Interesting podcast from Ant Wright on the Juwan Howard hire
Highlights:
Says he will be the biggest Juwan Howard supporter. "A great dude, a UM legend, did great things for the Heat, is lauded by everyone around him, and is rooting for him like no other. Hopes he kills it at Michigan." Juwan needs the fan support badly.
Says UM is a top 10 program currently. "As high as 7 as low as 9."
Thinks Beilein's success scared away a lot of people, as they didn't see it as a good buy in opportunity. If Juwan fails in 3-4 years thinks you could see some big names want the job.
Said Warde Manuel really let him down and that it was underwhelming to have the final candidates be a guy with 1 NCAA win and a guy with zero college or head coaching experience. "The first two shouldn't be a thing at UM. Ed Cooley should have no shot at this job. He used Michigan." Doesn't understand how you can go from Beilein who has coached at every level to a guy with none. "It was an emotional hire, it was nostalgic, I don't care who's endorsing it (Lebron, D-Wade), those are his boys." Nobody knows what his philosophy is, does he know? Is he going to play 3 out 2 in? Blockers and movers? "Who cares if NBA teams wanted him, NBA is about getting guys to play hard and managing egos." Said there are a ton of college coaches who can eat NBA coaches up alive x and o wise but the difference is one can manage egos and the other can't.
"You know whose happier than Michigan fans, the rest of the B1G. Tom Izzo is thrilled." Has a top 5 roster in the B1G returning, so he will be ok next year.
"A lot of people are talking about recruiting but these college coaches can scheme the heck out of things and make all americans look silly." Talent is good, but what you do with it is way more important.
If Juwan doesn't succeed don't point blame at Juwan, blame Warde Manuel for putting him in a situation he wasn't prepared for. "NCAA is a different game halves, quarters, the way timeouts are used, different shot clocks, different talent levels, guys can leave after one year. Stop relating the two." Said Warde "really botched it."
"Anyone wants to bring up Penny Hardaway label them a casual and keep it moving. They know nothing. Google bluff city legends. He's been on the AAU circuit for years. He's been doing his due diligence and put himself in the perfect position to recruit at a high level."
This was a big topic. "Don't you find it interesting how so many people are concerned about keeping Yaklich? If that's your main concern you picked the wrong person." It should not matter what he does if you have your guy. No matter who the assistants are he has to trust them. "Juwan Howard is a crazy smart dude but you can't play NBA ball college or you will get eaten alive. There are counters, there's a zone you have to counter that, there are so many things that have to be done on the fly and in preparation."
"This was very irresponsible of Warde Manuel. If Juwan Howard never went to Michigan he would not be the coach at Michigan right now. I could sing that in the hills. No head coaching experience, yes it matters. No recruiting experience, yes it matters. No scheming experience or time to work on his philosophy after trial and error. His trial and error is going to come at a top 10 program. What? I hope he succeeds, I'm rooting for him like crazy. I want him to succeed so bad. I'm excited to see where this goes and what happens."
New pod is up.. I talk Juwan Howard for just 30 minutes
— ᗩᑎT ᗯᖇIGᕼT (@ItsAntWright) May 22, 2019
Apple: https://t.co/2PdBZf3ws1
Spotify: https://t.co/CMWuq2GngS
Stu Douglass is kind of a turd
The only one of his podcasts that I've seen is the one he did with Jon Horford, and that was brutal. Both of them are just super negative people about everything. 45 straight minutes of complaining about everything you could possibly imagine.
He hit the dagger in Breslin
Having to rebuild the program in the wake of sanctions might do that to you...
#perspective
How was Stu negatively affected by sanctions? There’s a strong argument he benefited from program collapse and arrived at the perfect moment.
Former Michigan basketball player who is obviously very knowledgeable about the sport and puts a lot of good stuff out on Twitter.
If I recall he came off the bench and hit 4 3s in the first half vs Blake Griffin and OU in the second round of the 09 tournament
we don’t care
So he will be the biggest supporter but spews why this is a bad hire? I didn't listen. Just going by what you are saying.
Izzo can kiss my ass and so can Ant (may be not).
Stop with the hate Maizen. Stop.
Izzo may win but he will never be half the man Howard is. And I will not be surprised if Howard sticks it to him either this year or next.
“Izzo will never be . . . half the man Howard is.” Now, that’s a statement that is literally true.
I hope I’m wrong but I don’t see Howard ever getting a win against Izzo. Probably just recency bias affecting my perception. Probably.
I generally like Ant, but fucking A I'm tired of people acting like Warde Manuel had months to figure this all out. John Beilein officially went to Cleveland 9 days ago. There is a new HC at Michigan, one with decent credentials and a strong chance to succeed, in under 2 weeks. All other reasonably viable candidates were gone and unlikely to want to leave in the middle of a dead period while planning out recruiting isn't an option.
