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.
Please announce Juwan as the coach today.
Cooley has recruited plenty of talent at Providence, but he clearly has not developed that talent. The offensive efficiency numbers show that all too well.
It's not like he's coaching in the former powerhouse Big East either, he's in the leftover Big Least and still getting these results. Him following Beilein is a colossal step backwards.
The wording of that report by the student reporter is interesting in itself. "Intends to accept." Generally speaking, when a report is worded this way, it's a sign that there isn't really an offer on the table. Like, when you interview somewhere and the employer is talking in hypotheticals, and usually qualifies it with "we have several candidates we're interviewing."
My hottake: Cooley isn't their first choice, or he'd be officially announced already, but he told them he would take the job if formally offered.
Yikes, I wasn’t thrilled with the options, but after reading this, Cooley seems like an awful choice. Much prefer taking a shot with Howard, at least he presents a chance of it turning into a really good hire. Cooley looks like a sure bet to backslide to the middle of the league in a good year.
No no no please let it be Juwan plus Yaklich
You know what would make the iPhone better? An F5 button for times like these.
I can't believe is this all Michigan has to hire from. One is an underachieving coach who can't seem to score buckets or advance in the tournament. Another is a former assistant to JB who hasn't done much of anything out on his own. In fact, he's a below .500 coach. And the other is a former Fab Five member who is currently in the NBA as an assistant, with no head coaching or college coaching experience.
What, over the last 12 years, has Michigan not enjoyed that they want to settle with unproven dudes? This whole thing completely sucks.
None of these guys truly deserve this job.
Just roll with Howard and hope he can recruit the elite talent and allow them to showcase those skillsets.
Maybe I missed it, but I don't think Warde even reached out to any of the "home run" guys
UM has more money than pretty much any other school.
Why can't Warde call up every single "home run" guy and offer #1 money and see who bites?
It sure seems like his stupid ass is content with dogshit options like Cooley and it just makes no sense and is the most frustrating thing with all of this.
How can Cooley run the UM program and take it to higher heights than JB if he can't even win a god damn tournament game in March?!
At this point, I am firmly in the Juwan camp. if he fucks it all up, then hopefully Warde isn't around in 5 years AND UM hoops still has some cachet that will attract a "home run" hire.
Warde needs to be run out of town, along with all the assholes that hired him.
Are you for real?
This may be a dumb question, but does Warde Manuel know all these statistics Brian is dropping? From what I just read it feels like Cooley would be a mediocre hire at best.
Sorry, but just to be a little more specific to my question, how much does Warde know about the candidates when trying to come up with a measuring stick as to whether they should be hired or not? Does he follow all the ranking systems (Kenpom, massey, etc.)? Would he actually go through the stats that Brian has listed above to draw any conclusions? I am honestly not sure if I even cleared up what my probably dumb question is.
Half the board thinks he's incompetent while the other half think he knows exactly what he's doing. Put me in the "He's incompetent" category.
With that being said, Warde probably is looking at this...or maybe his research firm.
If we're talking about our AD, at least half the board thinks Warde is incompetent and the other half has no opinion. I'm not sure very many readers and posters here are confident in the AD's performance to this point. It's not Brandon-level suck, but it's not necessarily good either.
He did agree to open the2018 football season at ND at night so I trust his judgement.
my sarcasm switch is currently toggled "off". Not sure if you are serious.
I forgot my /s tag.
Put in the camp that thinks Warde is one of the best AD's in the country. Just look around and name another AD who has done a better job with almost zero controversy during the past few years. Consider that he kept Bakich from going to Stanford, a much much better job than UM, and hired Nielsen.
Hired this guy, too.
https://mgoblue.com/news/2019/5/1/bormet-named-amateur-wrestling-news-rookie-coach-of-the-year.aspx
But you know, let's knock him for scheduling a football game with our traditional rival.
Not so sure. From the sounds of it, it seems like all these guys are connected and Warde giving the job to Cooley would be a result of those connections rather than research.
This student had to have heard a rumor that Cooley “would” accept if offered by Michigan without question, but it was communicated to him wrong. Right? I can see someone asking Cooley after the interview, he’s says, yes I’d accept, then it snowballed into he got the job. ?♂️
I think it's more likely based on his taking the interview. Asked whether Cooley was serious about leaving for Michigan, someone with connections might have easily said yes. Then throw out a number to help explain why.
I don't think it came from something Cooley said after the interview. It's not something he should be talking about ahead of an announcement.
Will we be able to hear basketball? (Other than the squeaky shoes?)
i am firmly on team interim at this point.
You gotta chill with these pictures at the top of the post
Are we concerned?
Terrified.
But it's not boring! (as far as off season staff changes go in college athletics for programs that are not the #1 revenue generators in their athletic departments)
Just like watching a loved one have an autopsy.
Yeah, here's my hope: The $6 million leak is a favor on the part of Cooley's buds to get him a pay raise . Once PC throws a reasonable (even if it is -- or must be -- well under $6M) retention package, Warde closes the deal with Howard.
