Phil Martelli, Howard Eisley To Complete Howard's Staff
Okay I'll believe Brendan Quinn:
Additionally, per sources, Michigan and Knicks assistant Howard Eisley are expected to complete a deal within the next 24 hours. He will finalize Juwan Howard’s coaching staff, joining Martelli and Saddi Washington.
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) June 3, 2019
Jon Sanderson was also retained as the S&C coach. Martelli spent 24 years as St Joe's head coach before being dismissed after this season. I was and still am in the Mike Miller (G-League edition) camp but the somewhat negative takes I had on WTKA are mitigated now that I've looked into Martelli more. His last few teams were veritably wracked with injuries. At the very least Martelli offers a bunch of Philly recruiting contacts and a depth of domain-specific knowledge.
Eisley is more of a wild card. After a four-year career at Boston College in the early 90s he had a 12-year NBA career mostly spent bouncing around as a backup. He retired in 2006, did some non-coaching things for a few years, and then emerged as an NBA assistant for the Clippers, Wizards, and Knicks.
Eisley's from Detroit and might help Michigan's efforts to recruit there. He's a completely unknown quantity as a college assistant.
I would have loved for Michigan to somehow retain Yak and Haynes. But it's hard to argue with Martelli. He will presumably be able to fill in the college head coaching knowledge gaps that Howard is bound to have at first. And it seems like Howard will have the wisdom and security to seek and accept help when he needs it.
Its rumored that Yak turned down a 500k offer from UM to take a 350k offer from Texas. If true, the butthurt was strong and their was no retaining him.
Yak wanted Howard to make him or give him the title Associate Head Coach. Howard declined.
Also butthurt.
Or he cares more about his long term career... if Shaka Smart flakes out at Texas soon he is probably promoted. Howard is gonna get 4 years here before the seat is hot if he doesn’t do well
Why would they automatically promote an assistant from a fired Head Coach’s staff? That doesn’t make sense to me.
Yak was better off sticking at UM and looking for a Head Coaching job next season. The defense will be great again and he would have gotten much of the credit.
But just think how coveted Yak will be if he improves TX's defense as much as he did ours.
BINGO.... he couldve just did his thing here for another year, got another top 10 defense in the books, head coach somewhere.
A lot of risk to what he did..best of luck to him. Set a great foundation for us but if the above is true I find it to be pretty risky.
Would love him to still be here but I think Howard has built a nice staff.
Assistants rarely get promoted after the head coach was fired for not winning enough. I can't think of a single one although I'm sure it has happened somewhere. Really, I can't think of a worse reason to take a job.
Going somewhere where the coach is on the hot seat is usually a bad career move. I think Smart is safe for at least a couple of years due to his buyout and Yak doesn't plan to stay there any longer than that. Yak has a better chance to be given credit for their improvement than he could get with a new coach at Michigan.
Yak is miles below Beard on Texas’ wish list post-Shaka.
No chance. If Smart flakes then Yak will also be fired.
I posted on the CC:Yaklich thread that it was unlikely that Yaklich was going to stay if he was in the serious running for the HC job, if he did not get the HC job.
Human nature is a such that if you go for that promotion that you believe you deserve, but don't get it, you are unlikely to stay around when the new guy comes in.
"He's a completely unknown quantity as a college assistant."
Howard is a complete unknown as a college head coach. He is a low floor, high ceiling hire and I don't think there are any tea leaves to be read here. The program could literally go anywhere.
Martelli's the vanilla guy with the impeccable resume to make everyone happy. Howard might've hired Eisley to see what he can do.
Or it could just be JH looked around and said, "There aren't enough Howards around here." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Did not read the Mike Miller Come On Down post closely. Thought that meant he was on the staff. Brian was just rooting for him. Got it.
Yeah, this is Brian’s best effort at eating humble pie - clearly not his strength.
Soo,what exactly does Eisley brings to maize ans blue table?
He played at Detroit Southwestern for Perry Watson. Not sure if that is good or bad.
Would rather know what he brings to the Maize "and" Blue table, although you're question is more intriguing.
The first name that came to my mind for the experienced ex head coach position was Fran Dunphy. Looks like I wasn’t far off. I love this hire.
Has the podcast for the 5/31/2019 MGoBlogRoundtable on WTKA been posted anywhere, yet? I have not seen it and I did a (reasonably) thorough search for it on MGoBlog.
I second this. Would love to give it a listen, but don't recall it here on the site and it hasn't showed up in my podcast feed. I know I can get it off of The Michigan Insider podcast, but I don't subscribe to that, so it's more of a PITA. Is this going up here any time soon?
