Coach bits Day 5
Piecing together some info from 247 and Rivals...
Yaklich met with Manuel yesterday for an interview. This could have been about the head coaching job or sweetening the pot to stay on as an assistant. Texas insiders believe he's going to accept an offer as an assistant there. Balas concurs that's the likely scenario. Webb says that is too premature right now.
Right now Howard and Jordan are the only two scheduled to interview and Warde should have a decision by next week. If Jordan staff would likely be Meyer, Haynes, and Saddi. Jordan has a complicated buyout
The hope is that if Howard is hired 5 star Jaden McDaniels becomes a slam dunk for Michigan. He's down to Kentucky and Washington currently.
Zeb Jackson would have to be re-recruited and he hopes some of the current assistants stay on.
Sounds like we'll have a coach by the middle of next week and it will be either Juwan Howard or LaVall Jordan.
One more thing. seems like Jalen Wilson is tethered to Luke Yaklich. So if he's kept on by Howard or whoever the next coach is that would be big for keeping him.
which one will you complain about less so I know who to root for
I can’t wait for the Sparty mental gymnastics to somehow turn this in to a big ploy to get Jaden McDaniels.
”They actually fired Beilein!”
They are already saying that. No mental gymnastics, just saying it’s a “Michigan thing.”
I am happy that I don’t live in Michigan and don’t have to deal with the goofy sparty stuff.
Yaklich is interviewing with Texas. Warde has told Yaklich depending on which route they go that if Yaklich ends up not getting the head coaching position, then he will match whatever offer he gets at Texas. Or anywhere else for that matter.
No insider has said this at all.
You would know as you have nothing better to do than F5 recruiting websites all day.
Maybe an outsider?
That’s fine. I completely understand if you don’t want to believe me. I honestly don’t care. I’m just trying to share what I’ve heard. I will also point out that I said the first day that Juwan would definitely get an interview, as well as the fact that they had already reached out to Billy, among other things.
Serious question, no pause at all of Juwann Howard’s involvement with the Fab 5 scandal? In this age of scrutiny by the public it’s a little surprising to me that he’s named a candidate without any mention of this as at least a PR concern? OSU found gems in Matta and Holtmann at the expense of the strong mid major programs. Matta’s nose dive in recruiting directly parallels his back injury. He just couldn’t travel like he used to or coach for that matter. Most of his recruiting success was from the AAU circuit. That dried up in 2011 when the big bag men took over. Matta couldn’t compete with the bigger bagmen of UK, KU, Duke, NC, Villanova. Unfortunately his success led to him staying at least 2 years too long. The nail in the coffin was losing a entire recruiting class from 14-15.
It seems like Yaklich is gone. I really hope Howard can somehow retain him.
We don't know that Howard would even want to keep anyone. It makes sense to us but he may want to coach defense in a more traditional way or have other dudes in mind.
Picking jordan and Meyer over Yaklich is simply an error.
I think the thought is Yaklich leaving on his own accord, not that Val wouldn’t keep him.
Picking jordan and Meyer over Yaklich is simply an error.
Meyer is not coming back to Michigan if Jordan is hired. His decision to leave Michigan was not entirely business related, and I'll leave it at that.
sounds like texas is trying to play some games... get us to panic and look at shaka. there's no way we dont counter to keep yak
can you imagine if we finished mcdaniels, wagner and wilson recruiting wise
Would Yak really uproot the fam to be an assistant for coach on the hotseat? Doesn’t seem ideal.
Is Smart actually on the hot seat? I don't know what expectations are at Texas in regards to basketball.
Texas would owe a ton of money to Smart if they fired him, but he's also making over $3M a year to not win an NCAA tourney game in 4 years. Rick Barnes wasn't fantastic, but he made the tourney more times than not.
I agree under normal circumstances but look at it the other way, right now he’s in a situation where he hoping the new coach wants to keep him. Neither are ideal situations
Because he might not have a job at Michigan when a new coach is hired.
Or is Yak the one playing the game by interviewing there to position himself for either a big raise or a shot at the main gig?
No shot at him there but that's how the coaching ladder is climbed.
Chris Balas said that Yaklich might accept the Texas job before interviews start on Tuesday. But by all means keep taking your sweet old time Warde.
ya, because i'm sure warde isn't in constant contact with yak and the other assistants right now. give it a rest.
Just like he was in constant contact with John Beilein after Beilein told him he was interviewing with NBA teams and that they "need to catch up." Warde sent 1 text message to Beilein in the following 11 days and then left for the Cavs. But by all means continue to believe what you want.
Yaklich will interview with Texas and Warde has already told him they will match whatever Texas offers. So if Yak leaves it won’t be because Michigan hasn’t already told him they want him around and will competitively pay him whatever it takes.
Gotta take everything with a grain of salt especially Chris Balas saying people “might” do a thing.
Of course Yak wants that out there if he wants to make more money/get more guarantees/be considered for the HC position.
If Texas was his preference he’d have said yes already. Doubt he moves on anything before hearing back from Michigan.
We should do everything we can to keep Yak regardless of how the next head coach is. Dude has proven his worth. Open up the damn checkbook Warde and make it happen.
Meh. It’s the new coaches call. Yak is an awesome coach, but a staff is all about fit with the head coach.
Sorry but losing Yaklich would the height of incompetence.
Sorry but losing Yaklich would the height of incompetence.
The idea that you predicate your head coaching hire on retaining an assistant who probably has aspirations of being a head coach soon is just plain silly bordering on dumb.
