Latest re: Pearson from JUB
https://twitter.com/Johnubacon/status/1555363643033796608?s=20&t=FWqpYmm6zZmq4Evztfq5Yg
Latest from JUB: All parties are on the same page, likely that things happen Friday.
So, HC candidate posts coming up soon? Some say Van Ryn, Naurato? Most M hockey alums I know of are front office people, not in on-ice coaching.
So Warde was made an offer he couldn't refuse?
either that or he got a second opinion in the form of the *gestures* entire internet's universal response
Getting into a pissing contest with the Regents (if true) seemed pretty unwise. I hope it's not true because I'd like to believe our AD is smarter than that.
August 4th, 2022 at 10:26 PM ^
If he were smarter than that, he would have made this decision months ago.
August 5th, 2022 at 12:30 AM ^
This is the crux. Not doing it months ago only points to both management and character flaws.
Nobody said it was a pissing contest, only that he had a meeting with MSC and the Regents. It may have been nothing more than Warde wanting a chance to say his piece. And once he did, the decision was made. Nothing wrong with that... In fact, if my boss supported me, I would expect him (or her) to go to bat like that.
I mean, seriously, if your boss wants a 'yes man' to the point where you don't share your own opinions before decisions are made, then you're working for the wrong person.
August 5th, 2022 at 10:36 AM ^
I was referring to the earlier posted JUB tweet that characterized it as a "standoff" between the Regents/President and AD/Pearson.
https://twitter.com/Johnubacon/status/1555246709088854017?s=20&t=EzuDP12LV93ZGAppXtj2Uw
This isn’t anything but a sad day for Michigan. Mel’s gotta go and he’s got no one to blame but himself. It takes more than wins to be a leader.
Amen. See Meyer, Urban.
August 5th, 2022 at 11:59 AM ^
Or Tressell, Jim.
Its sad. I really thought he was gonna get us a title soon with how recruiting was going. But you cant have this stuff at UofM - we should aim to be better than that
Seems like this was inevitable.
One thing I've been curious about though. Neither Scott Bell nor Sam Webb have mentioned this at all on their Twitter accounts. Based on looking at the segment titles for the WTKA show, it doesn't look like this has been a topic all week other than when it came up on the round table (which I haven't gotten to yet). Seems like a big story for big UM names not to be talking about at all. Is it a not wanting to lose access thing? (I acknowledge I could be missing it)
August 4th, 2022 at 10:01 PM ^
No idea, but they do seem to be steering clear of it.
August 4th, 2022 at 10:12 PM ^
Because what happened here stinks to high heaven and they know it, but aren’t going to come out and condemn it because (pick a reason - it’s like a game of “wheel of reasons to not defend a good man who is getting railroaded”). Unfortunately it’s more expedient to just remain silent. It’s gross. The silence from those close to program speaks volumes.
August 4th, 2022 at 10:17 PM ^
Why are you so sure he is a good man being railroaded?
It's the persecution fetish that people of a certain persuasion seem to have. They have to do some incredible mental gymnastics to make the perpetrator seem like the victim.
It’s not, but nice try. Tell me… you’ve read the report and come away with a clear view that Shields did no wrong here? Honest question.
August 5th, 2022 at 10:34 AM ^
This is exactly the mental gymnastics they're talking about... No one cares about Pearson's treatment of Shields. It's not remotely close to a consideration in firing Pearson. He was exonerated by the report for that. They're talking about firing him because of all the other crap they exposed while digging around the firing of Shields. Tell me... you've read the report and come away with a clear view that Pearson did nothing wrong?
August 5th, 2022 at 10:57 AM ^
Whether Shields did wrong or not is irrelevant.
Between Bancroft and lying to investigators multiple times, nothing much else matters.
August 5th, 2022 at 11:48 AM ^
That's a straw man. No one here is even talking about Shields. The report makes it very clear that there is a toxic sexist culture, and Pearson at the very least knows about it, does nothing, and lies when asked about it. That is not acceptable and he must be fired. Also Warde Manuel looks really incompetent here.
