CC: Are we still hype on Dusty May?
A first round exit to a once-in-a-generation (e.g. pretty decent!) Northwestern team is a little troubling. But May’s track record over the past few seasons, IMO, should still warrant him being one of our primo candidates.
I didn’t have a chance to watch the game, but are there any takeaways that give you pause about his candidacy? Discuss.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:21 AM ^
I 100% agree. Yesterday was a perfect example. Northwestern played a mediocre first half. Collins made great adjustments at half time to improve the ball movement and improve their shot selection. Both teams played very good defense as both were way over their season averages in TOs.
Only poor choice for Northwestern last night was slowing the game down too early. They got totally out of sync offensively as they took the air out of the ball with 6 minutes to go and let FAU back into the game.
They were fortunate to get it into OT and then get back into their rhythm.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:18 AM ^
why anyone likes Collins is a mystery to me. Yet another douchebag from the Duke tree who generally underperforms. His career record is mediocre at best. At Michigan, he would be -- you guessed it -- mediocre. Hard pass.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:01 PM ^
Given Northwestern basketball, he's very far above mediocre.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:24 PM ^
Here's the case for Collins
-The four best seasons by winning percentage at Northwestern since 1958.
-Made tourney three times at a college that had never made it before, that is facing a talent disadvantage in ~75% of its conference games.
-Knows how to manage a basketball program at a place with challenging academic structures.
-Has created decent program stability in the NIL era
Downside:
-Seems a bit of a jerk
-Ran off some players in questionable circumstances early in his tenure
-Has a very embarassing photo of him on all fours in a game against Michigan several years ago.
That is pretty positive on balance. But, it's not considered cool to suggest this.
I think you could and should add to the downsides that really only 3 of his 11 years at Northwestern have been truly good. I realize it's a tough place to win, but he's had some absolutely ass years to go with his more recent success.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:18 PM ^
He’s at Northwestern. The same Northwestern that never made the tournament before him. How can you say he’s been mediocre?
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:33 PM ^
I don't think people understand just how dire Northwestern basketball has been historically. Prior to Collins, they hadn't been over 500 in the conference since the Eisenhower administration. He's done it three times.
Yeah, I don't think this point can be overstated. Collins has built a competitive program at a school with a long history of losing. I don't think there's a more impressive feat that a coach can accomplish than winning at a place that has baggage.
I suppose the knock on him would be that Northwestern has had down years since he has been there, but that's kinda the default for Northwestern. Having a down year early in a recruiting cycle seems almost unavoidable at such a school.
I would also add that Collins has not only made the tournament, but he's won games. NW has shown up and played like more than a "happy-to-be-there" team.
I'm not sure if Collins should even want to be at Michigan (he's got a good thing going), or if there is not a better candidate out there, but were he to be interested, Michigan could do far, far worse.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:57 PM ^
I know we hate Duke but I see no reason to scoff at their “tree”. Duke is historically pretty damn good at basketball. Glad we didn’t reject our new RB coach just because he came from OSU.
The issue has nothing to do with hating Duke and everything to do with that Coach K’s assistants haven’t done well as head coaches, in general. Consider that, after 40+ years of K producing head coaches, the best Duke could do was promote Scheyer.
I dont like him but a mediocre team would be a huge improvement for us right now. I'm not going to necessarily say we should go after him honestly i dont know much about him, but just any half decent coach who will be a good culture guy (i.e. sure to avoid any scandals) is what we need for a year or two. Build the team back up to a .500ish team with half decent bench/underclass. Then we can offer some homerun longterm excellent coach.
Remember we were dead last in the conference, outside the top 300 nationally. And all the players from this trash team are about to transfer out. Oh yeah and our dogshit AD is on the hotseat.
We are rock bottom right now, no great coach will touch our program with a ten foot pole at the moment.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:46 AM ^
Me too. I think people don’t like him here because he’s a Duke grad. What he’s done at Northwestern is remarkable. Realistically speaking, there isn’t a “can’t miss” coach out there. I think Collins is the best candidate out all the ones I’ve seen listed.
The Duke tree has a lot of disappointments for all of coach K's success. I'm leery.
If May goes to Louisville I won’t lose sleep over it.
I’m not big on May, I love March though.
