warde manuel

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Hey: watchalong. We're going to do a watchalong for the hockey semifinal Saturday at 9 PM. Be there.

The culture is 8-24 and Jon Sanderson works for Illinois. An Athletic article from Brendan Quinn and Katie Strang reveals that an outside consulting firm has been brought into assess the culture of the basketball program:

…a makeshift meeting room was assembled inside Michigan Stadium last week. There, officials from Rankin Climate, an external firm specializing in organizational “climate assessments,” convened to conduct a probe into the culture of the men’s basketball program. Rankin officials asked some athletic department employees about their experiences in the program, Howard’s leadership and support offered by the athletic department. Those interviewed were told that participation was voluntary, according to multiple university employees granted anonymity because they are not permitted to speak about the investigation.

There's not a whole lot else that was new except some more details of what Sanderson sent the university via his lawyer; there are some disturbing claims:

Sanderson claims Howard approached his son, Jett, visibly angry during a 2022-23 practice and threatened, “I’ll slap the sh– out of you,” adding the incident “sparked a lot of internal conversation.” Sanderson said one coach on staff said he saw Juwan Howard “manhandle” Jett on the side of the court; that coach expressed that he was upset with how Jett was being treated.

As many have said in the aftermath of this article's release: it's the athletic director's job to know what the culture of his second-most important sport is. Hiring an outside firm to do your job for you is a waste of money and time. If the consulting firm comes back and says "eh this is fine," should Juwan Howard be retained? No. So what are we doing here? It feels like Warde Manuel wants someone else to make the decision for him.

Meanwhile the season is over for most teams that will be axing coaches. There are already 34 open head coaching spots in D-1, and the most attractive candidates will start going off the board soon as Michigan tries to figure out if the culture is bad on the worst Michigan basketball team in living memory.

Decisions made. Vandy—a program with much less recent historical success—just fired Jerry Stackhouse after Stackhouse went 9-23 in year five. The buyout is supposed to be north of 15 million dollars, which is wild. Vandy hired a guy with no head coaching experience who never got to the tournament and is stuck with that buyout after five years… and even that athletic director was able to see the writing on the wall.

[After the JUMP: football stuff! You should click. I promise.]

[David Wilcomes]

Michigan Men's Basketball's 2023-24 season, the worst in four decades (or longer), met its merciful conclusion tonight at the Big Ten Tournament. The team trailed a 15-16 Penn State team for nearly the entire contest, falling behind by 11 at halftime, making a small push in the early second half, before falling apart and then going out with its tail between its legs. Michigan made one of its final 10 field goals and did not score a point over a four minute stretch in the game's waning moments, not scoring again until the walk-ons were in. The game that unfolded on the court from both teams was sloppy, disorganized, and fitting of two bad teams. Michigan finishes the season 8-24. 

The first 13 minutes of the game were arguably the worst combined sequence of basketball between the two teams of Michigan's season, a year where there have been plenty of candidates. Michigan's offense was turning the ball over with machine-like efficiency, committing three in the first 2.5 minutes and they had seven turnovers on their first 15 possessions(!!!). Michigan couldn't hang onto the ball and it's not like Penn State was playing a whole lot better, the shooting quite cold and too many turnovers themselves. At the under eight media timeout the score sat at 16-10 in favor of the Nittany Lions, with the two teams combining for 12 turnovers against nine made field goals.

It was a game that certainly looked like the 14 seed vs. the 11 seed in the B1G Tournament (mostly because it was). Nimari Burnett was Michigan's only positive offensive contributor early on, making three triples in the first half while Dug McDaniel, the team's usual offensive engine, was ice cold (0 points, 0/5 in the first half). Burnett's third three cut the lead to 18-16 PSU and Michigan would end up tying it at 20 with just under 4.5 minutes to play. It felt like Michigan was playing poorly, but their opponent wasn't doing much better and the Maize & Blue were hanging around. 

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Penn State tacked on a 10-0 run, though, that gave them full control of the game going into halftime. They got it started with a three from the wing by Zach Hicks, added a neat little layup from Qudus Wahab, and then McDaniel was stripped by Ace Baldwin Jr., fouling in response. PSU made both free throws in the bonus to lead by seven and the lead hit double figures a half-minute later when Hicks drilled a corner trey. Hicks added one more three in the final minute and Jaelin Llewellyn's tough runner was off the mark as the horn sounded and Penn State led 33-22 at the break, using that strong spurt late to grab command. Michigan shot 7/29 from the floor and turned it over eleven times in the first half. 

They also were dealing with foul trouble, a theme that would continue in the second half. McDaniel, Tarris Reed Jr., and Will Tschetter all accrued two fouls in the first half, leaving them vulnerable. However, the early stages of the second half were good for Michigan, the only good string of basketball they played all game. Burnett stayed hot with a driving layup on the team's first offensive possession and Reed made a spectacular block from behind on Wahab on the team's first defensive possession. The tone was set and Michigan then got McDaniel into the game with a three (his first FG of the contest), followed by a Terrance Williams II jumper. Quick 7-0 run and Michigan was only down 33-29. 

