MICHIGAN MEN'S BASKETBALL- '19-'20: Hello Coach Nook!

[Niffla]

Well apparently according to Nick Baumgardner (Freep), Warde was totally convinced after Beilein's interview with the Pistons that he was assuredly moving to the NBA upon first job offer, and that he has been compiling a list and actively thinking about this since then. So if Nick is accurate then this is something that is definitely not blindsiding Warde.

[Cody_Russell]

If you aren't outpaying the Cavs for Beilein, you aren't outbidding for Donovan, Wright or Stevens. Its not easy to hire a big name, check out the UCLA job search.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Some interesting speculation at mgo ...... the last part of the conversation involving the entire group speculated that, along with the above from Niffla, Beilein may have been sick and tired of the NCAA, getting "bagged" and trying to manage and build a championship roster under those circumstances and this might have been brewing for a while.

...... and per "experts" on the subject, M isn't going to get any of the coaches who are "set" so to speak. This is the proverbial shit-sandwich for Warde although he may have been planning for it so who knows. The timing is terrible, though.

Nobody I'm reading thinks Yaklich is ready to be a HC. It would be the very laziest thing Warde could do but it may be his only choice at this point and probably with an interim tag. Everypone is saying this is Manuel's chance to hit a home run ..... but its the bottom of the ninth, M is behind and there are two strikes.

[Niffla]

Have no clue who their sources are but OKC Thunder Wire is reporting that Michigan's #1 choice is Donovan

https://okcthunderwire.usatoday.com/...acancy-rumors/

[iam416]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Correct, but it may have been a factor. More likely is that he's 66, he's done everything but win a national title in b-ball at M and he wants a shot at the pros. There's talk today that he wanted the Pistons job and may or may not have been offered it depending on who you read.

But Manuel reportedly has known what was coming and has made some preparation for the likelihood he'd lose JB before the start of the 2019/2020 season. Pool and Iggy taking the steps to go pro (and certainly looking, by all accounts that they will) may have also been a factor here either in JB getting aggravated about struggling to build championship rosters or as an indicator that he might have told players there's a good chance he wouldn't be returning to coach next season.

[Niffla]

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if that was a factor on some level as well, but I'm pretty firm in my belief that Coach B just wanted the NBA as his final chapter.

Think about it...the man has been a head coach on virtually every level of the sport that exists -- outside of the very highest level. Now he adds that to his legacy as well. He's obviously a tremendous basketball teacher, and he's widely known as one of the elite coaches on any level when it comes to adapting and innovating, and that's what the NBA is all about. I don't think there's any question whatsoever that he wondered to himself how he'd fare at the highest level of the game. He has probably thought about it for who knows how long (probably every time he turned the TV over to an NBA game) and now he's about to find out.

[froot loops]

Cleveland is a shit job, that part is the baffling part. I get the wanting to be an NBA coach, but lasting success in the NBA is so dependent on the job. To me the Michigan job must have been less appealing to Beilein than it was thought to be.

[hack]

He was clearly done with college ball -- you don't trade seniors at PG and C and that many bullets in the chamber to fill the wings for Collin Sexton, a 14% shot at Zion and Dan Gilbert if you aren't fed up with your current slot. And Cleveland is a 3-hour drive to Buffalo, where his kid's coaching now, and I think that's the key to understanding why this team now. People will say things about him being up for the next challenge and all that, but that's because they're getting paid to sound like they know, and not to just shrug their shoulders.

This is fucking maddening for us though. Getting so close with this basketball program but just can't ever sustain success. One more year would have been great, because when you have that PG/C combo and a 42% shooter in Livers, replacing 3 early-entry guys is easier than it seems. But, it is what it is. Remarkable that the hellish notion of the Pistons wasting what's left of his career now sounds ideal. He was going to have enough kicks at it in the next five years to bring one home. But Michigan fans have taken enough kicks to the balls to know how to handle them.