I keep waiting for people to give me a long list of viable options Warde could have spoken to. Fine, maybe he talks to another HC at a middling P5 program but, functionally, none of them are moving the needle. Maybe they should have kicked the tires around Prohm more, but who knows what happened there and maybe he made it clear he wasn't interested.
I think Howard will be a fine HC with a good chance at being better than that.
I think Warde could have handled it better. JB told him he was going to talk with NBA teams and Warde didn’t seem to have the search committee ready to go at a moment’s notice.
But I think we were always going to make a hire that couldn’t satisfy everyone. We were in a strange period to hire a coach. All the coaches that were an upgrade or equal to JB said no and were unattainable to begin with.
The next tier of coaches - Prohm, Smart etc All made JB money or had massive buyouts. From a business standpoint, why pay JB money for less than JB results, when you could get a potentially good coach for about half the money? I don’t think Cooley was really a serious candidate. I am fine with him getting an interview, but if he was a serious candidate he would have been offered the job and he would have taken it.
Again, he had the position filled in under 10 days. He got a search committee basically in place within 2-3 days. If you think the quality of an AD is defined in a day or two that's fine, but that feels needlessly pedantic to me.
I don't believe that Cooley was a take when he interviewed, but he was likely a top-3 choice at least. I certainly wouldn't have been excited with him, but if Howard and (I assume) Yak bombed the interview process then at the bare minimum you'll get a guy who can more often than not make the tourney and get some talent in the door. Again, not setting the world on fire but certainly better than an Elerbe-type.
Beyond that, you look around and who else is reasonably out there? Do you want Smart, with a massive buyout and middling results, at a price above Beilein? Prohm who knows, but sometimes guys just don't want to jump at a weird time. I think there are legit concerns about Howard, but there are also a ton of signs that this is a future big-time coach who can succeed and grow. I don't think he stays at UM forever; my guess is he's pretty successful and then jumps to the NBA in 6-7 years. But that's okay. It's a good problem to have.
Sam Webb had a copy of Smart's contract and read his buyout clause aloud on the air this morning. He had to pay his assistants one year's salary, to be reduced if they found other jobs. One spot's open already. It could work out to zero.
Jordan has the big buyout, although no one seems to know the exact number, it's likely a ways over $4M. He probably would have cost more than Smart, even if he commanded a lower salary.
I think there were several mid major coaches that I’d take over Cooley in a heart beat - Scott Nagy and Matt McMahon to name a few. Not home runs to be sure, but I like their potential better than Cooley’s.
I don’t have a problem with Warde in this. But to many, it appeared he was caught off guard. And perception matters. Especially to top tier candidates.
"To many" by which you mean fans who have no idea. There is simply no evidence visible to any of us that he was caught off guard.
You don't go around preparing a search committee for a guy that is coaching your team that you want to remain there. You just don't. Until he makes it clear that he's leaving, you support him and you keep rolling with him.
A 9-day process to fill the roll from a standing start is really good. People are complaining only because they want to complain about something, and the things people are stretching for to complain about are ridiculous.
Perhaps Ant says more in his podcast, I don't know. But none of the quotes here suggest that he has any ideas for what should have been done better. No names. No arguments for why someone like, say, Prohm is so much more of an obvious choice.
Nobody really does. People are mad because... Michigan didn't try to hire Tony Bennett, whom Michigan has zero chance of hiring? Jay Wright, whom Michigan has zero chance of hiring? C'mon.
This isn't an A-plus hire. But I don't think there are any "A" hires on the table. It's a B hire when the teacher has told you that you will not get a grade higher than a B in any event.
Warde didn’t seem to have the search committee ready to go at a moment’s notice.
We announced Turnkey as our search firm in what, 24 hours?
Anyone from outside the search who says that the job was between Cooley and Howard is talking out of their ass. Cooley knew immediately after his interview he wasn't getting the job. He wanted it known he was getting an interview so he could snag a raise. Good for him, good for him to get some outlets to report that he "spurned" Michigan. And to get word floated that he'd get $6M/year. Does anyone really believe those?
He was somewhere on Warde's list, but it wasn't #2.
I 100% believe Cooley figured he'd get a raise from Providence as a result; it was definitely obvious he wasn't getting an offer with at least Howard and maybe Jordan still be to interviewed. The kid being played on Twitter sorta sealed that.
At the same time, a guy who took Providence to the tournament 5 times in a row, a streak they hadn't seen in decades, wouldn't have been a terrible choice. My guess is he was around Yak, but if Howard passed or blew the interview then absolutely he would have bubbled back up. Providence absolutely over-reacted, but I also don't think Providence agrees to an extension that quickly if there wasn't some fire around all that smoke.
In the end, Michigan got the guy that (I think) makes the most sense for them.
I'll argue Warde should have had an ear to the ground and been back channel investigating ever since the dalliance with the pistons last year.
The fact there were NBA teams interviewing Juwan for their head coaching positions tells us that he is respected around the league and considered a good leader. Those guys do basketball for a living, and they should have some idea of what makes a good coach (other than, obviously, having LeBron or KD or Giannis or the like on your roster), Yeah, college is different, but if Juwan was good enough to catch the eyes of NBA guys, I bet he is good enough to adapt to the college game.
