Bacon Juwan Watch Update: While Warde would rather keep Juwan, he now seems less inclined to bring him back
I don't know why this is even a question but here we are.
Well let's not jump to conclusions here, Warde
They started a March Madness bracket at work and I just realized it's been years since I've even contemplated March Madness because we haven't fucking participated.
It's been years? Last year was the first year Michigan wasn't in the tournament since 2015.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:25 AM ^
"years" is technically correct for 2 ;) (but not the word I'd choose).
March 13th, 2024 at 10:37 AM ^
If we're going to split hairs, then it technically has still been only one year since this season's tournament hasn't started yet nor have set a complete field, and technically Michigan could still earn a bid by winning the B1G tournament. Technically.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:44 AM ^
Well, I think every other team would have to get hit with RSV or the flu so that they could only field four players ("My team is on the floor!"), and that might still not be enough. :(
But it'd be amazing to see how they got seeded. Would the Big Ten champ be sent to Dayton as a 16? :)
Nice Hoosiers reference.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:55 AM ^
I guess the old woman (i.e. Dennis) was too busy looking for filth and being repressed by the violence inherent in the system and wasn't paying attention to hoops.
It’s actually impressive how fast Howard ruined Michigan basketball.
+1,000 DirtyD, I wish I could give you more upvotes.
Juwan's comments after the regular season ended was such BS platitudes, saying things like how he thinks he can right the ship, blah, blah, blah.
It just came off delusional and very annoying, he needs to either resign or be let go.
The fact that we have to sit here and wonder what Warde is going to do just shows what a pathetic AD he is, get rid of both these under performing clowns, pretty please with sugar on top.
Ever since 1994, if I hear the phrase "pretty please with sugar on top" I silently or audibly finish it with "clean the fucking car". I am unable to unjoin the two phrases now.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:14 PM ^
Check out the big brain on Brad!
Agree, the barometer has changed from hopeful- sky's no limit, to hopeless- we're bottom feeders from now on. It's also impressive that the hoped-for AAU recruiting wonder has morphed into a coach that can't land or keep a recruit. Maybe the saddest part for me is the demeanor change, from passionate gratitude to assaulting bully. Who wants to play for that coach? What parent wants to send their kid to that team? What spectator (other than opponent) wants to watch that team?
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. Seems like you pretty much nailed the situation.
March 13th, 2024 at 12:28 PM ^
Must have been Juwan's family on MGoBlog.
Sparty is all of those things. Just sayin'.
I might choose a different adjective.
I logged in and will likely be late for a work meeting to upvote this comment.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:53 AM ^
I don’t think any of us here could have done worse. Now that is saying something
It really is a shock. We were winning Battle of Atlantis, beating the Zags and UNC, we were getting deep into the tourney, we won the conference, we had an all-American freshman, AND we were signing 5 stars finally! At the time, it really seemed he would continue JB's success and add onto it with top-tier recruiting tied to NBA tactics.
Fall from grace is an understatement. I feel bad for Juwan since he obviously loves the school, but I feel way worse for the program and especially the players. Not like this...
Of course he would rather keep him, that's the easy thing to do.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:39 AM ^
His main course of action is to keep his own job, and while he'd rather do nothing he's probably heard that keeping Juwann and letting the team have another trash season would negatively impact his ability to go full Peter Gibbons.
Another insignificant tweet from JUB: Warde would rather keep him, but maybe not so much now. He may stay, he may not. In conclusion, no one knows.
Nice update from "insiders."
This take right here. Can't wait to read JUB go back and forth on this for months.
I get the frustration here. It'd be great to hear from insiders exactly what's going to happen before it happens.
But isn't it possible that there really is no decision inside the AD and that people on the inside are changing their thoughts and ideas?
In that case, this is what the "insider" reporting would look like. There's no firm reporting because there's nothing firm to report.
And if that's true, that's an indictment of Warde, not JUB or other insiders.
Yeah, you can't really fault JUB or anyone else for not knowing what's happening in Warde's head. Because that's really all this comes down to.
Then don't tweet. That's the point, he has no information but what's to sound like he does. That tweet is so meaningless that it's useless. So don't tweet it. That simple
Personally, it’s been tough to judge how much blame Warde deserves for Harbaugh’s departure. However, if I’m taking JUB’s Juwan reporting at face value (ie. Warde unlikely to fire Juwan on his own volition, but the decision is so obvious that Santa, regents, donors, etc will force his hand), I can absolutely draw the conclusion that Warde’s incompetence / stubbornness is a *huge* problem.
Monkey House has figured it out! JUB didn’t have to tweet that lack of info. Guy is playing both sides against the middle.
This... EVERYBODY in the "insider" business lives by clicks these days. Seems like all of them have decided it's best to just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Take credit for any random bit you got right and ignore the (vast majority of) stuff you got wrong. Oh, and you need to be first for this to work, so get it out right now without investigation.
I think the tweet is open to interpretation if it means anything. I was taking it previously that Warde is for sure keeping him, basically 99%. He has a built in excuse with the heart thing and the "I was the one that kept harbaugh and look how that turned out" mantra.
If insiders have information that he is waffling from what seemed like a firm stance to keep Juwan, I do think that is significant.
Now some people felt that he wasn't sure this whole time and then this tweet is more of him not being sure. I was under the impression he had no intention or no thought of removing Juwan.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:49 AM ^
Then don't tweet. That's the point, he has no information but what's to sound like he does. That tweet is so meaningless that it's useless. So don't tweet it. That simple
Such a policy would be the end of Twitter/X!