August 5th, 2022 at 12:21 PM ^
Mel. Listen. It's over. Posting your bad-faith arguments on a sports blog isn't going to save your job.
Try not to create a shitty, toxic, abusive atmosphere the next place you coach.
At this point, I am 95% certain that Clarence Beeks is Mel Pearson's burner. Since news of the report broke, he has relentlessly posted in Pearson's defense. His posts have steadily devolved from technical arguments about the report's scope and employees' rights to defenses of Pearson's character and ad hominem attacks on Steve Shields.
August 5th, 2022 at 10:25 AM ^
Are you sure it isn't Clarence Boddicker?
August 5th, 2022 at 11:12 AM ^
I wish that were true. More likely this guy has either been the perpetrator of or at least party to sexual harassment and discrimination, and doesn't think it's a significant problem. You know, those guys who are like "eh what's the big deal". The perpetrators are a small number of men, the enablers are numerically the bigger problem.
August 5th, 2022 at 12:22 PM ^
Could be both!
August 4th, 2022 at 10:49 PM ^
I don't really follow your logic. Are you saying that they know something that contradicts the report but are afraid to say it?
Maybe firing isn't a slam dunk but when you allow someone like Bancroft to exist and lie to investigators, you no longer have a case to say you're being railroaded.
I kept hearing from the pro-Pearson people, "read the report and don't rely on other peoples' conclusions". Well, I read about half the report and there was enough in just that half to warrant firing: multiple people corroborating multiple events and cultural issues.
I think there's a disconnect because Mel is a master of compartmentalization: he's one person to one group and a different one entirely to another group. That's extremely common for both people who rise to this level of success and chronic abusers who don't get caught for years or decades. It's also a big reason why, almost universally, when allegations like this come out against just about anyone, many people say "him? No way... I've known him for years and he's a good guy".
In this case, Pearson appears to have a cold and intimidating persona with his players. That's a coaching style, not abuse, and honestly, the results speak for themselves. That's probably why his players come back to play for him.
Secondly, he's a master recruiter and self promoter, and can be quite charming to the media.
Thirdly, he appears to have a good working relationship with his assistant coaches, even including Steve Shields. Shields wasn't primarily upset with his own treatment, he was upset with Pearson's treatment of others.
Finally, he appears to have been at the very least quite tolerant of abuse and harassment toward his support staff, and possibly abusive and harassing toward them himself. And this is indeed where you see markers of dysfunctional culture: multiple accusations, people leaving, etc. This is the true measure of a man: how they treat those they view as beneath them when no one's around to see it. In this case, Not Good.
It's this compartmentalization and his careful positive treatment of the "people who matter" that have allowed Pearson to get where he is now. Everyone in a position of power says, "I've known him for years and he's always been a perfect gentleman", while those that are unable to speak up for themselves bear the brunt of his tolerance for abuse. That's why, to people like Manuel, who have known him for years, it looks like he's being railroaded, when in fact they've just had the unsavory parts hidden from them this whole time.
Truth. I'll say it again, most, if not all, commenting on this, have not read the report. If they did, they'd be singing a different tune. Unfortunately, people can't be bothered to investigate or read reports to form their own opinion. They trust click-bait BS.
I read the report, as did the regents, the president, and several members of the media, and everyone agrees it's damning. You don't seem to understand how this works. This isn't a criminal proceeding, in which he could theoretically get off on technicalities. It's a report about unethical behavior and general sleaze. It's more than enough to terminate his employment.
I keep hearing that, but as noted below, many people have read the report and have come to different conclusions (myself included).
August 5th, 2022 at 10:13 AM ^
You keep spouting this line that nobody has read the report despite most of us having read it and come to much different conclusions than you. You also seem fixated on the idea that this is just Shields' words against Pearsons and not seemingly dozens and dozens of other people providing corroborative statements to the same effect. Is Shields perfect here? Doesn't seem like it - it sounded like a bad work environment and, unsurprisingly, performance degraded on both ends. But you're just hand-waving away 68 pages of damning evidence because you don't like what you're reading.