Dumb would be the idea that you would just let the architect of the best defenses in kenpom history at UM who is also a great recruiter walk out the door because it's taking you forever to hire a basketball coach.
It's day 5 - not "forever" - give it a rest. You've never hired someone apparently, let alone for an important position. If Michigan hired someone within a week it would be fairly miraculous.
Sorry but losing Yaklich would the height of incompetence.
If Yak is so irreplaceable, than we need to make him the head coach.
While I prefer Yak stay, if we get someone above the Yak line, which I certainly consider Juwan to be, then losing him is a risk I think we should all be happily willing and prepared to do.
Do you actually wonder why people think your an insufferable asshole? Look at this post and wonder no more. Your concern trolling over everything is tiresome. Everyone was super impressed with how good you’ve been lately and I knew it would be no time before you decided your opinion is more important than everyone else’s, including athletic directors and head coaches. You can’t change. You’re a troll. Beilein should be fired. Harbaugh can’t recruit because he has had one class outside the top 10. Warde is incompetent because he hasn't hired a homerun replacement for the best coach in Michigan history in under 1 week. I’m excited for you to get banned again or just go silent after Harbaugh wins a national championship next year. Fuck off Maizen
If we get Howard AND Jaden McDaniels that would certainly soften the blow of losing Wilson.
On an unrelated note, it makes me happy to hear that Lavall would keep much of the current staff intact if he were hired. I hope Juwan would do the same.
There's a lot of guessing in the OP. Real info is hard to come by in a coaching search.
How could there be any news about who LaVall would have on staff? He hasn't interviewed and it's hard to imagine him talking about it now. I honestly don't see how anyone else could know, but most of us can make logical guesses.
Dear 1201,
I don't really have anything against you but I will be super excited when Michigan hires a new coach. Then hopefully you will sit the fuck down and shutup.
Love,
Darker Blue
No he won't. I wish he would, but yeah. Nope.
Can you imagine if Howard wins a title here? Maizen would take credit for it because he called for Beilein’s head 3 years ago.
The case for Yaklich; Tireless work effort, attention to detail, motivational, good recruiter, connects with the kids, instills discipline, quick study, learned under Beilein, well respected, top defense remains intact, knows the team, knows the recruits, knows Michigan, student of the game, understands the statistical values, integrity, probably stays for a decade.
Every decision has risk. The upside here seems significant.
It’s really interesting that a major program with two recent NC game appearances, multiple deep tourney runs, and two recent conference championships under its belt is apparently down to just two candidates, one of whom has never been a head coach with the other having a distinctly unimpressive record in his only stint as HC.
Maybe Howard or Jordan have the chops to be a successful HC here, but if neither of them had any connection to Michigan, I doubt their on-court record would get them any serious consideration.
I get why elite guys like Donovan, Stevens, Few, etc might not be interested, but that strata of coaching isn’t the only layer Michigan can look at.
If U-M was a second-rate academic institution with a limited budget located in a shithole town, it might be a bit more understandable, but the opposite is the case. It’s hard for me to believe there are *no* accomplished coaches around the country with strong HC records and a reasonable degree of integrity who would jump at the chance to come here.
Bet very few coaches are interested in "following" a guy that had all that tourney success with low ranked classes.
I’ve wondered if that’s part of it— the “nobody wants to follow a legend” thing. I don’t view Beilein as a legend, but from the outside his record is pretty damn good. Are people scared off because they think they won’t be able to recruit the kind of players they’re accustomed to?
I shared some of the same sentiments discussed and was getting frustrated that we haven’t had someone with a proven track record be mentioned or even interviewed and then it hit me. Warde’s pitch to these coaches is trying to maintain the culture JB has established and that’s not going to fly with a top flight coach. That’s why I think that JH and LJ are the two guys right now because they can continue that in some way or another. While JH was never part of JB’s staff his demeanor is very similar. It’ll take me a few days to get over not getting the big name coach but if it’s one of these guys I’ll be fine with it.
The restrictions on recruiting methods have got to be a factor for some. So is the difficulty in getting the players you want through admissions. How attractive is a job where you don't think you can recruit as well as your current or former school?
If a coach thinks they could outrecruit Beilein here, that could be a plus. I think the way he left might make Beilein easier to follow. Tougher if had just retired and was still around campus.
Biggest myth of the Beilein era is that he did it with low ranked classes. Sure, he helped develop a lot of under the radar recruits, he had some really quality recruiting classes. From 2011-2016 he went 29-8-14-21-109-31.
And the only year he was outside the top 35, it was because he signed 1 prospect that year. And that was Mo Wagner.
Trey Burke, GR3, Mitch McGary, Zak Irvin, Derrick Walton, Zavier Simpson, Jordan Poole, Iggy, and Brandon Johns were all top 100 recruits.
Stauskas, DJ Wilson, Mo Wagner, and Livers were also consensus 4 stars ranked in the top 125.
In basketball the rankings are skewed towards teams that are consistently replacing 4 or 5 players a year, so classes with a couple players will naturally be lower. Unlike football, class sizes are generally similar, so it will push it down. Really the only players that you'd look at and say Beilein did absolute wonders for is Caris LeVert, MAAR and DBo.
Did he a lot of his players significantly better, and is he one of the best developmental coaches in the country? Yup. Is it true that he was taking middling 3 stars and getting them to the league? Nope.
The timing of this did not help.
Would it have made much of a difference if Beilein had bailed right after the tournament was over, say in early April? Are there guys who might have been available then who aren’t now?