phil marteilli

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Juwan Howard talks to the NBA on TNT. People even like it when he swears on TV!

I'm going to up my swearing to become more popular.

Howard mentions that part of his drive at Michigan is to clear the path for other black head coaches, and it's maybe not a coincidence that the Big Ten has deviated from the coach hiring script this offseason. Before Juwan Howard, the Big Ten had not hired a black men's basketball head coach since Tubby Smith in 2008. This offseason Penn State and Minnesota have given black assistants head coaching jobs.

On the search. Brendan Quinn on the events that led Howard to the head coaching job. Nobody had to cajole Howard into reaching out to Phil Martelli:

Howard had answers. In the days leading up to the interview, he had spoken to friends throughout basketball, gathering opinions. One of them was Kentucky coach John Calipari. “No one really knew it,” Calipari said, “but Juwan was out there doing his own research all along the way.”

That’s why on the Monday before the interview, Phil Martelli, recently dismissed from Saint Joseph’s and on vacation at Disney, got a text message from Calipari saying Howard was going to call. Martelli, fairly confused, said OK. Once the two connected, Howard first asked Martelli to paint a profile of what it takes to be a great head coach at the college level. They talked through it. Then, toward the end of the conversation, Howard gauged Martelli’s interest in serving as his No. 2. “Something like, ‘Would you be interested in taking this journey with me?'” Martelli remembers. Steve Fisher called next. Howard’s former coach at Michigan and the coach of the Wolverines’ 1989 national championship team wanted to double-check that Martelli was legitimately interested in coming aboard with Howard. “Are you serious about doing this?” Fisher asked Martelli. He was.

The article also contains a quote from Grant Hill that adds to the giant pile of Everybody Loves Juwan.

[After THE JUMP: the most famous, period]