Searchbits VI: Bunk About Bunk
AT LEAST HE LOOKS LIKE BUNK MORELAND
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[EDIT (Seth): It looks like we got Cooley a raise. He's staying at Providence with a multi-year extension
Staying home. pic.twitter.com/IFB8FbGJmN
— PC Men's Basketball (@PCFriarsmbb) May 21, 2019
Feel free to read the rest of this article as a low-ceilinged future avoided.]
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Ed Cooley moved from the fringes of the search to the dead center of it yesterday. Various media outlets reported that he interviewed with Warde Manuel yesterday, and then a Providence student aspiring to a job in media rushed out to a scoop of questionable veracity:
The rumored deal would be for $6 million.
— Matt St. Jean (@mattstdream) May 21, 2019
That six million dollar number is immediately dubious. What does that even mean? Six million a year? Michigan isn't making Ed Cooley the third-highest paid coach in the country. Six million over any reasonable length of time? Michigan isn't paying Ed Cooley less than Rutgers pays Steve Pikiell.
But when various folks set about debunking the above they picked their words carefully. Sam:
For those asking, I'm told this is premature. I'm told that Warde Manuel is on his way to, or already in Miami for tomorrow's planned meeting with Juwan Howard. Maybe they'll eventually land on Cooley, but they haven't yet. https://t.co/nDOv44As1p
— Sam Webb (@SamWebb77) May 21, 2019
Interviewing a guy is a serious thing.
[After THE JUMP: I'd rather have a question mark.]
THE COOLEY PROBLEM
I don't know how much upside he has. Providence's rotation this year:
- C Nate Watson, 4*, #100 overall, sophomore
- F Alpha Diallo, 4*, #117 overall, junior
- G Isaiah Jackson, George Mason transfer, senior
- G David Duke, 4*, #47 overall, freshman
- G Maliek White, 4*, #127 overall, junior
- G Makai Ashton-Langford, 4*, #41 overall, sophomore
- G AJ Reeves, 4*, #48 overall, freshman
- C Khalif Young, 3*, #398 overall, junior
That's a lineup with a reasonable level of experience and plenty of talent. Those guys finished 164th in offensive efficiency. Providence offensive efficiency the three years prior: 100, 101, 92. Cooley's best offense, and best team, came immediately before that dismal four-year run of bricks. It featured Kris Dunn, a top 20 recruit who was about to be the fifth pick in the draft. That guy sucked up 30% usage and Providence was 42nd in offensive efficiency. They locked down a 6-seed and got bounced in the first round.
John Beilein had a worse offense than that once in the past decade—the team that lost both Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton. Cooley's teams have finished in the top 100 in turnover rate twice, topping out at 44th. After Beilein's first year his worst TO rate at Michigan ranked 38th.
That's eight years at the same program and all the offensive trends are negative. Cooley's teams are drifting increasingly far away from the new college "everyone's Steph Curry" paradigm. 3PA/FGA over the last four years: 128, 185, 291, 273. And they've been horrible bricklayers from three five of the last seven years, with one average season and a single lonely green blip:
Cooley is an outright bad offensive coach. There's no excuse for his results given the talent on hand. I don't know if I can deal with all that red immediately after the Beilein era. Raise your hand if this makes you want to crawl in a hole:
Want to play for Ed Cooley? Toughness is what he wants! (Via CoachTube) pic.twitter.com/iPYBdRPnSx
— NCSA Team Edition (@NCSA_Team) April 29, 2019
Want to get hired by a fictional Michigan led by a sports blogger? Precision is what he wants.
Cooley would clearly be a good recruiter at Michigan, but with the top 20-30 players all but off limits his hypothetical Michigan rosters aren't going to be leaps and bounds better than those he's had at Providence. So why would his offense suddenly become acceptable?
THE DEEP DIVE
Grantland did an embedded reporter thing with Providence's Kris Dunn team, which ended up in a 13-point round one loss to Dayton. Halftime:
Cooley walks in and steps to the whiteboard. “Here’s what’s going to win the game for us,” he says. “No turnovers, finishing, and better transition D. Just be physical around the rim. We’re complaining about not getting calls. Maybe we don’t deserve the calls. Just finish.
“Honestly,” he says, “I don’t see a need for X-and-O adjustments. Our game plan is working. It’s not our defense. It’s our offense.” He goes through a few minor points — avoid fouls, throw crisper passes, drive when you see a lane. “We gotta be attack dogs,” Cooley says, shaking his head a little as he speaks. “We gotta play with that swag. We need some dog in us.”
Yikes.
