Dizzy Thoughts on Yak
Good evening my fellow mellow m-go-people,
I wanna talk about Yak, 'cause I think some of y'all might be sleeping on him as a candidate.
Let's begin by remembering that it wasn't John Beilein's offensive genius that got Michigan to the Sweet 16 this year. Give credit where credit is due. Without our "defensive coordinator," how many wins does this team get?
If I'm Warde Manuel, I'm going right to Luke Yaklich with the job, and here's why:
- We have proof that he can coach.
Just look at the defense since he's been here. How many current coaches do you think are better defensive minds than him right now? I believe the word you are looking for is, "none."
In-game coaching matters. Not many can call a better defense then Luke Yaklich. Certainly none of the other candidates being considered right now.
- He can recruit.
He has shown to be an excellent recruiter in his time here. Not only will he likely remain a great recruiter, but we would also be better able to hold this class together and maintain continuity in the recruiting world. I think this is more valuable than many might think, given that Michigan isn't willing to recruit with cash. Relationships are extremely important; they start early and take a lot of time. Coaching transitions kill recruiting.
- He is clean.
He was a John Beilein assistant. He is clean.
If you don't think he's "qualified," go read his bio at the mothership. Sometimes people are just in charge of things for no reason. Sometimes traditional paths don't apply to extremely talented people.
If John Beilein believed in him enough to give him the keys to the defense, Yaklich is probably smart enough to know his limitations on offense. Good thing X is the starting point guard.
Stay safe y'all. It's crazy out there. Time's like these we best stick together.
Peace.
I think you meant Commieberry.
Yaklich is probably the best candidate after the shoot for the moon candidates.
Being "clean" is a negative for me at this point. Just don't cover up rape or other victim crimes and we good !
Agreed. I think you shoot for Donovan who's most likely to come from the elite category. If not, I'd rather see continuity with the program. The worst option will be settling for an average outside coach because we were too late to get in on the good ones. We may end up losing Washington if Yaklich was hired though. Currently Washington outranks Yaklich.
Do you think there is any real chance at Mark Few? I don't know why for sure I think it, but it seems he would fit in well at Michigan. I am sure Michigan has the money to pay him well enough to leave Gonzaga---if he does want to leave. I looked it up, and I am in disbelief about it, but Mark Few is the 61st highest paid coach in the NCAA, and about $1.77 million. Michigan could put him into the top 10.
link to coaches pay: https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball/coach/
He seems to be a lifer at Gonzaga. I mean we assumed the same thing for Beilein so it's possible Few could come. He's said before he didn't accept offers from bigger programs earlier because he didn't want to uproot his family. Not sure if that is still an issue or his kids are grown up enough that isn't a factor anymore.
Beilein had never stayed in a job for longer than like 5 years before he came to Michigan. It's actually a miracle he stayed for that long considering that he was a career ladder climber.
Few, on the other hand, started his coaching career at Gonzaga as graduate assistant 30 years ago and has been there his entire career.
I think he would be an excellent hire. I like his style, he's seems to be clean, he's "only" 56.
But yeah, is he a Gonzaga lifer? That's the question. I imagine he is since no one has been able to pry him away but worth making the call.
I understand. But his wife is a factor. It's 2000 miles from Spokane to Ann Arbor.
The Q score of my name is about to skyrocket!
God hath given us a prophet, and he cometh in the form of an anonymous message board user.
Billy Donovan.
Mark Few.
The guy at Loyola doesn't want to leave. Maybe Few doesn't want to either.
No other names as of now flip my cookies. By to morrow I'll think of a couple.
The "guy at Loyloa" shouldn't have his name attached to this search in any way shape or form. What an unmitigated disaster that would be.
You try for Stevens, Donovan, Wright, Few, Beard, Bennett, and Mack. If they all say no then give the job to Yaklich. These others guys getting mentioned are doing nothing for me.
Whatever the case, I'd be feeling better about the whole process if James Hackett was still the AD.
Damn right
I hadn't considered the buyouts before, but some of these options become unlikely when facing the amount of money Michigan would have to shell out for them.