You talk about player mutinies and coordinated efforts by multiple people to "railroad" Pearson and yet the evidence points to multiple fireable actions by him and many people finding him not particularly credible in his explanations. If you've got actual examples of false or misleading statements in the report by multiple people, or unsupported conclusions based on evidence, feel free to share. But all of your comments about this situation seemed based purely on a good-faith reading of Pearson's account and bad-faith assumptions on the part of everyone else involved in the investigation.
Good men don't do what he did.
August 5th, 2022 at 11:17 AM ^
It's a high-risk, high-reward job in which "good people" get fired sometimes. If this is unjust--and I'm not saying it is in this case, I don't know, I can't say it LOOKS like it but I admit I don't know all the details--I am only going to cry so many tears. Head coaching a high-profile college program is a wackadoodle job and you take this job knowing your career can turn on a dime. Would it be better if that weren't so? Sure. Add it to the list of things we should probably reform in college sports--but honestly, I probably won't put it as high on my list as the other things we should reform. One reason is that good people (hell, even bad people) tend to land on their feet eventually in another position close to the sport they love--often a lucrative one.
August 4th, 2022 at 10:57 PM ^
It’s because they both carry a tremendous amount of water for the university
August 4th, 2022 at 11:40 PM ^
Looks like they talked about it twice yesterday. Two of the segments are titled "Recruiting Roundup & WilmerHale report" and "More on the Michigan Hockey team and failed Al Avila trades." On the first segment he basically said the same things he did on the roundtable. He doesn't seem to follow hockey all that close, so I'm guessing he can't really provide all that much insight
August 5th, 2022 at 12:35 AM ^
Webb had been arguing the most inane talking point from the pro-Pearson camp, that the fact that the freshman stars didn't opt for the NHL after this year must mean there's some other side to this. It's just dumb reasoning on so many levels and he won't shut up about it.
August 5th, 2022 at 11:31 AM ^
Just because Sam Webb doesn't call out the AD every time a controversy comes up, so what? I think it's pretty clear that he has sources within the department through which he gets good information that we all benefit from when he shares it on the air. That means he's going to be pretty middle-ground on many issues, especially without a clear picture of EVERYTHING going on behind the scenes, that almost none of us are privy to. I'm sure in private, he has some pretty strong opinions. But I'm perfectly fine with him keeping a low profile on it and leaving the indignant condemnation to the rest of us.
How often have you seen Sam Webb, or any other recruiting guy, talk about hockey without Brian being around? Answer: Never. I doubt Sam knows anyone associated with Michigan hockey aside from the MGoBlog guys. No reason to be surprised that he only spews generic talking points while allowing others to carry the conversation around hockey.
I mean, if women's Lacross had a coaching controversy, would you expect Sam to understand what it's about? I wouldn't...
I listen to at least parts of Sam & Ira's show most days, and Sam hasn't shied away from the topic. (Ira has been away this week). For example on Wednesday Sam lamented Michael Spath being on vacation, because he wanted his take. But he still discussed it at length. It's been discussed on other days as well.
Sam has discussed it repeatedly
August 4th, 2022 at 10:01 PM ^
What was Warde thinking?
August 4th, 2022 at 11:48 PM ^
Iguanas are cute.
August 4th, 2022 at 10:15 PM ^
Warde better be careful, otherwise he will be on Santa's naughty list!
August 4th, 2022 at 10:25 PM ^
I assume this development follows from close consultation with the various opinions expressed in the earlier post on Bacon's suggestion of the Board & Coleman vs. Warde.
August 4th, 2022 at 10:25 PM ^
So everyone agrees. Yet there was still be some guy here who contends there's not much of a case against Pearson.
August 4th, 2022 at 10:44 PM ^
Yes there will. File them under “Injected Bleach by Suggestion”
Clarence Beeks would like a word...
AKA: Mel Peearson?