THE OTHER COOLEY PROBLEM
His name has come up for a reason other than his coaching acumen:
Remember, Michigan search is being run by Gene DeFilippo (Now at Turnkey Sports) — who was the AD at Boston College when Ed Cooley was an assistant and the Eagles had it rolling. Cooley was at BC from 1997-2006 and DeFilippo was the AD from 1997-2012.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 20, 2019
DeFilippo fired Al Skinner, the head coach when BC "had it rolling" with seven bids in ten years. BC has not had a bid in the nine years since. Skinner's replacement, Steve Donahue, had a Wile E Coyote season the year after Skinner left and then went 9-22, 16-17, and 8-24 before getting fired himself.
So Cooley's name comes up in part because a former BC athletic director who made an incompetent hire knows him. He's no less of a who-you-know hire than Juwan Howard.
THE OTHER OTHER COOLEY PROBLEM
Think of this poor woman.
My mother just reminded me that I literally have the words Heart and Soul in Ed Cooley’s handwriting TATTOOED ON MY BODY
— Courtney Buohl (@courtneybueller) May 21, 2019
I sincerely hope there are no Michigan fans with "We had subs, it was crazy" tattooed on their bodies.
THE INFECTION
We're contagious.
PROVIDENCE — Is Ed Cooley a Providence Man?
Officials at Providence College and Friar fans are about to find out just how wedded Cooley is to the hometown job that he’s elevated to unprecedented levels over the last eight seasons. Cooley has had contact with representatives of the University of Michigan regarding its vacant basketball coaching job and one source close to the situation termed the state of affairs as “fluid.”
Providence doesn't have football, at least.
TODAY IS JUWAN DAY
Juwan Howard is preferable to Cooley. Any NBA system is going to be closer to Beilein's style of offense than Providence's grindball flex. Cooley has eight years at a major conference school in which he's proven he is a below-average offensive coach. Howard is more likely to retain a couple of assistants. And he's interviewing today.
"Sure, maybe don't run with that alone, but this is also 2019 and sports journalism, so restraint isn't a trait I expect to see."
This is also 2019 and Twitter, so restraint isn't a trait I expect to see. FIFY
Nice write-up Brain. Although i am no sheep, and do not agree with the opinion of many on here, i have to say this is spot on.
If Cooley is the guy, RIP Michigan basketball (and by RIP, i don't mean cellar, but simply average Big Ten, which we SHOULD NOT settle for).
This cannot be the choice. It simply can't.
That press conference clip just oozed Brady Hoke.
Omg. It so did.
So did the Grantland piece on Cooley's "coaching" of the team during the timeout. (Minus the hand clapping)
I hope to NEVER see a press conference where Cooley says "I would have walked to Ann Arbor..."
dear god. this is terrifyingly accurate.
Sheeeeit. What'd that dumbass McNutty do now?
Update:
Cooley is the safest pick. And clearly, all they want is for the basketball team to be relevant - Cooley guarantees that.
Howard has the prospect of more upside, but that's just speculation. It could end poorly just like most former NBA guys coming home.
80:20 Cooley:Howard at this point to me.
It worries me that Cooley is considered by some (you included) as the "safest pick". Reading the detailed coaching profiles at UMHoops I am glad to hear that Cooley's teams play incredibly hard for him and that he is an articulate and respected coach. Yet anyone who thinks turning back the clock on offense to a "try hard" style equates to a safe pick is doomed. Providence struggles to play offense in the Big East. Now translate that to a strong defensive conference like the Big10 and we're going to look like Penn State out there.
I also don't think Cooley is just going to hand the offense to an assistant and let him adapt to ball-screens or motion. Most coaches don't do that and I'm not sure what assistant we'd want in that role anyway.
I'd rank Cooley a distant fifth on my list:
- Howard (if he keeps assistants)
- Smart
- Yak
- Jordan
- Cooley
What are you talking about? Cooley is easily the safest pick. He doesn't have the highest upside, but his floor is significantly higher than the other candidates
Think the highest floor guy is Yak- because he can recruit and we will have good defenses, that makes us competitive even in years where the offense is off a bit. Have a Burke or Stauskas, or even a Wagner and we are title contenders.
Yeah, sure. Just "have a burke or Stauskas". It's that simple. And those guys being that good definitely had nothing to do with guy that just left.
I don't know if if's safe to assume Yak can recruit. Selling yourself vs. someone else's program aren't the same thing.
The safest pick because he's already proven, proven to be mediocre.
"Articulate" caused me to cringe...
With Cooley's obviously subpar record at Providence, there is little hope Michigan Bball remains "relevant" with him as coach except in discussions about how not to remain relevant after losing a HoF coach.
You consistently say dumb things. Stop doing that.
What was dumb about what I said?
