Exit Bacari Alexander
[Bryan Fuller]
ESPN's Jeff Goodman reports that Bacari Alexander is finalizing a deal to become the head coach at Detroit, his alma mater:
Detroit and Michigan assistant Bacari Alexander are finalizing a deal, sources told ESPN.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) April 20, 2016
After LaVall Jordan took the head job at UW-Milwaukee earlier this offseason, Michigan now has two open assistant spots to fill. After Jordan departed, MLive's Brendan Quinn put forth a list of potential candidates:
A handful of names, based solely on context clues, are already emerging.
Florida assistant coach Darris Nichols, a former Beilein player at West Virginia, looks like a logical candidate. Patrick Beilein, the coach's son and current head coach at Le Moyne, is an obvious possibility. Former U-M director of program personnel C.J. Lee, a current assistant at Marist, could return. Others to keep an eye on include Iowa State assistant Cornell Mann and current U-M director of player personnel Chris Hunter.
At the same time, few would be surprised if Beilein passes on all of the above and goes elsewhere. Beilein could go off the grid or dance on the periphery.
In Jordan's absence, Chris Hunter has filled in on a temporary basis; this increases the chance he'll get the job on a permanent basis. With two spots now open, Michigan should move to fill out their coaching staff soon. Beilein has previously said he expected to replace Jordan in May.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
I don't know if it was on MGoBlog or elsewhere, but I had understood that Alexander would follow Jordan in leaving the program for a head coaching job. UofD looks like a better deal, at least administratively, than UW-Milwaukee.
Curious to see who comes in - and especially curious to see what recruiting chops the new assistants have.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
* great recruiter
* Iowa State’s lead defensive assistant coach
That second part isn't a good thing
maybe Mann for one of the spots, but Beilien has to get someone that is a man-to-man defensive guru, like Tom Thibidaeu for the Celtics a few years back. I really think he needs to go outside the tree for one or both of these hires. His son or former players seem seem like knowledge redundancy, which would be fine if we weren't a complete defensive disaster lately. There's a clear void to be addressed.
I don't know, but I'd be going after him, or a Wichita State assistant. I'm sure we can offer them a nice bump in salary. Then again, it's likely it doesn't matter who the assistants are and we'll continue to have turnstile defenses under Beilein.
The star assistant from the current national champions is going to make a lateral (at best) move? I would think he'd be looking for a HC job if he wants to move on, not a few more dollars. I don't know what Wichita State pays its assistants, but their head coach makes more than Beilein. Smaller schools with good programs are willling to pay high salaries in basketball. The small staff sizes and the revenue from the tournament allow for it in basketball, as opposed to football.
There are going to be coaches contacting Beilein about the job. It would be interesting to know who they are, but we'll never know unless they get hired.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^
He'd have the opportunity to make more money and coach at a bigger school. If he proves himself then he'd put himself in great position to be named Beilein's successor (Wright is what, 50? And isn't going anywhere anytime soon). Same with Wichita State. If you can put "fixed Michigan's defense" on your resume, that's as good an accomplishment as any.
He isn't at ISU anymore. He brought in exactly one guy that turned out at ISU as well. I don't think he's a great coach but don't lay their defensive blame at his feet. Fred Hoiberg didn't care about playing defense (this isn't a narrative, he didn't care) and when the head coach doesn't care about it, there's not much he could do. That said, I wasn't a big fan of him while at ISU.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:19 PM ^
Well it's hard for me to say that Beilein cares about playing defense, so it seems like Mann would just be in a similar situation.
I have been a fan of the Titans program since high school and want to see them do well. I think there's enough Detroit area talent to do well there.
Bacari has always had a high energy, flashy persona, I wonder whether he tones it down now that he's a head man? (I hope not) The BA tweet blitzes are always pretty cool.
he should turn it up. Probably hard to get too flashy and energetic when your boss is the exact opposite. But now that he's setting the tone for his program, might as well go Harbaugh and go all out.