I have not seen a full FAU game, but the end of the NW game was concerning. The moment was too big for him and the team. The announcers kept saying this was mostly the same team that went to the Final Four last year. If that’s true, you would expect better execution and strategy in that situation.
I’d still see if there is any way to get Creighton’s coach, and if not, go after DeVreiss.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:28 AM ^
Gotta love analysis of 2024: “I watched five minutes of his team in this one tournament” so I’m going to assess him off that with some hyperbolic statement easily contradicted by “the moments” he wasn’t “too big for” last March.
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:58 PM ^
Yay, May won 4 games in a row at the right time last year against:
8 seed Memphis - the Penny Hardaway coached Memphis, not the Penny Hardaway player Memphis
16 seed Farleigh Dickinson
4 seed Tennessee (Michigan's best player this year was one of their better players last year, let that sink in)
3 seed Kansas St who got past post-2022 Kentucky, and 7 seed MSU. The names may look good on paper, but not exactly the top teams anymore.
Please tell me what about that run screams "THIS IS A COACH I WANT LEADING MY TEAM FOR THE NEXT 15 YEARS!!!
Especially when he bows out, with basically the same team as last year, in the first round against NW because of some questionable coaching decisions. You can tell a lot about a coach based on how he handles a pressure situation like that.
Looking deeper than "MADE FINAL FOUR LAST YEAR!!!", doesn't exactly make him look like a better candidate.
Yeah but those were some important 5 minutes…
I'm still in on Devries and May at least. Just having a coach that can get us respectable again and into the tournament would be a step up from where we are.
I’d rather have one of the other options, Abdur-Rahim, Schatz, Devries because they seem to have a bankable thing. Ie, my teams will be good at this. I don’t know that May has that, but I also assume he’ll be option 1 for M
Mark Byington for the win!!!!
I've been hoping we would take a look at Furman's Bob Richey. I had lunch with him a couple of years ago and he's a great guy. When I mentioned that I graduated from Michigan he wouldn't stop talking about Beilein. He has modeled his whole career and his scheme on Beilein and was amazed at how much detailed knowledge I had of it. I of course pointed him to MGoBlog as a source from which he could profit.
I realize that Furman didn't have a great season. But last year they had a tourney run and they came very close to beating us at Crisler a few years ago. I was almost cheering for Richey in that game.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:03 AM ^
Cool story bro'.
I know the last few years have been tough, but I don't understand the "this person will get us back to being respectable" mentality that some people are expressing.
Michigan basketball may not be a "blue blood," but it certainly should be considered a top-20 program. In the last 35 years, the team has been to five Final Fours...which has to put Michigan in the top ten or so schools for Final Four appearances over that time period.
Not to mention the prestige, the history, the enormous fan/alumni/student population, the facilities, etc. This is a top 15-20 job by any metric or data point. Maybe not top ten. But definitely top 15-20.
I'd start with Greg McDermott. He can get the program back to being top 10-15...and then it's once again a very attractive job when he decides to hang up his whistle.
I agree with you that people are (sort of understandably) overreacting to the dismal performance of the last 2 seasons and I also agree that Michigan is a top 20 job. The caveats are that "football is king" as compared with, say Louisville, which means that broadly speaking Michigan's vast resources are directed towards success in football.
Michigan basketball's track record during the Beilein era demonstrates that it's certainly possible to succeed on the national stage but looking back over my lifetime (Johnny Orr to the present) I think it takes a coach with special talent in at least one area to achieve that level of success. Bill Frieder for all his flaws was a great recruiter, Steve Fisher was a great relationship builder and Beilein was a brilliant identifier of unpolished gems on the recruiting trail as well as an amazing X's and O's coach.
And now we're in the NIL/transfer portal era where a whole new set of skills are required to construct and maintain the roster. And as we all know Michigan isn't that receptive to undergrad transfers.
TL;DR The Michigan job looks tailor made for success but is deceptively challenging in the current environment.
As for McDermott--as I wrote on another thread yesterday I searched and couldn't find anything about how big his contract buyout is after his recently signed extension. And Sam implied on the Roundtable that it's not sky high so maybe it's worth knocking on his door and making him say No Thanks.
