Report: Billy Donlon To Northwestern
Number of coaches in this picture still at Michigan: zero. [Bryan Fuller]
Michigan will now have to replace two assistant basketball coaches this offseason. Scout's Brian Snow reports that Billy Donlon, the de facto defensive coordinator, is departing Ann Arbor after one season with the Wolverines to be an assistant at Northwestern, where he has several long-running connections:
According to Scout.com's Brian Snow, assistant Billy Donlon has accepted the position of assistant coach at Big Ten foe Northwestern.
"For me, I think it comes down to, from what I've heard, is that Billy has obviously known Chris Collins for a long time," Snow told The Michigan Insider. "Both grew up in the Chicago area and I don't necessarily know how far back their friendship goes, but they've known each other for a long time. They're very comfortable with each other, [Donlon] is comfortable with Chris, he's comfortable with the area so it's kind of a homecoming for him. He's looking for someone who he has a longstanding relationship with."
Donlon has deep ties to the Chicago area, Wildcats head coach Chris Collins and the Northwestern program. Donlon's father, Billy Donlon Sr., was a longtime assistant for the Wildcats from 1987-94.
Losing Donlon is a serious hit to a team that has some major question marks on defense after DJ Wilson entered the draft early. While Donlon's impact didn't immediately show up in the stats last year, it became apparent as the season wore on and the defense improved dramatically. The most obvious stylistic shift was in Michigan's ability to prevent three-point attempts. They ranked ninth nationally in 3PA/FGA after never finishing higher than 109th under John Beilein, and even that was a bit of an outlier.
We'll see what names emerge as replacement candidates; things have been quiet on that front even after Jeff Meyer took an assistant job under LaVall Jordan at Butler, and now there's another seat to fill. Here's hoping some of Donlon's teaching sticks regardless, as Michigan's best chance of being a decent defensive team next year is to continue creating a three-point gap.
So that makes him qualified to be the next UM coach? I swear the straw man arguments people make here with regards to the basketball program are astounding.
They've made the tournament exactly twice in their D1 existence. And they didn't make it this year either, but with a better offense (and a worse defense).
I'd love to see your evidence that Donlon was a bad hire, considering he was apparently a major reason Michigan got Eli Brooks.
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Conlon was sorta the opposite of a failed coach at Wright St, considering he won 20+ games 3 of his last 4 seasons. The Horizon is a tough league, so no shame in that.
He's a tough loss for this program; hopefully Michigan figures out a suitable replacement.
Travis?
Travis Conlan would be better than any schmohawk Beilein's racist ass will hire. Pretty clear he refuses to hire Nepalese after the coup in Queenstown.
he hired LaVall Jordan, Bacardi Alexander and Saddi Washington. All are black assistant coaches and two of them went on to be the head coach.
Good point. This potentially sets him up better for a B1G job sooner than being at Michigan since the job is probably Jordan's to lose, plus there's a much higher likelihood we would (should, perhaps) seek a bigger name, home run hire to replace Beilein since we have the money to do it. NW can't do that.
On the other hand, if he's already a defensive guy and Collins is mostly a defensive guy, is there a better offensive coach to continue to learn from than Beilein to fill out your resume?
Still, given his person ties to the area and to Collins, this isn't a surprise. Disappointing though. The defense had become a huge strength in the last 10-15 games last year - and was playing the best a Michigan defense has ever played under Beilein. I imagine Beilein will seek a similar replacement to be a d coordinator, so hopefully can get a good one.
Not sure what your basing your supposition that Coach K is closer to retirement than Beilein. Even then, Donlon getting the Northwestern job is one degree more remote than if he had stayed at Michigan. But then again, I'm the one commenting on raw speculation.
Also, assuming that Collins is set to take over for Coach K may be a stretch. They certainly have plenty of former assistants who have a claim at the job. In addition to Collins, there is Woj, Capel, Dawkins, even Amaker or Breen might be interested or wanted.
but he's almost 60 so hard to believe it'd be him. It also doesn't necessarily have to come from the Duke tree, but if it does, Collins amazingly seems to have the best track record of those you listed (maybe Woj is close?). Certainly not a no-brainer replacement from those connected to the program.
Coach K is 70. I don't know what his plans are but it's not farfetched to think Beilein (64) will outlast him.