I could see that too, would probably go over well in recruiting.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:40 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Best of luck to BA!
In addition to finding the diamonds in the rough, JB needs to get someone who is an excellent recruiter.
To have held onto Jordan and Alexander for as long as they did while the program experienced tremendous success and spectacular improvement.
The last couple years have shown how quickly expectations can be elevated, but Bacari and Lavall are a big part of why we have those expectations in the first place. They will not be easy to replace.
Good luck to him. Hopefully the next batch of assistants will help propel us even higher.
April 21st, 2016 at 11:59 AM ^
doesn't mean better.
It was one thing when Beilein wanted to turn things over to stay fresh and did so with great success (adding Alexander, Jordan and Meyer all at the same time IIRC) but now we've lost 2 guys who were great parts of what Michigan did.
One guy moving on would be fine but losing 2 excellent coaches at the same time is a big loss for Michigan and it'll be very hard to replace them.
But now it's an opportunity for Michigan to find another highly qualified up and comer. Beilein just can't buy a break for having an easy off-season. If it's not players leaving early or transfers, or whatever he seems snakebit. But maybe that's the landscape of college basketball these days.
Will Vergollo (video analyst / always-seen-on-the-bench-guy) is also departing, following LJ to UW-Milwaukie as assistant coach. Good for him.
Sure, the new teams for Alexander and Jordan will be their first priority, but they will always remember Michigan as a place which sharpened their skills and made them better people (like every former student, faculty member and staff employee who leaves for greater success elsewhere on the planet.)
So raise a glass of (fill in your preferred liquid) to another Michigan Man's success!
If I was an aspiring head coach and had that leverage (which apparently Bacari did) to ask for that, I would defintely want my contract to at least be long enough to give my first recruits time to graduate.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:27 PM ^
He's now sending out a very classy farewell tweet blast.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
April 21st, 2016 at 12:43 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Have you ever watched basketball? It's not like football where you are given a play and told to run it. Basketball requires that you have a coach on the court. There are only five guys playing at any one time. One of those guys takes on the leadership/coaching role and gets the guys in the right positions and runs the offense. He wasn't a point guard, but his leadership skills were obvious to anyone who followed his career at Michigan, and he's familiar with Beilein's system. I wouldn't be so quick to discount him just because he hasn't followed the traditional career path. Harbaugh would have been a great hire before he coached at Stanford. It just would have taken someone in the AD's office with some guts to make a non-traditional hire.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
Let's hire somebody totally unqualified because we liked watching them play basketball. It's not like Michigan basketball is a top 10-20 program...oh wait - it is?
We can do better.
April 22nd, 2016 at 10:53 AM ^
He was a three year captain at Michigan, so leadership skills, check.
He played four years under Beilein so he understands the system better than a current coach from another program, check.
He can probably recruit a little bit too:
http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-basketball/zack-novak-discusses-his-r…
You still think he's "totally unqualified?" Let's check his resume:
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/zack_novak_390666.html
He's smart, he can shoot, he can shoot free throws and threes, he can rebound, he hustles, he knows how to take a charge. He has experience with the NCAA tournament and he's a proven winner. Come on, man, think outside the box a little. I'm not saying make him the lead assistant, but there are two spots open. I'd take him in a heartbeat for that second second chair.
