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:45 AM ^
Never said it was good or bad. I used that as my rationale for the fact that I didn't think it was an injustice based on those metrics. I also said it didn't absolve Universities or athletic departments from racism. My argument is that I don't feel the head coaches ethnicity need to be in exact proportion of the ethnicity of players. It seems you do, which I don't understand.
"There is an injustice when certain demographics represent the playing population but struggle to get jobs within that same industry. " No, there's not. Your injustice then hinges on the sole premise that only candidates that are good for HC jobs are former players. See my earlier comment on Richard Pitino. (Now in fairness, I'm not advocating him as a great coach) Now, is the path to coaching often start with being a player? Of course. Does that automatically make them qualified to be a great HC option? No.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:51 AM ^
I never said it did. But feel it’s common sense that within the vacuum of college basketball and football - where ~50% of the players are Black - more than 22% should be HC (and that number is massively buoyed by the recent hires).
April 15th, 2021 at 11:59 AM ^
Fair enough. We are in complete agreement that there's definitely a correct number in there somewhere and if you're outside of that %, I'd agree with you that there's proper evidence of racism going on. It's a tricky thing. One can't turn a blind eye to racism, but at the same time, the most qualified person should get the job. I hope that by the time my kids are grown we won't even have to have this conversation.
April 15th, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
In an ideal world, the most qualified person gets it every time (and everyone has equal opportunities achieve those qualifications). But I don’t know if there is even agreement on who the most qualified candidates are. And there’s also different floors and ceilings for every candidate.
I do think schools are doing a better job of diversifying their assistants, which theoretically should increase the pool of qualified applicants for head coaching jobs
"I don't see what is wrong with the rationale...credentials be damned..."
- American Airlines
Wow, someone lays out a cogent and well-thought out reply and you claim dishonesty.
Pretty sure that ensures that YOU aren't engaging in this topic honestly.
I don't think saying that 13% of the country is Black, therefore 22% of coaches being Black means it's ok is a well thought out or cogent response. But you disagree with me and claim dishonesty? Isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black?
Ya'll have hashed out an interesting quantitative discussion here, but I think there are quite a few specific examples that we can all think of that strain the idea that "black people who are qualified and want to be coaches aren't facing extra hurdles to landing HC jobs." Patrick Ewing jumps immediately to mind for me. Even when looking a Juwan how many years of being an assistant did it take for him to get a shot? Granted this example is the NBA but if we consider the Steve Nash or Jason Kidd (granted a while back now) hires there seems to be a different set of criteria that black want-to-be coaches face. On the flip side of that, look at the Rick Pitino hire (after massive scandals). Does anyone think a successful black HC would get so many second chances? There wasn't a more deserving candidate for that job? I don't know what the right % of minority HC hires there should be but I also feel pretty comfortable saying there has definitely been some curious (if not racist, certainly racist adjacent) hiring decisions for HC positions.
I will also say that there seems to be real progress this offseason and hopefully that continues.
Do I think a successful black HC would get second chances? Absolutely, and Kelvin Sampson is living proof.
Juwan was an assistant for six years, which I don't think is a particularly long time. Patrick Ewing was an assistant for a long time, but it could also be argued that his very mediocre results are indicative of other reasons he didn't get a head-coaching look. Jerry Stackhouse is a guy who for sure hasn't had to spend much time as an assistant.
There are certainly some occasionally weird coaching decisions around, but it's really too bad that if someone hires a seemingly underqualified white guy, "racism" is the first thing on the minds of so many people.
Kelvin Sampson isn't black, he's Native American.
Huh. Did not know that. Always thought he was a light-skinned black guy. Guess that's my newly learned thing for the day.
Arguably, the point remains. He is a minority, after all.
But it's not just 1 guy here or there. It's a bunch of guys year after year. If the guys getting hired were dudes who'd put in the time and worked their way through the coaching ranks and just happened to be white more often than not, then fair enough, maybe race isn't playing a factor but seems like a lot of really qualified black guys get passed up for not as high pedigree white guys. I wouldn't say that is necessarily racism in the sense of the AD or GM is thinking consciously "I can't hire this more qualified black guy because I think white guys are superior by the sole virtue of being white"... but if the common denominator between these cases looks from the outside the guy getting passed up is black, I'm not sure what else you'd call it.
Maybe the issue here is just the term racism, which evokes a certain White Hooded hooligans kind of vibe... would it be better to call it racially motivated hiring practices?
