Ed Cooley interviewing for HC job today
It's felt like Cooley was on the fringe of the search early on, but he seems like a finalist now. So far we have confirmed interviews for Yaklich (over the weekend), Cooley and Juwan Howard (tomorrow). I've seen it mentioned that Lavall Jordan has interviewed or has one scheduled but couldn't find a source.
Cooley was mentioned in today's front page post, but I don't believe the interview had been confirmed until now. It's also encouraging to see Baumgardner talk about the timeline and how this should be wrapped up by the end of the week.
Can someone tell me how I'm supposed to feel about this?
Hold me!!!
If you like horrible offense with no floor spacing and losing in the first round of the ncaa tournament then he's your guy.
Per @umhoops: "I struggle to get onboard with his offensive system, especially considering a shift from John Beilein’s offense. To my eyes, Cooley’s system doesn’t jive with what works in modern college basketball or where the game is headed."
Deeply apathetic.
Seems to be a good coach defensively and on the recruiting trail. No great success in the tournament. He would really benefit by hiring a really good offensive assistant coach. Debatable whether he is above or below the "Yak line."
I’m not too sure about the “good defensive coach” thing that’s going around. He’s certainly much better on that side, but that’s mostly because he’s that bad on offense.
Excluding a mid 200’s ranked season in his first year in defense (gotta be fair) he’s averaged 51st in adjusted defensive efficiency on kenpom.
For comparison, Beilein sans a mid 100’s first year averaged 67th pre-Yaklich. Much of the board wanted him fired for that. If Cooley’s supposed specialty is about 15 ranking spots better than “terrible at defense” era Beilein I just cannot justify him as the next coach. He’s basically Shaka, but worse on offense and defense and not a surefire 5 star recruit attracter like we know Shaka is. And I’m not exactly pumped about Smart either...
Please hire Yaklich before Cooley.
I hope this is a hey we are buddies courtesy interview and nothing more.
concerned
You should feel like Michigan's football team is headed for 3-9 in 2019.
Anyone but Cooley.
Good coach. Great person. Runs a great program at PC. We could do a heck of lost worse than Ed Cooley.
Brilliant move by Warde to float Porter Moser as a candidate, that way when names like Cooley pop up this is the fan base reaction to it.
That was actually pretty dang good.
+1
That comment was an outlier. The reaction here has been mostly negative, so you should be pleased.
Given the available candidates and Cooley's recruiting chops he's certainly worth an interview.
He purportedly uses a lot of multisyllabic words in his interviews.
Cooley would be to Michigan as Frank Vogel is to the Lakers.
Is Yak Jason Kidd then?
I wrote the first day that to keep an eye on Ed.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/cc-ed-cooley
When Warde was at UConn I worked with him and I remember he was impressed by the work he had done at Providence. He will be a good choice -- low risk. He can recruit.
What exactly makes him a good choice.
Is it his 1-5 NCAA tournament record?
Is it the 8 times in 13 seasons he's missed the tournament?
Is it the fact his kenpom offenses have ranked in the 100's in the last 4 seasons?
Is it the fact he's never lost fewer than 7 games in the Big east every season?
Literally nothing about this guy screams "good choice."
I want an offensive minded coach like Beilein. I do not want to go back to the Amaker days
You should probably factor in what providence was as a basketball school prior to his arrival.
Prior to Cooley taking over in 2012 they had been to ncaa tournament 4 times since 1990, they've gone 5 times in 7 years since 2012 with him as coach including going 5 straight times for the first time in their history, won the big east tournament for the first time in their history and are recruiting at a higher level than historically. He'd be a good hire.
Additionally the guy is at Providence... Give him the resources of a top B1G school and the ability to recruit nationally with our facilities, who knows? All I'm saying is coaches are often a product of their environment and need a platform to succeed before they can make a name for themselves. Kind of like the last guy we hired.
That's been proven to be a bullshit arguement Blau. Not pointing at you or anything, but I can't count the number of times we've all thought that only to see the hot MAC coach flame out. Whether it be FB or BB, these successful small school coaches can't always get it done with more resources.
