Darkhorse Candidates
I keep hearing the same names over and over again: Smart, Howard, Cooley, Jordan, and Yaklich. I have a feeling the HC will be someone unexpected. A couple that haven’t been mentioned much are Randy Bennett, who has a great track record of St. Mary’s. His winning percentage is above 70% and is only 56. They regularly compete for the conference title against Gonzaga, which is stiff competition. Another name that I’m surprised hasn’t at least been mentioned on here is Dane Fife, longtime assistant at MSU and the likely HC in waiting. I am not saying I’d prefer him over Yaklich, but I think he deserves a look. On the plus side, it might be a serious blow to Izzo’s program. As much as I hate to admit it, Izzo is a good coach, and Fife has spent significant time learning from one of the best. Fife’s brother played for Steve Fisher, so there is a connection. There are rumblings that he would be interested too.
What other lesser known names might be candidates?
What is your feeling based on? You have some good connections inside the program?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/westcoast/2013/03/01/saint-marys-ncaa-sanctions-randy-bennett-suspension/1956809/
Randy Bennett is disqualified from the get-go.
Dane's dad, Dan Fife, captain of the 1971 Michigan team, has openly promoted his son for the job. but nobody else seems to care.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state-university/2019/05/13/dan-fife-thinks-michigan-state-assistant-and-son-dane-ready-michigan-job/1195477001/
The Bennett stuff always made me laugh - the one thing he's good at is recruiting internationally, so of course that's the part he gets busted for.
Fife is a middling assistant at MSU and was there when a lot of the sexual assault stuff occurred. There is literally no reason to talk to him and he doesn't seem a remotely serious candidate.
No way I would want Dane Fife around Michigan basketball. If anything he would sabotage the program like Mateen Cleaves did on his “recruiting” visit.
Do tell. I've never heard that story.
On Mateen Cleaves recruiting visit, he and Michigan players (I know Maceo Baston was one of them) got in a car accident in a really nice SUV in the early hours of the morning. It was the beginning of the investigation into Ed Martin’s connection to the program
EDIT: it was not Maceo
NOT Maceo Baston. It was Taylor, Traylor, Bullock, Willie Mitchell and Ron Oliver.
My bad, I like Maceo, don’t mean to slander him
There are non sequiturs and there are non sequiturs. How you can draw any conclusion from a traffic accident involving Cleaves years ago and what Fife would do as a coach is mystifying.
A coach who coaches in a bad conference, has won it 3 times in 17 years and one time he made it out of the first weekend in the tournament. I think he has 4 NCAA tournament wins.
I think that basically explains why not Randy Bennett.
I know this is the internet, and an opinion based forum, but why can't we all just be patient and read more, take in information provided, and wait until this process runs its natural course? I'm sure every post has good intentions behind it, but we can do better than spraying candidates left and right.
Go for a walk. It's spring time. If you don't have anything to add, let the blog go for a week or two and all your answers will appear.
Now that you have done as I say, this is what I will continue to do. I'm checking this page every 5 hours, even in the middle of the night, and especially when going for walks.
Randy Bennett has only been mentioned by people who don't realize that he got his school put on 4 years probation for recruiting violations.
Dane Fife was at MSU during those covered up sexual assaults. That is not the program Michigan would take an assistant from, let alone promote one of them to HC. Rumblings he would be interested? Come on, he's an assistant coach, not even a lead assistant. Of course he would be interested.
They aren't dark horse candidates, they're total non-starters.
If you want to look at dark horse candidates, here's two suggestions; Tom Crean and Thad Matta. Matta turned down the Georgia job before Crean took it. They thought he was healthy enough to come back. They have very relevant experience although you'd like Crean's record to be better.
I've never seen anything negative about Fife regarding the sexual assault allegations. Should UM not hire Howard because he was in the program during an enormous pay for play scandal?
Fife might just stick around and hope he gets gig when Izzo retires.
You really want to equate a sexual assault coverup with a guy getting cash under the table?
Incidentally, Draymond Green's admitted taking money at MSU. That's a "scandal" that happens at a whole lot of places.
Lets assume that Fife was not involved at all. I didn't mean to imply that he was. But he's a coach coming from a culture where covering up sexual assaults was okay. He stayed there through it. That's not a good fit even if he's a good guy. And more details keep coming out from MSU scandals. There's a chance something breaks that we would not like. You don't take those chances with a guy that would be a major reach anyway. Fife is not Izzo's top assistant. Stephens would probably get the job if Izzo left anytime soon.
