Unverified Voracity Grabs Large Stick
Time to get irrationally mad! Lovely of Jeff Goodman to offer himself as a midsummer piñata in the aftermath of Brad Stevens exiting coaching for a head coaching job with the Celtics:
Not saying they can get him, but one name I would look at if I was the Celtics:
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 2, 2021
Juwan Howard
Indiana fans with long memories and an antipathy towards Goodman rushed to point out that 1) Goodman floated Chris Collins(!!!) as a potential Beilein replacement and 2) was one of the chief NBA-guy-to-college skeptics:
Michigan fans have taken the suggestion with their usual aplomb.
Juwan Howard would be a good fit for Bost-
— Noah Neidlinger (@candor_for_sale) June 2, 2021
Michigan Twitter: pic.twitter.com/DW4mXMRA4Q
I think we're good at least through Jace and Jett's respective Michigan careers.
[after THE JUMP: weird guys]
Meanwhile in absurd Michigan-related coaching search news. Coach K is taking a farewell lap this year and will be replaced by his chief assistant, as North Carolina-based basketball powers are required to. Other options included…
The two other names that Duke/Coach K was seriously considering before choosing Jon Scheyer was Tommy Amaker and Johnny Dawkins, source told @Stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 2, 2021
I am suddenly dying to see what happens when you combine Tommy Amaker's turnover fiesta (last five years: 234th, 335th, 299th, 265th, 335th) with Duke's stream of one-and-dones. Duke's already been scuffling a bit in the TO department (~100th the last four years). Adding Amaker to the equation would have been potentially euphoric.
Meanwhile in vigorous up and down motions:
“He is obviously nearing the end of his career, but name, image and likeness coming into college basketball, and the transfer portal being out of control definitely sped up his timeline,” source close to Coach K told @Stadium
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 2, 2021
I think going 13-11 sped up his timeline.
John Beilein will not coach Indiana. I know they just hired Mike Woodson (and that seems to be going well so far) but I'm still suspicious. This alleviates some of those suspicions:
The Pistons are hiring former Cavaliers and Michigan coach John Beilein as their director of player development, league sources say.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 2, 2021
This takes Wesley Snipes Crying Beilein memes off the table for at least a little while, and given Beilein's age probably permanently. High five to everyone who doesn't have to endure the War Of The Basketball Dads. If you were wondering, yes, still on brand:
Some managers caught up with Coach B for mulch madness! @JohnBeilein pic.twitter.com/Y96xAgvd98
— Michigan Basketball Managers (@UmichBballMGRs) May 28, 2021
The grind never stops.
Recruiting rating tweaks. 24/7 has modernized its football ranking systems like so:
- Dropping the dual/pro style QB distinction and ranking all QBs together.
- Going with a PFF-style Edge designation that groups DEs and OLBs together. LBs are now just off-ball LBs.
- Grouping Cs and Gs together in an IOL bin.
They've also dropped the "all purpose back" designation since these days that just means "running back."
Scouting Owen Power. Power seems to have emerged as the consensus #1 pick in the upcoming NHL draft after an impressive performance with Canada in the world championships. Corey Pronman goes in depth on him:
NHL scout: “He’s the safe pick. There’s no miss factor with him. He’s huge, intelligent and a graceful skater. He’s going to help an NHL team in all phases, he’s solid defensively, good in transition and has offense. He’s also a really mature, grounded kid.”
NHL scout: “He’s first overall. He’s a really good skater for his size, he has good skill for his size. He can make plays. He’s a good defender, you wish he had a little more hardness in him, but he will be more than a good enough defender in the NHL.”
NHL teams are usually more patient with highly-drafted defensemen than forwards, who they're more willing to tolerate youthful errors from, but #1 picks always, always get signed and his recent performance at the WCs probably has a lot of folks thinking like Pronman:
Given how good Power looked playing with and against NHL players at the world championships, I could easily envision him in the NHL next season and more than holding his own.
Michigan does have a ready-made guy to step in for Power since they're bringing in Ethan Edwards, a third round pick in the previous draft, along with Luke Hughes. Edwards isn't going to be Power, obviously, but a highly drafted guy in his D+2 year is a good option to stick into the lineup as a freshman.
But hey maybe Buccigross will be right:
Matty Beniers will have a very good NHL career. He has a Patrice Bergeron vibe IMO. Responsible, reliable, self improver, accomplished family, sturdy. A ready to go pro. Doesn’t turn 19 until November as does Power. I think they should both play one more year of #cawlidgehawkey https://t.co/J7Ew2c4gyV
— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) June 2, 2021
(He will not be. Michigan Hockey Summer.)
Etc.: Mike Hart starts up a summer camp. I still miss AJ Dillon. Peahead's deception. Adam Fantilli on campus.