But just as to outsiders it's a surprise that he left, there will also be guys out there who aren't seen as likely to skip town that will see opportunity at Michigan just like Beilein saw opportunity in Cleveland (of all places). Maybe Manuel gets incredibly lucky and catches Brad Stevens at just the right moment. He didn't want to be at Indiana, but you could make a very solid argument for how appealing it might be to him to not have to deal with crazy NBA personalities. The grass-is-always-greener argument could apply to him in the reverse way it applied to Beilein now. Billy Donovan is very possibly at that crossroads at which you find great coaches who are surprisingly ready for a change. Chris Beard left UNLV at the altar in a similar but not exactly-the-same situation. Mark Few knows very well what he could do at a school that isn't so hard to recruit to. I like some of the lesser names too. Brian has a solid argument for the ISU guy. Mike White at Florida possibly as well. Juwan Howard sounds like a bit of a desperation move, but he's put in assistant time in the NBA and is seen as a coaching candidate in the years to come. Matt Painter seems like a bit of a silly idea, but might not be terrible. And I wouldn't mind giving it to Yacklich. He's a great defensive coach and a great recruiter. Primary recruiter for Wilson, and for 5* Nimari Burnett in 2020. That's not a terrible roll of the dice.

Bottom line here is that it's a school where you'll make as much as all but 5 other coaches in the country, with fresh facilities, recent success, and a pipeline of recruits if you can keep them. For a coach that may not want to chase the ghosts of Wooden or be put off by the very deserved football-school label, it's damn near perfect. It takes the right fit with the right guy at the right time, but if you can put together a list of 5-10 good names, one of them might be that guy.

[*JD*]

The more I think about it, the more I think that heart surgery he had really put his bucket list on the clock. Still, at the same time he was out there on the road recruiting as recently as last week.

[Cody_Russell]

I want to see what Beilein can do with Zion if the Cavs get the #1 overall pick. Please let it happen ...

Collin Sexton was pretty good for the Cavs. At least Coach B has a promising PG to start with.

[hack]

What? Fuck the Cavs. All that lottery luck, LeBron comes home, and they still need Adam Silver to gift them an asterisk championship. Don't care who is coaching.

[hack]

The more I think about it, the more I think that heart surgery he had really put his bucket list on the clock. Still, at the same time he was out there on the road recruiting as recently as last week.

Makes sense. I would have at least hoped he'd stick one more year. This year's team was going to be great. Still could be depending on if Manuel is good at his job.

[*JD*]

Makes sense. I would have at least hoped he'd stick one more year. This year's team was going to be great. Still could be depending on if Manuel is good at his job.

It sure would've been a lot better if he'd announced he was leaving in a year, though I don't think anyone's ever done that with plans to make themselves available for another coaching hire. I think it was a combination of thinking about his health and having an available NBA job in the general area of where family was. It's also possible that he has had a growing distaste for the state of college basketball. Teams/coaches seem to be getting away with a lot more infractions and Beilein is going up against them on a tilted playing field (or court). He thought he might be good enough to compete with those folks with 2 year and 3 year players but now he was looking at his first 1-and-done player (and one that isn't a guaranteed first rounder to boot) and maybe that was the tipping point? Total speculation. It's really still challenging to figure out why. The Why Now? is a little easier to sort out than the Why Them? but I'm still pretty stunned.

I'm also not convinced at this squad's greatness. Maybe Teske and X/Z haven't topped out but both are pretty close to their ceiling. The question of SG is still out there as is figuring out who our shooters are going to be. There's a dropoff in athleticism from last year and there's also the issues of who gets the ball down the stretch and who can create his own shot.
They still look like a Sweet 16-type team due to having solid leaders that can defend but I see a lot of grinder games. Kind of classic Wisconsin-ball.

[WM Wolverine]

Really low expectations for next season, making the tourney is about what I see. They'll need production from alot of people who could barely see the floor last season. Being ranked in the top 25 is possible if those guys (Castleton, Nunez, DDJ, John's etc.) and the true freshman are more productive than I expect.

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