But I think we want a younger up and comer who has a demonstrated 3-5 year track record of success in the new college basketball environment. My bet would be on Darian DeVries but I'm just guessing.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:04 AM ^
I would normally agree with you on the "up and comer" (that's what she said), but I think the situation right now calls for a proven, steady hand.
McDermott probably has 5-7 years left. Pay him a ton of money and work with him to bring in someone as part of a succession plan. "Hey, Mr. Up and Comer, you can work with me for 2 or 3 years to bring the progam back to where it needs to be...and then I'll hand over the keys to you."
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:08 AM ^
Well...not so coincidentally DeVries was one of McDermott's assistants for many years at Creighton before his successful head coaching gig at Drake. So the "hand over the keys" part is sort of baked into a prospective DeVries hire at Michigan.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:08 AM ^
McDermott's buyout is $20M.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:12 AM ^
Where did you find this information? Creighton is a private institution and generally not subject to FOIs so it would be difficult to know unless you've got inside info. OTOH if it's true, or even close to true, it makes hiring him a non-starter at Michigan.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:14 AM ^
No it’s not. He has a small buyout, which is odd given he just signed an extension.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:21 AM ^
Source?
If you guys want Archie Miller 2.0 you are going to be greatly disappointed and the rebuild will take a lot longer.
This program can’t take a roll the ball out coach and that’s Dusty.
BTW keep an eye on Dayton’s coach. He is firmly in the mix
Anthony Grant is more likely to retire than be Michigan's next coach.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:19 AM ^
He gets an interview when his run is over per my source inside All Ohio Red. Guess we will see.
Also I don’t want him either. So I’m not just saying it because I think it should be him
May would be a good hire. See people complaining about his offense. Systems and coaches evolve. More about how he takes care of other stuff.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:02 AM ^
I'm only a fan of established power 5 coaches right now. Taking a flier on a coach coming from less experience or a lower conference after having Juwan is not my idea of a good hire.
I've got McDermott at the top, followed by Tang/Pope/Matta/etc.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:05 AM ^
But . . . Thad Matta is a troll.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:09 AM ^
A goblin, to be precise
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:07 AM ^
And a helluva coach when he's healthy
March 23rd, 2024 at 12:24 PM ^
Yeah I’m surprised Mattas name hasn’t been brought up yet. He’s only 56 oddly enough, and was elite at Ohio State. His tenure flamed out because of his back problems, but if he’s back and coaching again then he’s presumably gotten that appropriately treated. I would definitely call him and gauge his interest level.
And what if none of those four guys want the job?
Take a look at who has gotten hired at P5 jobs around the country. It’s mostly mid-major guys and assistants.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:18 AM ^
The main issues with all these candidates is that none of them are in a bad situation nor are they underperforming
The UM job right now is a very hard draw, that would lively require a 5 year highly guaranteed deal sweetened up to attract a replacement.
Difficult to attract a decent coach wanting to overhaul a program.
Haller did it for MSU with the Smith hire, and he kept the $ sane this time
Hopefully one of these guys will take on the challenge for the money and the Michigan brand.
Warde better have some secret abilities none of us know of!
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:46 AM ^
It’s a top 20 job, yes last year was bad…but you can win BIG here! No sane coach is staying at FAU, JMU, Drake or Northwestern if Michigan is calling
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:10 AM ^
THIS IS MICHIGAN FERGODSAKES!
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:18 AM ^
Chris Collins has dine well. He’s the best of what “they” say is available. I believe the lack of a broader pool is due to Wards and the BS that is associated with him.
March 23rd, 2024 at 10:20 AM ^
Please quit blaming Warde. This isn’t on Warde.
No one has noticed how much NIL in football has improved in a little time?? Warde was supposedly the issue we were told all year. Maybe just maybe it wasn’t Warde on NIL.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:00 AM ^
Not blaming anything on Warde, have never played that.
We have simply have little evidence that he has the skill set to sell buy-in with a coaching search.
This tournament shows there are plenty of decent coaches out there with good schemes and roster building abilities.
Half of the Tournament teams have very small NIL war chests.
March 23rd, 2024 at 11:10 AM ^
It was warde.
Not disagreeing but where has it improved? We haven’t landed any major players under Sherrone as head coach yet. Both Harbaugh and Warde both said it was transformational and not transactional. Remains to be seen on NIL. If football starts landing elite talent then I’ll say basketball needs to step up