I was about to be really concerned about a coach leaving our team for a lateral hire to Northwestern. This makes sense. I still hate to see him go, but my WTF has gone down considerably
a clearer way to returning as an HC somewhere through Chi, I get the move from his standpoint. But--absolutely right--hard to see this, occuring late in the off-season as it has--as anything but a hit. Beilein has come up roses with assistants to now. . . would love to know all the little accompanying storylines.
and retain assistants? I mean, there's psychopath that knows how to retain talent.
Losing DJ to the draft, then Meyer and Donlon--it's a hard pill to swallow not because it sucks in itself. But it sucks even more by comparison.
Wild guess.... But maybe Izzo's assistants aren't good enough to be wanted by other programs?
Clearly no one is interested in Stephens. And Fife is still sitting in East Lansing nigh 6 years despite giving up a head coaching position at IPFW. That could not have been his plan. Izzo's tree is unbelieveably weak.
O$U football. The NCAA just ignores. MSU same in BBall. I like a clean program.
I have never heard anybody call Beilein "difficult to deal with". He seems rather easy to deal with.
You are probably right about the magnetism though.
Would you rather eat Italian or German? Izzo flips a mean pizza.
I'm not sure about "difficult to deal with" but in an interview with Beilein after the airplane skidding off the tarmac accident, he talked about how it really changed his perception on a few things and what is most important in life, and he seemed to admit he was a bit of a control freak, and/or perhaps more cerebral than emotional/relational with his players.
With that self-realizationand he consciously changed his pre-game locker room speech at the Big10 tournament - rather than going through the usual X's and O's and strategy and scouting strengths and weaknesses, he just looked around the room, saw the mood and energy was high and talked about the emotional/motivational side instead.
I don't think 93grad was necessarily questioning why Donlon and Meyer left. Instead was just pointing out that now we've got some fairly large holes with Wilson, Meyer, and Donlon departures.
Edit: Or maybe he is. But the one step forward + one step back part rings true to me.
It was late, but this isn't a huge shock considering the relationships Collins had with him. Coaches leave to go to other programs, and maybe Donlon saw that Beilein isn't leaving soon and maybe Collins will be poached, so the path to a HC job looks beter at NW than at Michigan. Or he just likes the guy. Who knows. It sucks to lose him, but I don't think it's an indictment of the Michigan program.
Lousy for us, but completely understandable for him.
...and we have the nerve to laugh at the NFL and their arrogance on losing Harbaugh or Mattison staying here to be a DL coach when he could be a DC on more than half the teams in the league.
Northwestern is a tournament team with an up-and-coming head coach, it's in a major city that he loves...similar to you know, Ann Arbor to Harbaugh and Mattison. Also where he'd already been AND has family...you know, similar to Ann Arbor with Harbaugh and Mattison.
Some of you all need to chill with all the "this should never happen" nonsense. He was here for one fucking year, he has no real ties to Michigan whatsoever.
Get out of your feelings and take a step into reality for 2 seconds.
I never said he left because of the quality of the program...I said it was a program on the rise. (Edit: Actually I said it's a tournament team with an up-and-coming head coach...which it was, meaning it's not like they were 5-25 last year. And Collins is - especially if you believe the comments about him being the front-running to replace Coach K, that's pretty much the definition of up-and-coming). Two totally different things...but you know that. You're a smart person.
Regardless, your comment is wildly arrogant to think that Michigan can't lose an assistant basketball coach with ties to Northwestern, the city of Chicago, AND the current head coach!
Like I said, it's the same thing as the NFL who didn't consider those same things with Mattison or Harbaugh.
The NFL can pay those guys more if they wanted, in Mattison's case they can give him a promotion to DC. Yet they're both still in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
If Harbaugh didn't play at Michigan, grow up in Michigan, go to Michigan, have a father who coached at Michigan, and love Ann Arbor...I'm not sure he'd be here. If Mattison didn't coach at Michigan, have family in the area, love the city, etc...I'm not sure he'd be here either.
But those ties are keeping those fine coaches in the maize and blue and we're perfectly okay with that...aren't we? So why are crying about losing Donlon to Northwestern when he has some of the same reasons to go there?
It's being a hypocrite.
Worthless post and trolling as usual. These, concise.
You show that strawman who's boss.
when you said "Northwestern is a tournament team"
:)
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