But he's not playing in a small school conference; the Big East has been one of the 4/5 best basketball conferences for a long time. He's not inspiring but people acting like he's, I don't know, Porter Moser are just wrong.
Sure some coaches don't make it at the top programs but they have to get their start somewhere, right? I don't want Ed Cooley more than the next guy but to say that coaches don't rise through the ranks to get where they are now is preposterous.
Excluding our own JH, look through the list of B1G coaches and tell me they don't have a few seasons working at smaller-ish schools before making the leap to a bigger conference. It's the basic foundation of most coaching tenures.
He's been coaching 14 years and he and LaVall Jordan have the same number of NCAA tournament wins. Enough said.
And before he arrived at Providence they hadn't won an NCAA tournament game since 1997. I'm not a Cooley fan by any means, but it's not like he didn't improve a bad situation.
In his first 13 years as a division 1 head coach beilein had 1 ncaa tourney win. When he got hired at Michigan he had been past the round of 32 twice in his entire coaching career and it was in back to back years suggesting it could easily have been driven by one successful team. It’s almost like context matters.
Greg schiano was decent at a hard place to win Rutgers and was only ok at a better job like the Bucs and Ohio State. Its not like Cooley has a dearth of talent at providence either.
This is a strange basis to discount a candidate. Most coaches had to improve a small or moribund program into a winner before getting a better job. It's one of the principle reasons coaches move up.
Some succeed at the better job, and some don't, but Schiano's trajectory says nothing about Cooley.
That last sentence made me laugh out loud, and I'm not usually one to laugh so simplemindedly....
Outside of 2012-13 year, JB's record during his first 8 years at UM is actually worse than EC's record at Providence. He is a good coach and a much better recruiter than JB. His offensive scheme is not great. JB's defensive scheme was not great. After his second year, EC has taken Providence to NCAA every year. Is he an elite coach, no. Was JB an elite coach right from the get go, no. Can we get an elite coach at this time, no.
Cooley might be trash but how many NCAA tournament games are we expecting Providence to win?
Seems underwhelming.
Can someone verify that Baumgardner knows his ass from a hole?
I like your username
I wonder if Beilein feels any guilt for fucking us like this?
You mean does he feel guilty for taking over a dumpster fire of a program that hadn't been to the tournament in nine years (and paying his own buyout in order to take the job) and then single-handedly restoring it to the ranks of the nation's elite, hanging multiple banners in the process?
I wouldn't bet on it.
Not questioning his results Frank, questioning the piss poor timing of it all. For everything good he did, he nearly took it all back and then some in one fell swoop, by leaving us high and dry late in the process and with recruits hanging in the balance. That was not a graceful exit, and contrary to what Beilein wants to believe, there is a good time to leave, right after the season ends. The fact that he left a great gig like Michigan for a shithole like the Cleveland Cavaliers with a maniacal owner and zero talent is his reward. Brilliant decision coach.
See so many shitty nonsense posts from you.
You don't have to answer this question, of course, but are you really so upset that you would ask this question in that way? In any case. I wouldn't expect that he feels bad and I am fine with that. It's a business move, after all. Further, he left the program in great shape and whether he retired here or left for the NBA as he did, we were going to experience this transition eventually. As unexpected as it was and as awkward as the timing is, I can't find this level of outrage in me. It's just not there. Maybe I am the strange one....
Hopefully this is just a courtesy interview. His resume is thoroughly unimpressive. My ranking of the realistic candidates under serious consideration:
1) Luke Yaklich
(miniscule gap)
2) Juwan Howard
(tiny gap)
3) Saadi Washington
(medium-sized gap)
4) JaVall Jordan
(large gap)
5) Ed Cooley
Shaka?
JaVall?
Michigan will be a steady 19-17 every year under Cooley
Gotta interview somebody plausible so Howard doesn’t have all the leverage. Not gonna look like much of a coaching search if we interview one assistant and then Howard and that’s it. Relax
This is what I'm thinking. I don't think Lavall Jordan's buyout is worth it. Cooley interviewing might be a formality so when Howard interviews, it looks like we did our due diligence with everyone involved.
Or may be Warde is getting Cooley a raise at his current gig.