Not the MGoPodcast feed. Not sure why, and at this point I'm not sure it will be. But you can listen to it on the WTKA Michigan Insider podcast feed (just search Michigan Insider on whatever player you use for podcasts). The MGoBlog Roundtable is posted on WTKA's feed every week too.
Direct link to part 1 of last week's Roundtable: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-26m8h-63ef613
- The Martelli hire makes a ton of sense: ultra-experienced guy, knows the rule book, likely looking to mentor someone, etc
- Eisley...I don't know at all. He's good friends with Jalen (from the Southwestern days), and thus perhaps Juwan? Maybe he'll be an awesome recruiter.
Martelli spent a long time on the actual rules committee and is on the NABC board of directors.
I liked the idea of Miller as a developmental guy but Martelli can probably do a lot more for year one Juwan Howard at the very least.
I lived in Philadelphia for many years (90's-mid 00's). Back then, Martelli was a regular coaching wizard. I'm hoping he will help Juwan with college x's and o's. He certainly is a colorful personality and, if I remember correctly, a great guy.
I cant get to distraught about Eisley. Id be lying if i told you I knew who our third assistant was. Better yet that until recently I even knew we had a 3rd assistant.
Sanderson staying is huge.
He says, flexing his testosterone-laced biceps.
I know Brian disagrees but I think hiring Phil Martelli makes a lot more sense than hiring Mike Miller. Hiring Howard Eisley, on the other hand, I'm less convinced is a good idea. I'd have rather JH just keep Dre Haynes but I can understand him wanting to bring in his own guy.
I like Eisley as it offers a very direct connection to the Detroit High school scene, (I think it was Amaker who really struggled getting the top kids out of the city).
A decades plus NBA playing career and NBA assistant experience tells me he must know a little something about teaching the game, so I love the hire
Whoa I need to get used to having another JH or things will get confusing quick.
I would say the 3rd assistant on a college basketball staff is usually an unknown quantity.
Martelli is a great hire. We needed an experience college HC to help Juwan with the ins and outs of the college game, calendar etc. I’m not sure who we could have gotten that would be better.
Eisley? Who knows. Could be good, could be bad. I guess we’ll find out. His hire will largely depend on how good of a recruiter he is IMO.
Martelli's teams have been in the top 5 for turnover rate in 3 of the past 4 years FWIW.
+1 informative. Good to hear.
NO PEP TYPES
Can we call him Mos?
Def.
Porter Moser?
Love the Eisley hire. His career has taken him across the country where he's certain to have developed solid basketball relationships. As a Prospector, he's also part of Detroit basketball royalty which carries weight. Only concern is the potential for Eisley and Washington being basically the same guy only 20 years apart.
20 years apart? Eisley is three years older than Saddi lol
That’s 21 in dog years?
Wow. I had no idea and have always associated Jobert, Rockymore, Leonard, Rose, Eisley, Hunt, etc with an older generation.
? big boutros is now your knowledge father
Good move to get a guy with a lot of college experience
1 guy to help be the old head with college experience, 1 guy that's younger, has NBA playing and coaching experience and has local ties and 1 guy that the current players already know to smooth the transition, great mix.
Now I just can't wait to see what a Juwan Howard team plays like.
Alright, I'll say it. How is this arrangement going to be practically any different than hiring Martelli as a short-term head coach and Howard as a long-term assistant? If that were the case, I imagine there would be a lot of infuriated fans. We're effectively replacing Beilein and Yaklich with Martelli and Howard. I'm not sure why slapping the "head coach" title on Howard will make a big difference in the net performance of this coaching staff. It seems like that was maybe a big PR play more than anything else.
I really like the Eisley hire. I'm a strong believer that it's vital to be the number one destination in your state for in-state recruits. In Michigan that means winning Detroit. I think hiring a former NBA player/assistant who's from Detroit, who reps Detroit, and who's well-connected in Detroit will really help us push Izzo for the top kids coming out of Detroit. If we can undercut Michigan State and establish ourselves as the premier program in the Midwest, we can expand into Indiana and Ohio (I'll take a hard pass on the Chicago recruiting scene, thanks) where there's enough talent to put together teams that can compete with Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, etc. Easier said than done, of course, but I think hiring Eisley is a step in a good direction.
Are you nuts?
Howard is the head coach. It's not a gimmick. He's in charge and hired the rest of his staff. Martelli may be gone in a year and you can bet his contract is nothing like Howard's.
Hiring an experienced former HC as an assistant was a logical move practically everyone was calling for. The reason why? Because he could help Howard with administrative details that are new to him, not so he could take over the coaching.
This response is just a bunch of conclusory statements and evasiveness. You haven’t explained why anyone should believe that [Howard + Martelli] > [Martelli + Howard], or that those two things are even different in any material way anyway.
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