March 13th, 2024 at 11:20 AM ^
yet here we are, discussing it on a board post created for discussing it. it's like the butterfly effect, but meaningless.
I don't think you need to be an insider to realize that in addition to the players having checked out, so have a majority of the fans. An empty Crisler and no one watching on TV is not a good thing when it comes time to pay the bills.
In this day and age where major college sports are all about the money, the revenue stream may talk loudly.
Bingo.
March 13th, 2024 at 11:03 AM ^
JUB's account: located
Sam's the only guy who seems legitimately plugged in
I saw that last night and one of the questions someone asked was basically “what does that mean?”
Bacon responded “it means Warde won’t fight to keep him”
I thought then and I think now…..JUWAN REPORTS TO WARDE, WHO IN THE HELL WOULD WARDE NEED TO FIGHT?”
Speaking of my institution, our AD reports to several committees and the President. He has three Associate ADs. Warde has the final say, but he needs to get everyone on board, including prominent alums (e.g., Rose); otherwise, the next coach will be at a disadvantage—remember Rich Rod?
Oh I get how multi-layered organizational authority functions and that Warde has to answer/report to others. My point is the HC of the basketball team reports directly to the AD so the impetus for termination HAS to start there. Now, if Warde said "I think we need to make a change" and the team he reports to pushed back, I get why he'd not make a move.
But saying he wont fight to keep him definitely implies that Warde is waiting for HIS bosses to make a decision and that's terrible IMO. It's Warde's primary responsibility to either make the recommendation for termination or make the case for him staying. Waiting for others to make that call is basically him not doing his job.
Spot on. This is classic Warde. He won't dismiss Juwan because that would create additional work for Warde in terms of negotiating an exit, searching for a new coach, negotiating with the new coach, etc. But he also won't fight to keep Juwan because that would ALSO create additional work for Warde. It's just as simple as Warde will always do whatever minimizes work for Warde.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:22 AM ^
This is not a multi-layered University organisational structure issue.
I recently wrote a post about the job an AD has to do with regards to coaching changes and big donors. https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/john-u-bacon-juwan-howard-return-more-likely-not#comment-245273526
What JUB’s text is really saying is the big donors are no longer in agreement about Coach Howard’s status and Warde is not going to fight for the consensus to be to keep him. He’ll facilitate a consensus, it could go either way now. Bad spot to be in because this could take a little while and we all know how patient fans on this blog are.
March 13th, 2024 at 11:32 AM ^
I would guess these rumors have started with people in the AD who want to see Howard go. It seems Warde is not going to deny or quash them, hoping Howard would see the writing on the wall and leave on his own, thus avoiding any backlash from some alums.
If Warde said "I think we need to make a change" and the team he reports to pushed back, I get why he'd not make a move.
I don't get the difference between that and Warde saying "I think we need to stay the course" and the team he reports to pushing back and swaying him to fire Howard.
To me, in both cases, Warde has more or less made up his mind about what he prefers, but he doesn't feel strongly enough to go against the stream if there's a strong consensus in the other direction.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:38 AM ^
I think this tweet is only significant in the context of a previous tweet from JUB indicating that Warde was strongly leaning toward bringing him back. So this could indicate that the tide is turning.
March 13th, 2024 at 10:56 AM ^
JUB throwing “but know one knows anything” behind any single tweet is getting infuriatingly annoying. Just say you don’t really have the inside sources you used to.
March 13th, 2024 at 11:15 AM ^
These statements Bacon is using in this situation don't mean anything at all. I mean, I don't care that he's doing it, but people are insane to go nuclear over absolutely meaningless soundbites that have thin credibility through a "game of telephone" source chain at best, from a reporter plugged into the Harbaughs but demonstrably not well connected to the thinking of the AD, for whatever that's worth.
I have yet to see any credible evidence indicating what Warde's actual timeline or plans are for after the season. And the statements made so far have absolutely no meaning with regard to the decision process, other than something that everyone knows and should understand: The decision won't be made until the season is over. Until then, the idea that Warde would "like to keep him" means nothing, because it could mean something almost everyone else would agree with: we wish Juwan were coaching well enough to stay. Or it could mean something else entirely. If it is even accurate, it still means nothing. "Maybe he's not so sure now" doesn't mean anything, either, even if it's somehow accurate, because we lack a timeline, and, again, the season isn't over.
It's quite possible that Warde could bungle this, but people assuming that he *is currently* bungling it because of these tweets are not being wise.
March 13th, 2024 at 11:22 AM ^
Logged in just to upvote. This is spot on
March 13th, 2024 at 11:31 AM ^
Do you want him to make something up?
If I'm giving one of them another year to prove their worth I'm picking Juwan over Warde every fuckin day.
Warde all but shoved Harbs out the door and slammed it. Arguably the best HC ever but certainly the best in 100 years.
He's been standing on the other side of the fence watching all the big dogs frolicking and playing off leash for the dogs' first time ever and saying - we're gonna stay over here on the leash. Despite there being no bigger dog.
He got pissed on by his own conf. and said - thank you sir may I have another.
He got shit on by the NCAA and said - that was awesome can you shit some more, wrap it up, and I'll take it home and eat it later.
Warde's biggest claim to fame is he likely saved Michigan $25mil this year. An amount Mich finds in its couch cushions. And I'm sure he expects them to reimburse him half of it.