Catching Up With Our Ex-Hoops Coaches
Kind of weird seeing Steve Fisher going up against Coach K again today. He might have done better if he had Jalen, Chris, Juwan, Jimmy and Ray. For the record, here’s what our four living ex-basketball coaches are up to:
STEVE FISHER: Took San Diego State to the NCAAs for the sixth straight year.
TOMMY AMAKER: Took Harvard to the NCAAs for the fourth straight year.
BILL FRIEDER: Doing radio color commentary during the NCAAs for Westwood One. Every time I’ve turned on a game this week, there he's been. He’s only 73 years old, which shocks me. I would have put him at about 90.
BRIAN ELLERBE: According to his LinkedIn profile, he’s the head of something called Ellerbe Research and Consulting LLC. He’s been out of coaching since 2013. He was an assistant coach at DePaul from 2010-2013, and before that, was an assistant at George Washington University from 2009-2010. He also worked in insurance. Has any former Big Ten coach ever had a greater fall into obscurity?
Can one fall into obscurity if one never was renowned?
and who are we talking about - us or the coaches?
Is Brian Ellerbe our Ron Zook?
Zook recruited the bulk of Urban Meyer's 2006 national championship team, so . . . no, Ellerbe is not him.
How did Ellerbe ever come about as Michigan's head coach?
He was fired by Loyola of Maryland in the spring of 1997. Steve Fisher then hired him as his #3 assistant. A few months later, Tom Goss fired Fisher for his lack of oversight in the Martin scandal . . . and decided to promote Ellerbe to the head job.
That's the "how." The "why" is harder to answer.
Ellerbe was promoted over long time assistant Brian Dutcher, who deserved the promotion big time over him. Dutcher is STILL the coach in waiting for Fisher at SDSU...
Dutcher would have probably kept UM afloat, but Goss was an idiot.
We've been through this a million times.
Dutcher was a Fisher guy through and through, and he'd been there for Ed Martin. The method to the madness was clearing out everyone in the program who had been around when things were going down. That included Dutcher, who possibly would have followed Fisher anyway. Ellerbe, having walked in the door literally five minutes before, was the last man standing. No ties to Ed Martin, no previous ties to Fisher, no apparent indications of running dirty programs, etc. And at the very least he'd been a head coach before. Ergo, interim coch Brian Ellerbe.
And, of course, Ellerbe didn't work out. But looking at it from Goss' perspective in October of '97, even if he generally sucked as an AD, Ellerbe was a logical choice for interim head coach. Then they had a decent enough season, won the BTT, and the rest was (a sad and sordid) history.
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^
On some level I admire your dogged defense of the Ellerbe hire. But . . . no. It was not logical. Nothing about that process was.
The NCAA report came out in August, and Goss did nothing until October, when Goss suddenly decided to fire Fisher. He forced his own hand with that decision. If he'd fired Fisher in August, he could have actually conducted a search. His delay was never explained.
And then, after passing over the assistants apparently tainted by their Fisher association (Dutcher and Trost), Goss allowed them to remain on the staff. If you're going to do that, what is the difference between giving one the head job or not? Either way they're part of your program. You can give them a firm handshake at year's end and go in another direction. That would have been sensible. Anything but hire the guy who went .400 at Loyola and got fired six months earlier.
It was not a surprise Ellerbe failed. He failed at his previous job, which involved far less public scrutiny. Why would he have worked out here?
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:44 PM ^
Explaining the hire does not equal defending the hire. Goss messed up the timing for sure. He messed up a lot of things. But when you look at his options after he messed up those options... Who's left? It's a matter of putting yourself in the guy's shoes when the season is starting, like, next week.
Whatever. My point is you have to put yourself in the moment, without considering just how awful it ended up being, if you're going to start blasting Goss for choosing Ellerbe. He was (by his own doing) between a rock and a hard place.
Tommy Amaker hired in 2001.
Beilein was hired to coach West Virginia in 2002.