I kinda understand wanting to stay in-house, but UNC going with Hubert Davis and Duke going with John Scheyer seems pretty risky for two of the top basketball teams in the country in terms of risk/reward. Neither really did a formal coaching search and given both their statuses, one could think they could do better, no?
i can't honestly think of too many "assistant in waiting" transitions from legendary hoops coaches that worked out.
izzo, obviously. any others? maybe calhoun to kevin ollie, although that didn't last, and calhoun's departure wasn't exactly a victory lap. adolph rupp to joe b hall, i guess, but that was 50 years ago. wooden to gene bartow, too, although in that case bartow couldn't wait to get out of the old man's shadow.
EDIT: bartow was a good coach, but his tenure in westwood was even shorter than i thought. two years - an elite 8 and final four - before he bugged out for the UAB job.
Matt Painter is the one that always jumps to mind, but that success seems to be the exception.
Steve Fisher worked out quite well.
Looking at Bartow's wikipedia page, he never was an assistant under Wooden. He was head coach at Illinois for one season before taking the UCLA job.
ah. fair enough - my memory was that he was handpicked by wooden, not sure why i thought that.
It's extremely difficult replacing a legend in-house or not. Legends are rare and there's almost inevitable reversion to the mean. But yeah, if you're a big time program, you presumably have your pick of just about anyone. The question is did they use that to put in place exactly the assistant they wanted? Time will tell if these were the right moves.
Hoping for some satellite camp content in the near future... heard a bunch of coaches have been on the road since the dawn of the moratorium lifting, with Nua coming back to A2 this weekend to host Toia.
I hope it's more than nua hosting toia... he's not even close to being our best recruiter!
This is pretty much the exact recruitment he was brought in for though. Better lock it up!
Basically as soon as Don Brown left, Nua locked up all of his targets last year, the ones that were still available anyways. At the least I'd say the jury is still out but I think he's better than we thought around early December last year. I still don't quite know what was going on there and maybe us non-insiders ever will, but even after getting pounded in 2020 Don Brown seemingly STILL wanted to stick to his "grow a DT" plan.
I'm getting 4 yds of mulch delivered this week and don't want to move it all myself. Any chance I could get Beilein and his crew down here to help?
Not mulch of a chance.
Probably depends how mulch he's willing to pay.
Tree fiddy.
You're barking up the wrong tree.
Four yards? Ask the likes of us and you’ll end up with three yards and a cloud of dust.
Ha. I hear Leroy Hoard was always good for three yards. Maybe he'd be willing to help.
We got 13 yds a couple of weeks ago. Good thing we have 3 kids to put to work on it!
And I highly recommend double-wheeled wheelbarrows. So much easier to move that mulch, especially for the youngsters.
Damn. That’s a lot of mulch! The double wheels are great. That’ll be one of my next purchases.
No kids here. Just me and my dog to move it, but he’s not too good with a shovel.
I can’t think of anyone who contributes less to humanity in return for a paycheck than Jeff Goodman. What a piece of work.
Seriously - he is the perfect poster boy for the modern hot-take-and-forget "journalist". What I'm surprised Brian didn't point out is that he was a big Cooley fan and down on Juwan as a candidate. Now he's putting Juwan in the Celtics job!
Who’s #25?
Nunya Bizness, you creepy bastard
Lonnnngtime lurker logging in for the Predator reference.
Damn. You haven't posted since 2015. Did you emerge with the cicadas?
Only in the hottest years this happens. And this year, it grows hot.
The only inevitable conclusion is that Carol Hutchins is going to be the new coach of the Celtics.
Also it's so rad that Juwan keeps his MCard in a phone wallet!
How much are we paying the football coach? Re-allocate those budget expenses as appropriate based on merit and results...problem solved.
Pardon my ignorance, but who's the third person in the photo? (I recognize Juwan and the softball coach, so no jokes.)
Wish I could upvote that photo.
I think we get 1 of Beniers / Johnson / Powers back and I'm holding my breath for that one. But then again maybe a covid year will have teams leave their 1st rounders in the lower leagues
Also condolences to Owen on having to go play for the Sabres vs getting to go play in Seattle. Sorry man
Beware of people who carry two+ phones.
I used to do this for work/play before integrating them with a Knox-based phone. I wonder if Coach Howard is using his for recruiting contacts. I would be very interested in Juwan's approach to his phone and media.
If he leaves anytime soon, it is going to be a gut-punch of the worst sort, not unlike the death of Bo before the game. Somehow I don't think Juwan's legacy is going to be challenged as Bo's has been.
Get Juwan all the phones he wants, please! Moar Fonz! This is not a time to be caught in the wrong stance. People are not programs are not fanbases. I've never felt better about a coach's character than I do of Howard. You can't buy that. This lead photo is Michigan at the moment. The two finest of coaches we have, and we have some fine coaches.
I don't think it's a stretch if you're a senior citizen to go "eh, maybe it's time to retire" when your sports' rules change dramatically. It does seem like a good jumping off point.
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