Well, "racially motivated hiring practices" also conjures up the image of a white AD or GM purposely avoiding someone for being black.
Personally I think every case has to be looked at individually, which is hard to do, but still, enough effort isn't being made. Example: The NFL was criticized for having only two minority hires out of eight head coaches this offseason, and (unfortunately, hell if I remember where) one site even mentioned Dan Campbell as an example of a "less-qualified" white guy. Completely ignoring the fact that the exact same hiring process by the exact same team resulted in a new black AD. Ergo, I think any racial factor at all can be eliminated as a reason why the Lions hired a white coach.
I also think that ADs and GMs have their ass on the line too much to use race as a reason to hire or not hire someone. Too much is at stake. To argue that there are highly-qualified black coaches not getting hired in favor of underqualified white ones is also to argue that ADs and GMs are self-sabotaging idiots.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:58 AM ^
Speedy Claxton!!! Haven’t heard that name in years...
April 15th, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
I didn't expect much from the story, but it delivered more. But that was a pretty good article, actually - I recommend you take the 5-10 minutes to read through it.
As for the 'Juwan Effect', I believe it's seriously helped get some administrators to make the jump towards hiring more, ahem, diversity. The easy way out, still, is a white guy - providing another candidate doesn't present a slam dunk case. Maybe Juwan's hiring has opened eyes that show you don't need top-end college experience, so long as you are a well qualified candidate? There are too many variables to say any one person is a slam-dunk.
We have Jim Harbaugh - the arguably most 'slam-dunk' candidate imaginable for football at the time he was hired. And we have Juwan Howard, an arguably well-qualified candidate, but probably not that 'slam-dunk' you aim for. In hindsight, how are these two working out? You can't make perfect decisions, you can only do the best you can. Limiting the candidate pool via preconceived bias is not a good start...
April 15th, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^
I wonder if part of the issue is how recruits and those entering the draft are described. For a long time, white players have been labeled high effort, or "heady," or coach on the floor. Whereas black players have been described as athletic, smooth, or quick twitch.
Since athletic directors are from this old school, I wonder if these labels have caused them to look towards these descriptions. Much has happened to challenge these notions, and I am glad that Michigan is at the forefront of this.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:03 AM ^
At the end of the day, it's about success and winning games. Any successful coach got that way because he knew how to coach, manage egos, and delegate responsibility. Talent recognizes talent.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:27 AM ^
You need the opportunity before you can prove success.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:47 AM ^
Not quite. Talent recognizes talent that fits their expectation for talent. Otherwise there would be more than 1 female GM in men's pro sports (women make up 10% of CEOs for Fortune 500) or at least one female head coach for NCAA men's basketball. There are plenty of female coaches who can do all the things you state perfectly well.
Talent recognizes talent sounds like a cop out and isn't really even correct. ADs make bad hires all the time.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:44 AM ^
Maybe, just maybe, the home run hire was Warde Manuel . . .
As much as we knock the football team for on-field results, we should not lose sight of their leadership position in hiring young assistant coaches of color. I hope this translates into success on the field in a way that further inspires imitation.
In the two major revenue sports, UM is leading the way with hiring diversity.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:48 AM ^
Here is what I find interesting whenever people say "just hire the best".
In fields where the evaluation of your performance is LEAST subjective (re: playing sports), there is least amount of problems with lack of minority involvement.
The lack of minority representation gets worse as the selection criteria gets more subjective. In most job openings, it is impossible to define objectively what it means to "hire the best" and that is where the most bias happens.
April 15th, 2021 at 12:01 PM ^
If you're still not buying the cognitive science evidence that shows white men get favorable treatment in hiring, I'd like to remind you about one Richard Pitino formerly of the University of Minnesota.
April 15th, 2021 at 12:32 PM ^
Part of it is that, but part of it is also the same phenomenon that typifies any good ol' boy network: people get jobs and move up because they had someone of influence put in a good word, or they're hand-picked or groomed by the boss, or they're recruited because of their connections. In America, the overwhelming majority of those who make those kinds of decisions and those who benefit from them are White males. It becomes a self-perpetuating cycle, and one that's difficult to break.
April 15th, 2021 at 12:25 PM ^
Looking at Indiana's hire in particular, it's hard not to get the sense that they pretty much looked at our hire of Juwan Howard (and Juwan's hire of Phil Martelli) and said "Let's do that."
April 15th, 2021 at 12:41 PM ^
If this is the trend I'm glad if only because it might cause anxiousness among the Bruce Pearl's of the world.