That would have been something if we manged to get Beilein way back then. He was right in line with what the school was looking for -ethical coach to get things back on track.
To not make the tournament in 2006 was simply ridiculous on Amaker's part. Though it was easier to keep us out because we didn't have the pedigree of an annual team - no benefit of the doubt. Michigan State getting a bid in 2011 is a perfect example. A team that collapsed and was 7th (when the Big Ten had 11 teams) and still made it.
We got jobbed one of those Amaker years.
Yep.
.500 conference records and a nonconference that was hard but mostly losses to the hard teams
2011 MSU had a worse resume than 2006 Michigan.
Helps to have your AD on the tournament committee and a committee that doesn't have the sack to end that beloved tournament streak.
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^
or Rick Pitino. (yes I'm still on that stupid story from 2 years ago about how Pitino almost came to UM if it were not for his wife allegedly)
He wanted to come to Ann Arbor, his wife wanted to go to Louisville. They wound up in Louisville.
His quote was "Happy wife, happy life."
Considering what he spent his time doing in Louisville. Maybe he meant his equipment manager's wife, though she didn't end up happy either.
They were freshmen against seniors. Back when top players still stayed around to be seniors.
They took Duke to OT, and led them at the half in the National Championship game. I'd say they did quite well indeed.
March 23rd, 2015 at 10:42 AM ^
M-Dog is obviously correct. That the Fab 5 made it to the final and were competitive in the first half was unbelievable - and it was quite a ride.
Compared to where the team was the year before made it that much more stunning.
March 23rd, 2015 at 11:59 PM ^
The year before the Fab 5, we lost in the first round . . . of the NIT.
We don't miss you.
The reason we had such falls from grace in football and basketball is our coaching choices. We hired an obscure assistant basketball coach in Ellerbe, a decent but probably below Michigan caliber coach in Amaker, and an under .500 coach in Hoke. Yeah I know that Bo didn't have a very good resume before getting to Michigan but that is an anomaly. Ohio got Urban Meyer after their sanctions and added Thad Matta who had a much better record than Amaker when he was hired. In the SEC, they constantly hire proven coaches except for Gene Chizik who flamed out after his hired qb left.
Bo's résumé was actually pretty good: 40-17-3 at Miami (Oh.), including 27-8-1 in league play. He just wasn't well-known to the average fan.
This is the closest parallel I can think of. Williams was hired as MSU's head coach because he was the first assistant in line when Saban left. But at least he's been able to hitch himself to Saban's star ever since. Ellerbe has had nothing.
IIRC, Ellerbe got the job when Fisher left because Robert Traylor said he'd bolt for the NBA if they didn't hire Ellerbe.
Ellerbe has been Michigan's worst coaching hire in my lifetime.
I'd never heard the Traylor story about Ellerbe. According to Mgoblog friend Craig Ross, Johnny Orr offered to come back to coach the team for a year with the mutual understanding that he would not be a candidate for the permanent position. Maybe Traylor is why he was turned down.
Found this Chicago Tribune article from 1998. It turns out we can blame Robert Traylor for this (God rest his soul...)
"Brian Ellerbe talks with proper respect about the Michigan coaching job. His players unanimously support the lifting of his interim tag and his permanent hiring; center Robert Traylor hints that his return for a senior season could depend on whether Ellerbe is retained. "I don't want to play for three coaches in four years," Traylor said. "That's not what I came to college for, and I feel strongly about that."
I remember Traylor saying that - but it was after the season was over. He said he'd go pro if Ellerbe wasn't named the permanent head coach. Naturally, he went pro a few days after the announcement.
This doesn't explain why Ellerbe got the interim job in the first place, though. The only explanation that makes sense is that he was hired because he wasn't tainted by his association with Fisher (even though neither of the other assistants was found guilty of anything).
If Ellerbe was Bobby Williams then Fisher was our Larry Coker.
Nah, Fisher was more like Butch Davis - good coach but did not maintain control of the program off the court.