By comparison, the Ed Martin scandal has been gone over thoroughly. Juwan came out of it looking awfully good. Given the temptations around him and his background, it's a testament to his character.
Jackie Moon of the Flint Tropics would be an interesting hire. He'd have everyone wearing headbands which would distract Cassius Winston.
He is also a marketing genius and he parlayed a washing machine into Ed Monix. Dude is shrewd. Though, I do question his total lack of firearms safety.
Nope
I believe if you throw 4 mill at Nate Oats he would say bye bye to Alabama without coaching a game there..Probably the best young coach in the game
There's a good source to confirm that. Problem is Oats wants $4M and Bama gets an $8M buyout. For a 4 year deal, that works out to a front loaded $6M/year. In effect we would be paying more than anyone not named Duke or Kentucky for a coach that just has a few years at Buffalo.
Just curious why we (at least here on the board) would care how much money Michigan has to pay?
I don't care, it's neither my money or my decision to make. The AD and administration does care and it's relevant as to whether someone is a realistic candidate.
They might be willing to spend a lot on Billy Donovan or Brad Stevens. They're aren't going to pay that kind of money when it's double the market value.
You must not be following closely.
I remember reading about Bennett. He was tempting but I’m not sure it would work here. Much of his success has come from recruiting Aussie players, and it’s easier to get to them from the West Coast vs. having to fly from Michigan to the West Coast and then go to Australia.
I’d give him a shot for sure, but it’d be a gamble.
One can only hope the goal is to find the best candidate/coach for the program. Period.
Hey everyone, here's a decent overview of the search and process. A few good quotes as well.
Definitely worth a read. Wish I could post this in its own thread...but oh well.
Craig Smith Utah State. Guy no one talks about but should be in the conversation
An assistant is definitely not going to be a dark horse candidates. Only assistant candidates would be Yak, Saddi and Howard. Two of them are current assistants and Howard is a former player and in the NBA. Special cases.
Dark horse candidates would be mid major coaches. Jeff Jones tan Old Dominion would be an interesting name. He was the HC at Virginia from 1990-98. Took over when he was 30 years old. Got fired in the 98 but that was a long time ago. Did a good job at America and helped Old Dominion to transfer to a bigger conference. Don’t know anything about style of play or anything like that.
Matt McMahon from Murray St is an interesting name. That place seems like a coaching factory. Mark Gottfried, Mick Cronin, Billy Kennedy and Steve Prohm all came from there. Various levels of success after they left Murray St however.
Vince McMahon would be an even more interesting name. Also, Gordon Ramsay.
And the most interesting name of all has Michigan ties: Tshimanga Biakabutuka
Its just a very interesting name.
Who is Emoni Bates favorite coach? Asking for a friend.
Unfortunately Bates’s favorite coach is Tom Izzo, but fortunately the NBA’s rules are changing and he’ll never play college ball.
"without a ranked contender, what this fight is going to need is a novelty"
Maybe just go get Larry Brown for a "dark-horse" interim...to take the (likely) lumps of next year, keep teaching the kids how to play the game well and line up a true headliner for next year and years to come.
Unfortunately, if we hired Larry Brown for even a day, we’d be under investigation for some rules violation.
Hard pass on this idea
You mean walking NCAA violation Larry Brown?
Sometimes I wonder if the basketball knowledge of people around here ended with the 2003 Detroit Pistons.
Put another way I'd rather have Moser over Brown.
Izzo used to be a good coach. Now he is just a name that still pulls recruits. There’s a reason they don’t win titles regularly, and it has nothing to do with recruiting. He brings in talent like Bridges and JJJ and gets Bridges to stay for 2 years and you see his game stagnate or even regress. These kids are improving at MSUs program, but not at the clip I see other recruits improve at other programs. I think Izzo has fallen off as a coach and benefits greatly from his prior success and the name MSU has built for their program as a way to continue to remain relevant.
Ummm...not sure if you were in a coma all year, but Izzo did a tremendous job of "coaching" this season. He's a very good coach.
Yeah I would have agreed he lost a step or two, until last year. That was a true coaching marvel. That MSU team had less talent than any team they put on the floor for a decade. Got to give credit where it’s due. Izzo did a great job last year. Also, he is still a whiny little cunt.
Both coaches have been mentioned--Bennett countless times. Bennett is a West Coast guy who lives off of Australian/New Zealand imports. If Fife was highly regarded, he'd have been grabbed long before now.