Column on structural issues ailing Michigan basketball

When you're in sole possession of 14th place in a conference that hasn't been this weak in years, something is wrong.  Changing a coaching staff is usually easier to implement than other options.  I agree that this team is reminiscent of late Amaker era teams.

The "structural issues" really got bad when Eli Brooks left 

Howards recruiting is awful. The big names he gets leave after 1 year to go ride pine in the NBA. Diabate and Jett are doing nothing in the NBA. Houstan is barely making it. I'm probably missing someone, but I think his only truly good job recruiting was Dug and Hunter. And Hunter was primarily recruited by Beileins staff like Washington and Eisley. Franz doesn't count as that's a Beilein guy.

Michigan sucks for transfers, but at the same time it's Howard's job to go after transfers we can actually get.

Howard is failing in literally every aspect of his job. Michigan could and should get NIL/transfer issues worked out, but with Howard at the helm it won't matter.

Again, there are plenty of strong academic programs out there that have the same NIL and admissions huddles as M does. Yet a lot of those programs look like real basketball teams because they have coaches who know what they are doing. 
 

Howard is a bad college coach  

It seems beyond debate that there are structural problems that hamper the current staff’s performance … but I also think it is clear that they shouldn’t be hampering it THIS much. We still have a vastly more talented roster than McNeese State or Long Beach State (both of whom beat us this year), as well as many other schools who will make the tournament. The same was true last year. The structural problems are there, no doubt. But the bulk of this unbelievable clusterfuck is due to poor coaching. The roster is poorly constructed and the players are apathetic. Howard is openly blaming the players (as if he didn’t recruit and train them), and he generally seems to be flailing. The program appears to be in a tailspin and many, many coaches could do much, much better.

Michigan fans, in both basketball and football, are always convinced that we're at some massive disadvantage against other teams that makes winning a conference championship essentially impossible ... until we do it, repeatedly, at a rate that I assume is equal to or higher than any other program in the Big Ten. 

Seriously. I always wonder if those complaining about our purported disadvantages hear themselves. We can't win because we don't pay our players (or don't pay them enough), or because our academic standards are too high, or because the admissions staff isn't sufficiently pliable, or for God knows what other reason. This goes back at least 55 years — very few here are old enough to remember, but it was accepted as gospel that Michigan simply couldn't compete with Ohio State in football in 1969 ... until Bo came in and did it.

It's whining. And it's lazy. Most importantly, it's wrong. I'm on the record as a supporter of Juwan, and I hope he turns it around. But he's got enough good players on this team to compete — and the failure to have more is not always someone else's fault.

We have two options. Demand success from our coaches and players, or accept mediocrity and move on. But it's nonsensical to claim that a basketball program with a history of success as profound as ours is unable to put together a winning team.  

So why fire Juwan then?

Expectations are going to be low for a while.

A team infamous for blowing leads needs talent enough to take the lead in the first place. Regardless of the slapdash roster construction and institutional obstacles, there is some talent on this team and it is not being properly fostered. That's all Juwan. He's failing in both Xs and Os and psychology; our bench would make an emo convention look upbeat. 

Bullshit. Plenty of teams perform without all that. Everyone claims this team has talent... They aren't being developed. 

I am tired of the complaints regarding Admissions and undergrad transfers. This is the UNIVERSITY of Michigan. They are allowed to set academic standards for admission and for applicable transfer of credits from other institutions.

The coaches of various sports need to understand the standards and the process. It's not that the Admissions people need to understand the various needs of our athletic teams.

Michigan definitely has a lot of barriers to success that aren't coach-related. However this team is far far far worse than the sum of it's parts which is a coaching failure. The roster building has also been atrocious since the start which is at least partially a coaching failure. Up until this year I was fine with sticking with Juwan as his basketball coaching I felt was good he just needed to learn how to run a program and build a roster in the most difficult era for building a roster. But now the actual basketball part sucks too so I see no upside to keeping him around. Let him go back to the NBA and focus on what he's best at.

I know the NIL is a newer thing, but tell how the admissions was different under Beilein? 

I’d wage they would be significantly better defensively with Coach K.  The transfers that got admitted were able to play defense under other coaching staffs.

You need Josh Schertz …someone who can win with shooting and perimeter defense and live without high end athleticism.   The issue with the latter is that they don’t stay long enough to get developed.   If you have the admission standards and NIL issues of Michigan - you need to go back to wide shooting splits, minimal turnovers and limiting giving away defensive rebounds.   That’s what you do if you can’t roll the ball out and win….

Beilein in spite of all of this would have a 20-10 team who played their asses off

We had three draft picks on the team last year for a first round NIT exit.

Beilien could have a team of only walkons and never have a season this bad.

Talent/recruiting is absolutely not the problem.

There is one major structural issue - Warde.  Remove him and things will turn for the better.

Michigan doesn't want to transition into the new model of unlimited NIL enticements, 24/7 free agency, and school as an afterthought if given a thought at all. And I can't blame the institution for not wanting to be associated with that kind of athletic model.

This is a major turning point, where revenue sports become minor league teams branded with college colors. I turn 40 this year and I just don't care anymore. Michigan winning the national championship in football was what I needed to disconnect from college revenue sports. I don't want to be a fan of sports whose model I am unable to defend with a straight face.

What I learn from these threads when talking about credits transferring is most of you never transferred before.
 

I transferred twice due to athletics and lost credits each time. I literally transferred back to the school I started at just to get back majority of my credits honored I received my frosh year.