Brian Cook Needs to be on HC Search Committee
Brian is very good at many things, but in my opinion he is expert at 2 things. The first is his post-mortem articles after football games, especially when we used to actually lose games. It became the Monday morning salve that I needed to begin my healing process.
The second thing is his analysis of potential head coaching hires, with yesterday's podcast as his most recent example. He really understands the important metrics (Beilein-esque) that drive college basketball success while at the same time knows better than anyone the limitations set forth by our University's admissions policies. Couple those two items with top candidates' massive buy-outs, and you are left with threading the needle with a relatively small pool of best case scenarios.
Brian's candidate list takes into consideration style of play (high 2pt%, high DReb%, low TO%), player retention, diamond in the rough recruiting/player development (see football recipe), and proven HC success. Our athetic department should seriously consider hiring Brian as a consultant, if not place him on the search committee.
Let's make this happen...
Go Blue.
Is this the hawt take segment?
I actually truly believe that both Brian and Seth should be hired as analysts by the football program. Seriously, who has a better grasp of both Michigan and their opponents than these guys?
I am sure there would be a lot of technical knowledge and vocabulary that they would need to learn - but they are both extremely smart people that could pick that up inside a few months.
I believe there is no limit to the number of analysts that a program can hire - so they wouldn't be taking spots away from other folks.
The actual analysts who have played, coached, and been around the game. Not saying they would be bad, Alex Drain would be a good fit, masterful scouting reports. If they were the best candidates then they would have been hired, we know the coaching staff peruses MGoBlog or at least is aware. Brian knows game planning for sure.
P.S. Are you trying to destroy our coveted free content?
No, not enough yelling
Is Brian on the committee a hawter take than Craig Ross on the committee? I think not.
Craig would bring some much needed Soviet history expertise.
If ever there was a place to make a case for a blogger to be part of official school action, it is on the blog of said blogger (bloggist?). God speed
Brian Cook needs to get Warde fired.
Brian Cook for AD?
Warde’s email game is much more tactful than Brandemort’s.
I think I'd rather he be on city council
I think he's gotta be smarter than that.
Butt kissing just jumped the shark.
Between this and the "OMG Michigan will have six first round draft picks next year" thread it would appear there's been a clearance sale at the MgoBlog maize & blue glasses outlet store.
Next up - really stupid CC threads with coaches suggested that we have 0.0% chance to land in real life. Something like "CC - Bill Self"
We're getting dangerously close to "CC: Keith Jackson" territory already.
I think Brian has a good handle on what a good basketball coach needs to be at UM but the devil in the details is finding that guy who can be successful doing his system at Michigan. Lots of guys on paper look like they'd do well and then can't, and I'm not sure anyone is particularly adroit at doing so. Look no further than Dave Brandon, who hired both John Beilein and Brady Hoke as head coaches.
Bill Martin hired John Beilein
Bill Martin hired John Beilein.
Yesterday, people were begging for Seth to release his tool.
Today, this tool wants to hop on Brian's tool.
Like the Lebron "dick-riders" winning championships?
Wait. Didn't that get someone banned?
You must be very devoted to remember something like that.
They can just read his blog posts on the search for free and I'm sure someone there does.
Is OP gonna babysit his kids so he has time for this?
Brian Cook is a grumpy, self-made entrepreneur. He is not an ass-licking do-nothing desk jockey who plays the system or understands maneuvering the political realities of an Athletic Department and Board of trustees.
It's a nice pipe dream and would be the perfect counter to Warde, and is therefore never happening.
If you're a University, and your choices for an AD are (1) an analytically inclined person who understand sports but is a grouch, doesn't play well and doesn't understand internal politics, and (2) a person who is a buffoon as regards analytics and measuring competency for coaches, but is happy and knows how to glad-hand and keep the power players happy and keep the $$$ flowing in .....
You should choose #2 100% of the time. Not 99.999999% of the time, 100% of the time.
It's a job where politics and warmth and connections matter a fucking lot. Not ideal for fans of that University who chiefly care about Wins and Losses, but it is reality.
Yes.
I mean, they will choose #2 100% of the time, but that's not about winning.
1 will win you more games. 2 won't interrupt the flow of the gravy train, which is the real objective.
Not sure if I'm disagreeing with you, though.
UNCWolverine, GIVE ME YOUR HOTTEST TAKE
Maybe he can sit on the committee that evaluates the committee responsible for overseeing the committee that writes the criteria for selecting the search committee. Because everyone knows we need more committees.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Brian's top guys last time around (excluding the unattainable guys like Donovan, Few, Oats, Musselman, etc) were Steve Prohm, Juwan, and Yaklich.
- Prohm (another KENPOM dandy with good offenses at the time) went 12-20 and 2-22 in the 2 seasons after the search. Fired from ISU. Currently at Murray State with records of 17-15 and 12-19.
- Juwan, well, we know what happened.
- Yaklich went to UIC and had records of 9-13, 14-16, 12-20, and 12-21. Also fired.
There are no sure things. That's why it is important to have a decisive AD when it is the wrong thing.
Paid consultant.
I also like his analytics take. Find something that is repeatable and clearly the result of coaching, that gives a relative competitive advantage. It keeps the team in games they may otherwise lose and reduces the odds of losing games they should win. Players, seeing sustained improvement and an identity in that area, believe in themselves and each other. It creates better, lower variance teams.
That's only one part of the job though.
Bob Stitt
I already have the new Bob Stitt for you https://theathletic.com/2798730/2021/09/01/meet-ben-mccollum-the-division-ii-coach-winning-titles-and-turning-heads-across-college-basketball/
I'm not arguing against or for this, but you have to at least mention Bob Stitt and Matt Campbell if you're going to start this thread.
Coach serchin anit easy.
Brian knows very little about basketball but is a stat head. If you listen to him talk it’s clear he doesn’t understand playing the game of basketball in the slightest. Plus he uses the work “like” in nearly every sentence.
Brian is 100% unqualified to judge who would be a good hire.
This X1,000 except for the “like” comment
Thought the basketball team lost a majority of their games last year due to luck
He wanted the Colorado School of Mines (Stitt?) coach to be our OC or HC in football.
However...he was correct when he said we are now Notre Dame (mediocre) after the Hoke hire.
He also argued for Tom Herman, Dan Mullen and even Scott Frost at various points.
Momma said if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. _________________
How are we going to make this happen? Willing it into existence?
That’s going to be a No from me Dawg
Was a huge advocate for Juwan to be hired….pass
Brian Cook can't be worse than the actual AD in charge of things. The fact that Brian and Seth said that they've heard from multiple sources that coaches would have come here but don't want to work for Warde is not great. Hiring and retaining coaches is the number one AD responsibility. It seems that Santa and the regents don't want to get rid of him. All parties would be better off if he took some NFL/NCAA job as some type of mutual decision.
The dude has made a career out of knowing his shit about Michigan sports (especially Football/Basketball). He clearly loves the U and has their best interest at heart. If Santa, Warde and/or the Regents are asking, I'm for Brian representing the fans.
Please ... Stop drinking and go to bed.
March 19th, 2024 at 11:20 PM ^
It should happen.
It's obviously not going to happen.
But let's not pretend it's because there's some special expertise involved in being a college athletics administrator that Brian could not possibly fathom.