Coker seems to be an ethical guy but just isn't that good of a coach. You could compare him to Hoke.
I remembering reading that our AD would not consider any employed coaches as potential candiates because it was ungentlemanlike.
So the pool of candidates was basically a bunch of noboides thanks to some delusional mindset of etitquette that is contrary to how big time college sports are run.
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:02 PM ^
Soooooo stupid. As bad as DB was, Goss was 1000X worse.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^
Yep, immoral to poach a coach or hire someone from the NBA minor leagues. Goodness, how stupid could our adminstration be at one of the most critical times in our basketball program's history.
Ellerbe's Linkedin page about Michigan reads
Head Men's Basketball Coach
University of Michigan
– (4 years)
Assumed leadership on an interim bases five days before the start of the official season due to firing of previous coach
- Restored sound operations and succesful performance record to a high profile but challenged program
- Enforced University and NCAA complience regulations instealing stability and continuity to the program
- Development and teaching of student-athletes to compete on the nations highest men's basketball level
- Manage and direct academic and career goals and opportunities for student-athletes towards graduation
- National and international recruitment of future student-atheltes
- Directed and managed various community development and marketing activites
- Managed staff of 30 and a multi-million dollar budget
- Led team to its first Conference Title in over 22 years
- Helped develop new revenue producing areas and overall program involvement
- Earned a multi-year contract as a result of winning and restoring stability in the program
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:04 PM ^
This part might be stretching the truth just a tad:
- Restored sound operations and succesful performance record to a high profile but challenged program
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:17 PM ^
He also misspelled "basis" and "instilling."
The part about enforcing NCAA rules, I'm not quite certain about either.
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:16 PM ^
As I recall, the extension came on the heels of the 25-9 season in 1997-98, but of course the next three seasons after that were pretty bloody rough. It might be just me, but the last bullet point in this portion of his LinkedIn profile makes me a little irritated for some reason, but more the word "stability" than anything. I realize that's nitpicky perhaps.
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^
Even that 1997-98 season wasn't really that impressive given the team we had. We had a veteran team with a lot of talent and experience, but only finished in 4th place in a so-so Big Ten and lost to UCLA in the second round of the tourney. Winning the BTT saved the season from being a complete disappointment.
It's essentially an online resume. Isn't it a rule that they all have to be "padded?"
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:17 PM ^
March 22nd, 2015 at 10:22 PM ^
March 22nd, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^
A fraternity brother of mine was the team manager for the 80 & 81 seasons. Those were VERY fun to watch (Mike McGee, the Bodner twins, Paul Heurman and Thad Garner) and he insisted that Frieder did ALL the coaching and Johnny Orr was just a figurehead and the HC in name only.
I really liked Frieder and LOVED his 85-89 teams even though they underachieved in the tourny for the most part. What a lot of people forget is that the 89 National Champs were ALL his recruits and while Fisher took them to the title, Frieder was resonsible for putting the team together.
Even though Frieder completely did it to himself, it must've sucked for him to watch the team win from the stands.
He got Steve Wozniaked.
March 23rd, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
Good lord, Bill Frieder was a mediocre coach at best...he could recruit, to be sure, but HE was the Ron Zook OR Will Muschamp (whichever you prefer) of Michigan. In my opinion, the '89 team had no shot of winning the NC with Frieder, and got lucky that he bailed and Fisher was able to coach the team (whatever your opinion of Fisher in the long run).
The team under Frieder was a major underachiever - 12-6 in the Big Ten in spite of the top 6 guys all having NBA talent (Rice, Vaught, Robinson, Mills, Higgins, Hughes)! Frieder had an incredibly short bench (refused to practically let Calip on the court), got soundly beaten by Illinois in the final regular season game in Ann Arbor, got beaten by Alaska Anchorage(!), etc. Frieder was too laid back and the teams were too undisciplined to win. At least with respect to the '89 National Championship, we got lucky that he bailed when he did.