Michigan was hanging in there down only 40-35 about four minutes into the second half and that was more or less where the fun ended. They couldn't get consistent stops, which dampened their ability to make a major run even as their two primary problems offensively in the first half (turnovers and McDaniel's struggles) improved. Michigan turned it over only once in the first 10 minutes of the second half, while McDaniel began to look more like himself, still not at his best but a drive and layup to trim the lead to 50-46 Nittany Lions was a sign that Dug was more alive. That McDaniel layup came just over the midway point of the half, while Reed was on the bench after picking up his fourth foul and just before the wheels began to come off.

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Michigan scored just five points over a nine minute span thereafter, bricking shots from all over the court while their defense was of course unable to muzzle Penn State enough to stomach that atrocious effort from the offense. Even the best defenses in college hoops wouldn't do well trying to support an offense that scores five points in nine minutes, but Michigan's is uniquely ill-equipped for that situation. PSU didn't run away with it, but they chipped in points to continue stretching the lead, going up by nine on a Wahab hook with 7.5 minutes left and then restoring a double digit lead with under 6 minutes left on a desperation heave three from Hicks. 

You didn't get the sense, given the way the game had gone, that Michigan had much of a run up their sleeve to get back in the game. But even considering those low expectations, the way Michigan's offense went out in this game was shambolic. There was an 0/2 trip to the line for Williams. There was Reed fouling out. There was a possession where Michigan got three open looks for jumpers around the court and missed all three. There was Jace Howard missing the front end of a one-and-one, Michigan getting the offensive rebound, and Howard missing a point-blank layup. They could not facilitate coherent offense and their shooters could not hit the broad side of the barn. 

The final minutes of the game didn't have any intensity to speak of and Michigan didn't begin intentionally fouling until Burnett did so with 1:08 left. The score was 64-51 Penn State and frankly, there didn't seem to be much point in doing so. Like so many Michigan games in the second half of this season, the game ended with an array of walk-ons in the game. Jackson Selvala's three was the last score of the game- and of Michigan's season- cutting the deficit to nine. The final score was 66-57 in favor of Penn State, Selvala's three to cut it to single digits thereby ensuring that this game would be only Michigan's second loss by <10 points in the past two months. In the words of a PSU fan watching: 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Thoughts on the season]

Things Discussed:

  • Lost Herbert: Recruiting against Jim is tough.
  • DC: Zach Orr has a couple of NFL opportunities now so figuring that out will be the most important thing.
  • Concerned that this administration is going to Bennie Oosterbaan Sherrone Moore's program. Needs to not just support but lead the transition to a new version of the college football landscape.
  • Beefing up recruiting department: can criticize Jim Harbaugh here because he spent recruiting jobs on hires like Stalions and Shemy.
  • Sherrone going hard for ND's Chad Bowden. Fended off Harbaugh for Grant Newsome, fighting for Elston.
  • Warde: His "transformational not transactional" interview was the end for us; he's not the guy for the future. Transactional means fair; when you say you don't want that you're saying you don't want the players getting a fair deal.
  • Michigan's culture doesn't have to be these 1930s ideas. Hunter Dickinson would be here if we had this working right.
  • There's more in the tank: Michigan's Athletics department doesn't need to be taking money for naming buildings.
  • NCAA dysfunction has to be part of this. We should be leading the way towards fixing the system, not pretending the old system still works. Players don't benefit from everyone being a free agent because it makes them all replaceable. That system sucks for everybody because there's no investment in the players, there's less time to get to know your system, and nobody's getting an education.
  • Right now we're hanging onto a system that's already dead, falling into a terrible oligarchic system. System should be one that forces the universities to be stuck with the players they get, because it makes them responsible for the player's education and development. Right now the NCAA is antithetical to the higher ideal the NCAA was set up.
  • Seth: communist economies—that's what the NCAA model is—require a black market. The cheating is part of the system.
  • What we're seeing is the fall of that system, and what Michigan should be doing is leading the way to a new system.
  • How? Pay our players to be in a Super Bowl commercial advocating for a player's union, which we start here.
  • Seth & Brian argue whether the history of Oosterbaan/1950s is relevant today.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

sorry sorry sorry back to football soon

report: trophy still shiny 

maybe if i step over here it'll be fine 

the news we all new was coming has arrived

coaching turnover is minor but spicy this year

Frankie goes to the bathroom and isn't sure which toilet he's going to finish on.

i have some important news: a baby you will never know or see has particular genitalia 

answering your burning questions

reports say that Michigan has a new hockey coach

the (much needed) end of an era