Capital One Academic All-America Third Team (first Wolverine since 1984) ... All-Big Ten Honorable Mention (Media) ... Lowe's CLASS Award Top 10 Finalist ... Lowe's Senior CLASS Award Second-Team All-America ... CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District First Team (third straight year) ... NABC Honors Court ... BCAM Academic-Athletic Team ... Academic All-Big Ten ... Big Ten Distinguished Scholar ... U-M Leaders of Distinction Award ... U-M Athletic Academic Achievement ... Seth Davis' Sports Illustrated All-Glue Team (second straight year) ... U-M's Steve Grote Hustle Award ... U-M's Thad Garner Leadership Award (with Stu Douglass) ... U-M's Bodnar Award for Academic Achievement ... U-M's Award for Outstanding Free Throw Shooting ... U-M's Iron Man Award ... U-M's Charge Award ... Team Captain ... Became the 40th man in program history to grab 500 rebounds (Dec. 13) ... Helped U-M to its first Big Ten title in 26 years ... Shared conference title with Michigan State and Ohio State ... U-M finished with 13-5 Big Ten record, the most conference wins since 2002-03 ... Helped U-M to a 24-10 record, its best record since the 1997-998 season and its 24th 20-plus win season in U-M history ...
Junior (2010-11) ... Capital One Academic All-District IV First Team (second straight year) ... Academic All-Big Ten ... CBS Sports' Seth Davis' All-Glue Guy Team ... U-M's Steve Grote Hustle Award ... U-M's Thad Garner Leadership Award ... U-M's Bodnar Award for Academic Achievement ... U-M's Loy Vaught Rebounding Award ... U-M's Award for Outstanding Free Throw Shooting ... U-M's Iron Man Award ... U-M's Charge Award ... Team Captain (with Stu Douglass) ...
Sophomore (2009-10) ... Academic All-Big Ten ... U-M Athletic Academic Achievement ... CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District IV First Team ... Old Spice Classic "Scholar-Ballers" Recipient ... U-M's Steve Grote Hustle Award ... U-M's Thad Garner Leadership Award ... U-M's Charge Award ... Team Captain (tri) ... Second sophomore at U-M to be named captain ...
Freshman (2008-09) ... U-M Athletic Academic Achievement ... U-M's Bodnar Award for Academic Achievement ... U-M's Iron Man Award ... Helped U-M to a 21-14 record ... Helped U-M to its 21st NCAA Tournament appearance and the program's first since 1998
And just so you don't think this would be completely unprecedented, Marquette's new head coach, Steve Wojohowski (sp?) graduated from Duke in '98 and two years later was on Krzyyzski's (sp?) staff as an assistant coach.
And I'm not supporting him because I liked watching him play basketball. What an asinine comment. I've played and coached my fair share of basketball, and I've attended numerous camps and coaching clinics. I know a little something about the game.
April 20th, 2016 at 11:48 PM ^
April 20th, 2016 at 11:54 PM ^
I'd be surprised if JB didn't take at least one of the names mentioned.
What we need is someone that can recruit elite talent, not someone who can pick out a guy that will play like the 80th ranked player when they were ranked 125th.
Michigan is a plum job, so we certainly can get someone good,
I'd consider Harbaugh-ing it and grabbing someone from an elite high school academy to parlay some great recruits.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:44 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
My roommates girl makes $75 an hour on the internet of his laptop . She has been without work for 6 months but last month her pay was $6852 just working on the internet for a few hours. linked here.....checked here…F2
------------>>> http://www.E-cash10.COM
That's my "cool story, bro" for the day.
I met him a couple of times myself - really good guy.
I don't know if assistant coach here can be the next step for him, but he seems like a good fit for Beilein and for Michigan.
Did call him "The Big Game Hunter." Maybe that was a testament to his potential as a recruiter.
I don't know much about the coaching candidates but I hate the idea of us promoting chris hunter. A guy with no basketball coaching experience outside of Michigan and zero recruiting experience is the last thing this program needs. The assistants need to fill two needs, top recruiter and a defensive specialist. If a guy hasn't already checked one of those boxes in his career I'm not interested. Michigan has the money to have a better staff.
April 21st, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^
for top notch assistants. Beileins' tenure isn't exactly secure. He may retire or asked to retire if the program doesn't show substantial imprrovement.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^
He's been highly successful and is completely secure. He can coach at Michigan for as long as he wants to.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:25 PM ^
Is that what Manuel told you? Because I doubt Beilein survives a couple more seasons like the past 2.
Comments