Bennett - $19 mil
Beard - $12 mil
Mack - $12 mil
Wright and Few reportedly have no buyouts attached to them.
Also, I don't see why Bennett, Beard, and Mack would leave where they are.
Few and Donovan I can see reasons. Though Few has a very good thing going at Gonzaga.
This is 1000% wrong. Chris Beard's buyout is $3 million for non Big 12 teams and Bennett's is only $750K.
If Bennett leaves for another job (for those who believe he's a potential UCLA candidate), he owes Virginia only $750,000. The initial "Termination by the Coach" fee was $3 million but dropped to $1 million on March 16, 2018, and drops $250,000 each following year.
Beard's deal, which starts at $4.2 million, features a buyout after the first year that's worth $3 million -- double that for a Big 12 school -- sources told SportsDay's Chuck Carlton.
My mistake. I was using this link as my source. Didn't realize school buyout meant what the school would have to pay to get rid of a coach.
Hiring Yak also helps in the short term as it basically guarantees us keeping Jalen Wilson in the class (not sure Bajema's relationship with Yak)
Sweet 16, meh. It was John Beilein's offense that made the title game in 2013 and the elite 8 the following year. Maybe I'm in the minority here but I don't give a shit about defense in basketball, just score a shit ton of points and make it rain from 3.
Yak has been a great assistant here but it was Beilein who turned us from doormat to one of the top programs of the past decade. I just don't see Yak as the guy who takes us to the next level. Longshots or not, guys like Stevens, Donovan and Few have to be called. And will be called. We've landed a longshot before. We're not Villanova, Duke or UNC but c'mon, you don't think we can land a better coach than Yak?!
Seems odd to me that Manuel would say he's gonna conduct a national search just to hire an in-house assistant. I get that Hackett landed Harbaugh for us, but not sure why all the concern over Manuel and this coaching search. Did I miss a major fuck up on his part in hiring coaches?
"Maybe I'm in the minority here but I don't give a shit about defense in basketball, just score a shit ton of points and make it rain from 3."
I can't believe you typed this out...
This tells me you haven't paid attention to things like Ken Pom, Bart Torvik, or Sagarin.
Tell me the last college team to win a National Championship without a quality (re: very good to great) defense.
Yea, Yaklich’s defense could never lead Michigan to a title-game appearance!
/s
My concern is/was that placing so much effort into the defense took away energy for the offense. I don't know if we simply couldn't shoot this year, but we really struggled in that category.
Hey, I went over 10,000 points, whoo!
You didn't miss any major fuckups from Manual, but you also didn't miss any major hires - because he hasn't made any. Mel Pearson (hockey) was about nothing more than letting Red work with his friend and not fucking it up. Kevin Ollie wrote his own contract after UConn's tourney win. He has made zero big time coaching hires, anywhere, as an AD. His greatest asset is experience in administration and staying out of the way.
While at UM he's done virtually nothing of note. Yes, he finalized (and extended) Harbaugh's contract, and also extended Beilein (lotta good that did...). He's made some decent hires for supporting sports. But for big time stuff? Not even crickets can be heard... Couple that with the reported short list he had last year when Beilein courted the Pistons (Porter Moser led the list).
This is why the concern over his decision making is so great.
If we cant land someone like Billy Donovan, Chris Beard, or Jay Wright then Ill take Yaklich over pretty much all others
Yaklich is a safe bet. His defense has proven to be successful and he knows Beileins offense so our players wont have to undergo some radical overhaul
Jalen Wilson said he wants a coach he is familiar with and I assume he is familiar with Yak
How is he a “safe bet”? He is one of the bigger question marks on the list. As I stated before, Yaklich is a good coach but hell he's only done it for 2 seasons. He has good defensive personnel as well. We would be going from hiring a guy from a power conference who had made an Elite 8 and a Sweet 16 in Beilein when he came here. To then hiring a guy who has been an ASSISTANT at the major college level for 2 seasons. And this program far more attractive now than it was back then.
Bringing in very good recruiting classes and playing great defense is a recipe that will win a lot of games. We know Yaklich can deliver on both. On top of that, Beilein has created a phenomenal culture, and the continuity factor should not go understated.
