basketball assistant coach search

Michigan has a couple of assistant coaches. One of them, Phil Martelli, has a track record so long that he's literally the entire history of a school on Kenpom. The other one not so much. The guy with the copy and paste first.

PHIL MARTELLI: SQUINT AND IT'S BEILEIN-ISH

Martelli took over St Joe's after an extended low point. The Hawks hadn't been to an NCAA tournament since 1986 when he was hired a decade later; in Martelli's second year he snagged a four seed and reached the Sweet 16. Three losing conference seasons followed, and then Martelli began what's probably the greatest five-year span in St Joe's history. The Hawks went 68-12 in conference, won the A10 five straight times, got three NCAA bids, and reached the Elite 8 as a one seed after an undefeated regular season featuring a Jameer Nelson/Delonte West backcourt.

After this belle epoque St Joe's settled into a 14-year period of meh. From 2005-06 to this year St Joe's never finished higher than third in the A10 and acquired three bids, advancing to the second round once. It was rare for St Joe's to have a legitimately bad team during this period, but Martelli would never approach those heights again.

Two things ultimately sunk Martelli's tenure: a new athletic director and a spate of injuries. This year's Three Man Weave A10 preview:

Outlook: Will it ever stop? St. Joe’s has been crushed by injuries for two consecutive seasons, derailing potential A-10 contenders before they could ever really get going. Shavar Newkirk went down early in 2016-17, eventually followed by his point guard counterpart, Lamarr “Fresh” Kimble, and Pierfrancesco Oliva missed the entire season due to a knee injury. Then, Kimble managed only one game in 2017-18 before succumbing to the very same injury, a broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot. Of course, that was one more game than promising sophomore Charlie Brown got to play after fracturing his wrist in mid-October, and just like that, the Hawks were down two key pieces one game into the season. Despite that, they still clawed to a 10-8 league record, and with those two back healthy this year, there’s reason for optimism in northwest Philly.

It did not stop. Oliva played in just 13 games before going out for the year in mid-January. Kimble missed 10 games in the heart of the conference schedule. St Joe's went 6-12 in A10 play and that was that.

Martelli's tenure was so long that it's impossible to judge what a normal level for St Joe's is. It's probably something approximating the meh portion of Martelli's career. The school is a small (under 5k undergrads) Jesuit institution that had been to one Sweet 16 since 1966 when he was hired. The arena is a tiny band-box with a capacity of 4,200. Until 2009 its capacity was 3,200. Membership in Philly's Big 5 counts for something; it's unlikely Martelli's successor is going to improve on even the desultory late period.

[After THE JUMP: Martelli's style of play and recruiting, plus everything I could find about Howard Eisley, which was not much.]

Okay I'll believe Brendan Quinn:

Additionally, per sources, Michigan and Knicks assistant Howard Eisley are expected to complete a deal within the next 24 hours. He will finalize Juwan Howard’s coaching staff, joining Martelli and Saddi Washington.

— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) June 3, 2019

Jon Sanderson was also retained as the S&C coach. Martelli spent 24 years as St Joe's head coach before being dismissed after this season. I was and still am in the Mike Miller (G-League edition) camp but the somewhat negative takes I had on WTKA are mitigated now that I've looked into Martelli more. His last few teams were veritably wracked with injuries. At the very least Martelli offers a bunch of Philly recruiting contacts and a depth of domain-specific knowledge.

Eisley is more of a wild card. After a four-year career at Boston College in the early 90s he had a 12-year NBA career mostly spent bouncing around as a backup. He retired in 2006, did some non-coaching things for a few years, and then emerged as an NBA assistant for the Clippers, Wizards, and Knicks.

Eisley's from Detroit and might help Michigan's efforts to recruit there. He's a completely unknown quantity as a college assistant.

KICKSTARTER IS A GO. "Statement" and "Sponsor" tiers close the 12th.

Come to the library. It says something about the AADL that it's going to host the Fullcast your kind donations have won.

(extremely michigan voice)

SHUTDOWN FULLCAST: LIVE! WITH ESTEEMED @MGOBLOG GUESTS

- JUNE 21, 2019
- 7 PM
- AT THE DANG ANN ARBOR LIBRARY DOWNTOWN BRANCH - BECAUSE @AADL SAID WE COULD
- COST TO YOU: $0
- YOU FINANCIAL GENIUS

— Shutdown Fullcast, the world's only CFB podcast (@ShutdownFullcas) May 31, 2019

Also you can check out skeletons from them. Anyway: that. Preparation: minimal?

This week in probably unnecessary paranoia. There are enough outlets reporting that former St. Joe's head coach Phil Martelli is headed to Ann Arbor to become Juwan Howard's right hand man…

The source told NBC10 Sunday night that Martelli will work under new University of Michigan men's basketball head coach Juwan Howard, calling the move, “a done deal.”

hearing phil martelli to Michigan is done deal. so happy. will have to find my way to ann arbor. enjoy the ride, coach.

— Dick Weiss (@HoopsWeiss) June 3, 2019

…while it isn't done, it seems pretty likely to happen.

…that it seems done. I'm not pulling out the Hello post just yet.

My main concern is that none of this is coming from the Michigan side of things. Brian Snow, who's the third quote above, reached out to a Philadelphia source. Weiss was the NYDN college basketball guy for 40 years. And the NBC station in question is Philadelphia's. Philly's old boys network is notoriously tight and was furious that Martelli got the axe, so they might be racing ahead of the facts. One of their local blue check crew already did that a few days ago:

A source has told me former St. Joseph’s basketball coach Phil Martelli will soon be announced as the new coach at another college outside the Philly area. I wish him nothing but the best. #Big5

— Chris O'Connell (@CoconnellFox29) May 29, 2019

Probably a game of telephone there, but that dude seems to be reporting that Martelli's getting a head job somewhere.

So: yes, probably Martelli and probably not Mike Miller. I'm waiting for someone in Michigan to say it's happening before writing it up.

On the other hand this is tremendous content. Baseball plays for a regional championship tonight at 7 on ESPN2. That's what we're focusing on, not the fact that they went from 7-4 up to 11-7 down in the ninth inning last night.

[After THE JUMP: healthy WRs, suspended RB.]