I enjoy Ant Wright as a twitter troll. As a basketball analyst? Nah. He also thinks Yoder isn’t all that bad, so Ant’s opinions should be taken with a grain of salt.
Yea what was the deal with him throwing props to Yoder?! I dont even twitter but I use links and read posts and I happened to see that post he made re: Yo-numbnuts-der.
Because Yoder called out Sam and guys at the paysites. He claims they were acting like certain guys were a shoe-in for the job and were leading the race, but none of them pegged Juwan as the hire until late.
I am so pumped love the hire Go Blue!
Did he even recommend who he would hire (realistically)?
I’m thinking he would rather have Shaka Smart
He would hire Jesus. Make him leave the right hand of God to go someplace better and cast down the evil bag men, minions of Satan. Make sure Michigan wins in Miraculous fashion. "No, Thank You" is not an acceptable answer.
Haters are pathetic. Never forget that.
Loser
I'm confused. Who was he endorsing for the job?
And way too hard on Manuel...Once again we are reminded that great coaches don't grow on trees and that Beilein left us at a bad time.
I thought the two best candidates were Steve Prohm & Nate Oates but we were too late for Oates and who knows if Prohm was contacted. Smart - meh , he isn't exactly tearing it up at Texas and neither is Jordan at Butler.
The guy who compiled this record has gotten a fair number of mentions around here, but wasn't interviewed. Is this a "must hire" resume?
Year Overall Conf Conf spot Postseason
2015-16 23–12 10–8 T–5th NCAA sweet 16
2016-17 24–11 12–6 T–2nd NCAA round of 32
2017-18 13–18 4–14 10th No NCAA tournament
2018-19 23–12 9–9 5th NCAA round of 64
Please post up Juwan’s coaching resume in the same timeframe for reference.
JB never made it for the final 4 at WV, not sure why Michigan even looked at him.
Because Michigan wasn’t good back then.
That was actually sarcasm.
Beilein's last three seasons were Elite 8, Sweet Sixteen, and NIT champs (with a 27-9 season record), which is a bit more impressive than the other guy. In terms of conference record, Beilein was a bit better than the other guy, although not by much.
My post wasn't purposed to waive off Howard's lack of HC experience; it was to look at the record of a guy that Brian and others have frequently suggested merits a strong look. It's a good resume, but it's not one that IMHO screams he has to be #1 on the list.
My 2 cent - Ant speaks about the NBA being a different beast in relation to college. That coaches must know Xs and Os......how exactly would he know seeing as though he hasn’t played in the NBA?
Frankly, he’s unqualified to on the NBA. Additionally he’s really stretching it if he thinks college coaches>NBA coaches in terms of Xs and Os.
My gut tells me this is really a political campaign in Beilein’s favor, as he’s a known advocate. He’s essentially insulted that people think the program can be successful without Coach Beilein.....particularly because Beilein and Howard are drastically different on paper.
Matt I saw on twitter you thought Howard would be a big recruiting win for U-M. Can you expound on that more here? Thanks.
Try this on, he’s from Chicago and is well respected there and on the AAU circuit. He actually was a part of the recruiting process as a blue chip player. He has high character and a great work ethic. Big name NBA players have publicly endorsed him. I think Coach Howard will relate to recruits and land some great ones. Next question?
He’s who played in the nba for years, after being a big time college player, after being a big time high school player. He’s also black, which franklin has proven helps with some recruits.
What part of that makes you think he’s going to suck?
Have you heard anything yet from any 2019 or 2020 prospects on how they view the hire?
"Don't you find it interesting how so many people are concerned about keeping Yaklich? If that's your main concern you picked the wrong person."
I don't agree with this. I want to keep Yaklich because he made a huge impact on our team. Even if we had any other coach, I would want to keep Yaklich on staff. He took our defense from being in the mid 30s to being 2nd and 3rd in the country. I want to keep Yaklich because he is one of the best or the best defensive assistant in the country, not because I don't trust Juwan
Well said. I mean JB is an HoF coach and he still needed Yak on staff to get the team where it was.
Termite Left wants a piece of this.
Wright is fishing for clicks and listens, but at the end of the day, doesn't know shit!
Hello Anthony is that you??
dude is a decent follow on twitter but I muted his ass for this Juwan stuff. It just got to be too much of him bitching back & forth with people.
then he talks up a fraud of Yoder? You lost me there. Bye Felicia
Who the fuck cares what ant wright thinks? His opinion carries about as much weight as Aunt Bee or the Wright Brothers.
I see the end of the coaching search is bringing out the absolute best in everyone. Yes, that means you, too.
Read halfway through this before I scrolled back up and saw it was a maizen post, then quit reading. Dude. We get it. You hate this hire and most every decision made by the personnel of the athletic department.
God, I wish there was a way to tell who started a post.