[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Phil Martelli, Howard Eisley To Complete Howard's Staff Comment Count

Brian June 3rd, 2019 at 4:57 PM

Okay I'll believe Brendan Quinn:

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.

Comments

1VaBlue1

June 4th, 2019 at 8:37 AM ^

You're being obstinate.  Explain how a head coach hiring an assistant would be equal to an assistant (someone who was not considered for the head job) running the team over the head coach.  Explain it.

Howard was under serious consideration for an NBA HC job, and happily ditched it to come back to Michigan.  He's earned his shot through decades of hard work and - by ALL accounts - a fantastic 6 years of NBA coaching.  He looked around for administrative help and found a guy at the twilight of his career, that wasn't going to sniff another HC job anywhere, and scored a direct hit y hiring him.

And here you are, shitting on the new coach and his assistant while shitting on other posters.  Explain why an otherwise retired coach would be better as Michigan's HC than the guy that was actually hired.

 

remdog

June 4th, 2019 at 8:04 AM ^

Your suggestion that naming Howard the head coach is just a "PR stunt" is just ridiculous.  Anybody who is knowledgeable about his past experience and the extremely positive opinions of those associated with him (including multiple elite NBA players and coaches) would not suggest such a thing.

And "taking a hard pass on the Chicago recruiting scene" is also ridiculous.  It's a fertile area for a talent and can't be ignored by Michigan if our goal is to be an elite program longer term. 

michymich

June 3rd, 2019 at 10:15 PM ^

Did Yak actually ask to be named as associate HC? That's a joke right.

 

To even have the balls to ask that is pretty amazing. Why would a HC anywhere ever agree to give an assistant that title since it undermines the authority and reputation of the HC. It's sort of like the HC acknowledging that he isn't a true HC but that his defensive coordinator is the real coach.

Reggie Dunlop

June 4th, 2019 at 10:00 AM ^

No, he probably didn't. He also probably didn't turn down $500k to make $350k at Texas which is another illogical rumor.

But the Associate Head Coach title is used absolutely everywhere. Every school has an Associate Head Coach. Your 2nd paragraph is nonsense and I can't imagine how you conjure up a theory like "Naming an associate head coach will undermine the head coach's authority and reputation" without having a single example of that happening and not having the first clue about the titles of basketball assistants. It's posts like yours that drive me insane and cause me to curse in my replies.

Alumnus93

June 3rd, 2019 at 11:22 PM ^

I'd give it decent odds to Martelli as the programs successor to Howard as the next coach. Something tells me that Howard will jump back to the NBA in four years or so.

1VaBlue1

June 4th, 2019 at 8:40 AM ^

So what if he does?  As long as he keeps the program as is, or improves it, he'll have fulfilled his contract.  If he chooses to go elsewhere, we'll wish him well and find a new coach.  No sense in being bitter about anything before he even coaches a single game!

Jeez, some people...

93Grad

June 4th, 2019 at 6:32 AM ^

Our coaches should have strong connections to Detroit, Chicago, Philly, Miami and Boston.  That should help recruiting even with the obvious concerns.