Cooley is the most qualified candidate. I don't want him, but he is objectively the most qualified.
if you are suggesting he is most objectively qualified to be a mediocre coach that is probably true. He is probably also the most objectively likely to not be a really bad coach, but the other side of that coin is that he is most objectively qualified not to be a great coach.
While Howard and Yak both have some more downside risk, I think there is reasonable evidence that they are likely to be at least mediocre. Yaklich has absolutely shown he can coach top level defense and he’s shown that as an assistsnt he can recruit. I think those two facts alone suggest that mediocre is his floor and that he has real upside.
Howard may be more of a risk because his recruiting chops are all conjecture and we don’t know that he has high end coaching ability on either end of the floor (but his NBa experience certainly is encouraging).
Tommy Amaker has more NCAA tournament wins at Harvard than Cooley does at Providence. No thank you.
So you’re saying bring tommy back?
In all fairness, Harvard kids are smarter than Providence kids...
Yeah, I'm on team Juwan now. I definitely don't want Cooley. Wins and losses aside, I want to watch entertaining basketball, not total crap offense.
I said it the first day that Ed is the likely choice, and I still think he will get the job. I think he will win over UM fans. He is articulate and has a sense of humor. He will recruit better than JB and will be able to attract pretty good assistants at UM to help him the offense. The fact that he has no connection with Midwest, it means that he is likely to keep all if not most of the JB's assistants.
You were the first to call Ed Cooley for the job, but he has an uphill battle ahead of him to win the fans over
I respect the opinion but it seems he already recruits better than Coach B. That is why everyone is scared to death. He has recruited really well and can't get out of the first round.
We should compare his teams to JB's team at WV. He has had much better recruits at Providence than JB had at WV. He may even get an occasional 5*, something that JB could not do. Also, people who complain about his offense, could say the same thing about JB defense until two years ago. In no way I am saying that he is an elite coach, but given the shitty situation that JB left us with, he is one of the best options that we have.
Beilein’s defenses at WVU after his first couple of years were never as bad as Cooley’s offenses have been the last 4. Plus, Beilein was 5-2 in the tournament.
And who cares if he can recruit if he can’t do jack shit with those recruits?
The only way all the assistants stay on staff is if one of them is promoted. I'd expect one to stay otherwise, maybe two if it's Juwan.
Juwan Howard, come on down !
Sam spoke a lot about LaVall Jordan this morning. Sam typically picks topics on purpose. I wonder if LaVall is now the most likely non-Juwan option.
I still think him and Smart get interviews
I think so too, unless Juwan knocks it out of the park. It's not impossible Jordan or Smart have already had an interview. They have reportedly not wanted them to be made public.
Just a thought about the Cooley rumor. Isn't it good for him to have that out there? This way he can return to Providence after turning down Michigan and a big pay raise.
Yeah, but wouldn’t it have been phrased differently if Cooley actually wanted a raise from Providence...such as “Michigan has offered Ed Cooley the job, and he’s taking some time to mull it over”
I don't think so because everyone knows this is a fast track hire. It's not really credible that Michigan could keep interviewing candidates after it was known they had already offered the job to Cooley. Anyways, that would be a blatant attempt for a new deal. Better to be more subtle.
You were spot on Mr. Miggle...lol! Cooley just got an extension.
I somewhat listened to that too. I think Sam mentioned Jordan's buyout as the hurdle to clear. If UM is ok with the amount or negotiated amount he think's it would lead to an interview. But the buyout could also be a non-starter.
I'd probably prefer Val to Cooley, but the options are terrible for a program like Michigan to be considering.
Sam kind of sold me on Vall today. The man is nothing if not a salesman and I love him for it.
I would accept that deal too but it won't be offered to me or Ed Cooley
I’m firmly on the Shaka train now! At least he can recruit 5* players. Cooley seems like a “safe” higher with little upside
He can only recruit 5* players with bags of Texas cash. And even then Smart can't do shit with them. But in a race to the bottom, I'd take him to place under Cooley's ordained win.
Maybe he gets it right here with the proper assistants.
Solidly on team Howard at this point. Not at all excited about Cooley. Shaka Smart would be a way better option.
We’ll see what happens.
I mean, if you're producing top 25 squads every year, that video clip sounds terrific. But Cooley isn't. He's a basketball Brady Hoke. PLEASE WARDE HIRE JUWAN HOWARD. I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS BLOG.
I'd rather have a couple of mediocre seasons with Juwan until he gets the team firmly in his grasp and begins to challenge the MSUs and Purdues of the league as opposed to a long series of mediocre seasons with Cooley wallowing around in also-ran land (think Tommy Amaker).
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