Well, we got confirmation that Cooley is staying @ Providence. But for the record, for entirety of this little Cooley saga, to me it absolutely reeked of Cooley's agent trying to milk this scenario simply to get Providence to beef up Cooley's contract to stay.
Ed Cooley is the Wagon Queen Family Truckster of coaches.
“This is a damn fine coach, if you want my honest opinion…,”said Turnkey Sports. “You think you hate him now, but wait until you hire him.”
I have no faith that Warde isn't going to fuck it all up and hire this dumpster fire in Cooley.
The only B1G school this guy should ever sniff at is Nebraska, or maybe like Penn State.
The fact he is on Warde's short list should get Warde immediately fired.
I cannot believe this is the state of UM hoops and Warde's bosses and the big money boosters are cool with this shit show he is running.
I foresee a Cooley hire, a severe downturn in the program over the next 3 years as we finish 6th in the B1G, get bounced in the 2nd round, then sneak in as a 9 seed and get bounced in the first round, then make 2 NITs and Cooley is fired.
Then Warde is allowed to fuck it all up again in 2022 as he hires some other slappy that his friend and owner of the shitty search firm suggests.
How do people this fucking stupid get a job like the AD of UM? It boggles the mind that someone would be this terrible and still have such an amazing job and get paid $700k/year.
I appreciate your sober analysis.
Wow.
Crisis Averted. Good thing nobody got super worked up over nothing!!!..... (looks up)
It happens when things other than merit are the basis.
Thank the Lord. I am hoping that we never extended any offer
Does the Providence Daily News (or whatever the local newspaper is called) have a story based on the source that that student has? If the newspaper editors don't think his sources are solid enough to run with the story as if it's a done deal, then we can probably assume it's premature at best, and likely outright wrong. 2019 journalism is what it is, but editorial standards should still be similar to what they were in the past, when stories were not reported as fact without multiple sources and independent confirmation.
Breaking news:
Staying home. pic.twitter.com/IFB8FbGJmN
— PC Men's Basketball (@PCFriarsmbb) May 21, 2019
AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand Cooley just announced he's, "staying home," at Providence.
C'mon Juwan!
I like Coach Cooley a lot, just not for the Michigan job. This is a good watch for the non-basketball junkies or those that only watch B1G/ESPN college basketball.
Providence vs DePaul Mic'd Up
Cooley probably isn’t the right guy for Michigan, but he doesn’t deserve the trashing he’s getting here. He’s recruiting and taking teams to the tournament at Providence. Pitino did it, before that, maybe Dave Gavitt. He’s far from a dumpster fire. He will have a nice, long career at PC. An interview here isn’t unwarranted, just not a hire.
I'm now a Providence Friars fan because they kept Cooley. Might even watch a game of theirs next season if I happen to see they're on TV.
Providence fans seem to love Cooley, I assume because the expectations for Providence basketball were so low. Cooley's track record may be stellar for Providence but that is not appealing from Ann Arbor. Providence should've gotten a lot more out of those teams with that sort of recruiting but I don't think the Friars know any better. Cooley is likely to come to Ann Arbor, recruit well, have a much of meh 24-10ish teams that lose to Izzo most of the time, get seeded 5-9 and lose in the tournament early. Then we'll spend 5 years deciding whether or not he's bad enough to fire before we finally pull the trigger
Well they're stuck with him now, with the extension they just signed.
ED COOLEY WITHDREW NAME FROM CONSIDERATION!
WHEW!
Said it in another thread. For me, Cooley is a hard pass. Looks from another thread like he's staying at Providence, and that's probably good for everyone.
If only there was someone who could lure Tom Crean up here.
Wow, Brian just ensured a Schiano-to-Tennessee level mutiny if we hire Cooley.
Never mind, just saw he's staying at Providence.
Maybe he was just trying to show his current employer that other employers want him.
Anyway, sounds like Juwan will get the job in the next day or two.
All that talk of "toughness" makes me think of Izzo. Hard pass.
If we did hire Cooley, maybe we could just skip the games and have Cooley wrestle Izzo at mid-court to see who is tougher.
There’s a big difference between being tough and being an immoral prick
Not sure it's been posted, but nice article on Juwan:
https://www.fivereasonssports.com/voices/heat-cant-afford-to-lose-juwan-howard-twice/
Makes me want him more with comments like
Communication is the utmost strength of the man that many consider the most underrated head-coach-in-waiting throughout the entire league.
And that’s Juwan Howard.
Howard, in only a handful of seasons as NBA coach, has become the roots of the Heat coaching tree as it bears fruit in areas such as player development. He fills the spaces between the boxes on an org chart. He’s become the glue.
Howard’s passion is contagious. His ability to relate to players, get them to buy in to the culture and want to be coached, is exemplified in his relationship with Heat point guard Justise Winslow.
Juwan will pull some big time recruits. How could he not? You want to make it to the NBA? I played in it for 19 years and coached in it for 6 years. I know all the coaches, players and GMs. Oh, and he was part of the best recruiting class of all time. I like his chances.
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