People are making a big deal about his resume and lack of head coaching experience, but he very well might be a future star that just hasn't had a head coaching opportunity to show it yet. I know this isn't an apples to apples comparison, but in 2007 people thought Harbaugh didn't have enough experience to replace Lloyd Carr. Looking back now the right move would have been to get in early on a great coaching talent.
Lincoln Riley and Sean McVay were 33 and 30 when they were hired to be head coaches after being offensive coordinators for just a few seasons. Head-coaching experience is a plus, but not an end-all, be-all. Tommy Amaker was a head coach before he got to Michigan. Even took Seton Hall to the NCAA tournament. How’d that work?
Bill Belichik was fired by the Browns. What are your examples proving? Yaklich could work out, but so too could plenty of others. Can Yaklich recruit elite players? We got Iggy because of Stauskas’ success under JB.
Manuel needs to pursue an elite recruiter who can pull in Top 15 players, routinely.
I am going to guess that Top 15 players only come if you are willing to do things that are not ethical.
I don’t think paying someone for their talent is unethical.
Patrick Beilein buyout should be cheap
Patrick needs a little experience in D1 before being a head coach at Michigan. I think Patrick will be a good hire years down the road after this next coach (Whoever it is)
Lets try moving away from guys who have not done at a thing at the D1 level just because they once had a job at Michigan or their Daddy was the coach there at one time.
A bit presumptuous to title your posts after yourself. I thought Dizzy Thoughts was slang for drunk message boarding.
I agree.
If Yaklich were an assistant coach at another school, I could see the hesitation about hiring him. After all, like Matt Patricia, you would wonder how much of his success was due to him vs. the coach, if his system could translate to Michigan and their players, if he could win now vs. rebuilding, etc. But we don’t have that here. We know that Michigan’s defense, ranked 3rd in 2018 and 2nd in 2019 and the driving force behind the team’s success during that span, including their Final Four appearance, was 100% him. Michigan under Beilein had never done better than 37th before he arrived.
Outside of guys who will never in a million years come here, any hire is going to be risky. Having a near guarantee that one half of the team is going to be elite mitigates that risk substantially. Everyone else will be an unknown on both sides of the ball. He’s 43, super smart, doesn’t need bag men to do well, knows the players and recruits, has a high ceiling, etc. He would be a great pick.
I was going to write something along these lines, and you said it much better than I would have. I would be happy if they hire Yaklich.
+1 to you
How do you know he doesn’t need bag men to do well? That’s a faulty premise, since he’s never been a head coach in D1. You start off with the supposition that it is difficult to determine how much a factor in success assistants play, the unknowable, but then you end your tome by making a huge leap into knowing Yaklich will be successful.
1) I know he doesn’t need bag men to do well because he’s had top-3 defenses each of the last two seasons without the need of bag men.
2) Yaklich isn’t like most assistants. Beilein was very open about the fact that he turned the defense 100% over to him. We can positively know that it was all him.
Who is Dizzy and why do they think their endorsement carries weight with anyone?
Some of you clearly do not think the Michigan basketball job is a valuable job.
Love Yak but sorry that guy isn’t ready for this type of job with no head coaching experience. Plus Saddi would be the choice over him if they are going assistants.
If Moser is the guy Warde needs to be fired immediately
Call the elite long shots (Stevens, Wright, Donovan, Bennett, Beard) and if none have interest, turn to Yak/Saddi.
I'd move to guys like Buzz Williams, Steve Prohm, Mike Young, White from Florida before I go the assistants route. The assistant route is lazy imo.
Kim Barnes Arico.
Has Michigan ties, has been a head coach, does not have a buyout.
Kim Barnes Arico.
Has Michigan ties, has been a head coach, does not have a buyout.
Yaklich doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. How can we verify that he exists at all?
Wait a moment....my sister has a page but I don't. Does that mean.....oh dear.....*bangs head on desk, just as a test*
I rather go with Ed Cooley from Providence. His record is very good and has improved almost every year. WM knows him from his days at UConn.