Rumor: Coach K prevented Tommy Amaker from taking Duke HC job
No idea if this was posted back when the basketball coaching carousel was in motion, so apologies if old news.
Also, this may not be 100% accurate due to the sources, but an interesting read:
February 15th, 2022 at 10:25 AM ^
Amaker has not proven himself capable of running a P5 program.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
Mostly true, yes. But Amaker did not ask for the storm of sanctions he received right after he took over the failed Ellerbe era, added rebuilding to what was already a rebuild . This created a less than ideal recruiting platform, although I never doubted that his teams always played their hearts out…they often reminded me of this year’s team (the last several weeks that is) with far less talent. However, I say “mostly” true because his offensive coaching left something to seriously be desired.
I would also argue that Amaker learned a TON from the mistakes he made at Michigan. I feel he might truly be a good coach, that we just got at the wrong time.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:45 AM ^
The fact that Amaker didn't make the tourney once from 2004 to 2007 (and the seasons before that but I give him a pass for the reasons you mentioned) even though having plenty of chances to, was some of the most frustrating years of being a fan. His teams were always awful in the conference tourney too.
But of course this was a while ago.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:47 AM ^
He has been gone for about 15 years. What in his resume since then , leads you to believe any of that?
He is a good guy. But being a head coach at a top power5 program is not Tommy's forte.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:30 PM ^
He was a weird guy. Likely still is.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:47 AM ^
There were sanctions to start but he ended up recruiting some good players. He just couldn't get much done with them.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:02 PM ^
But Amaker did not ask for the storm of sanctions he received right after he took over the failed Ellerbe era, added rebuilding to what was already a rebuild
It was known that we were going to get sanctions at the time we hired Amaker. That wasn't a surprise. The FBI had raided Ed Martin's house and the NCAA was looking at the new findings. IIRC, Amaker's contract had a clause automatically extending it for every year we were on probation.
The sanctions weren't really that crippling. We lost one scholarship per year for four years. The worst part of it was that we were initially banned from the postseason for two years, but we successfully appealed and got that reduced to one year (2002-03).
This really doesn't explain why his teams kept falling apart down the stretch and missing the tournament when they absolutely had tourney-level talent.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:24 PM ^
Amaker recruited plenty of talent. Daniel Horton, Dion Harris, Lester Abram, Courtney Sims, Brent Petway, Epke Udoh, Manny Harris - recruiting was never a problem. Developing those guys into a cohesive team was. Even his most experienced teams would commit tons of silly turnovers.
And then we’d always seem to gag at the end of the season when we were on the verge of sealing a tourney bid. We had a home game against a meh IU team in 2006 to end the season and blew it. Then we lost to a terrible Minny in the BTT.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:33 PM ^
Totally agree. For recent contrast, Beilein did more with less when he got here - and then sustained the success.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:13 PM ^
I was at the season-ending IU game. Absolutely no plan on offense even though he had Horton and others. That team was 16-3 in early Feb and ranked and looked like a lock for the NCAAs.
Went 2-7 down the stretch and then lost to bad Minn team that we had beaten by 16 and 22 during the regular season.
That was the game that made me realize Tommy would never turn the corner at UM and we needed to find a Beilein. Tommy lasted one more season - it got so bad Izzo was lobbying on his behalf that Michigan should keep him.
Always very glad that Tommy brought us back to close-but-not-close enough and got us through the scandal years to a clean program. JB took it from there and made NCAA two years later in 2009.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:57 PM ^
I was there as well. I think a lot of people walking out of Crisler that day came to the same conclusion. That season we had gone from hoping to get a protected seed to just hoping to make the tourney, and even that was in doubt after losing on Senior Day. Then we somehow lost to Minnesota. Amaker was an easy guy to pull for, but at some point you've got to produce.
I remember watching Beilein's Pittsnogle teams and thinking, "Why can't we be like that?" Bill Martin apparently was thinking the same.
February 15th, 2022 at 2:35 PM ^
To me, Tommy's offensive plan always seemed to be run three-man weave at the top of the key until time runs out and whoever has the ball go one on one.
February 15th, 2022 at 7:06 PM ^
So many turnovers as well.
February 18th, 2022 at 12:16 PM ^
I still have nightmares of Courtney Sims and Graham Brown standing at the top of the key apparently looking to initiate the offense.
February 15th, 2022 at 4:59 PM ^
Amaker was a terrible coach at Michigan. Lane Kifdin won at USC despite the NCAA taking them behind the wood shed with their sanctions.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:57 PM ^
Ala Brady Hoke?
February 15th, 2022 at 10:27 AM ^
In retrospect, Amaker's stock was at its peak in 2015, ever since then his seasons at Harvard have been just... meh. I do not think he has any business taking over Duke, especially when he is 1/10 on making the tournament at Power 5 schools.
I can't stand Coach K as the next guy/gal, but I think he more than any coach should have the final say on who gets to take over a top 3 basketball program that he built from the ground floor.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:05 AM ^
I think "from the ground floor" is an exaggeration. In the late '70s Duke was a middle-of-the-road ACC team. It wasn't like Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:15 AM ^
Yeah, Duke went to the final in 1978, and the year before K arrived, Duke went to the Elite Eight (they beat Kentucky in Rupp in the Sweet 16 -- I was there!). They were the other all-white team in the 1966 Final Four. K did have a rebuilding effort when he first started, but, yeah, this was a real program before he got there.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:19 PM ^
Just talking basketball here. Duke before Coach K:
National Titles = 0, now = 5
Final 4's = 4, now = 16
Tournament Appearances = 8, now = 43
My only argument is none of his former assistants/players should be owed as his successor. He feels Jon Scheyer is the best coach to keep them as an elite basketball program, while Amaker has shown nothing to carry on Duke's standards.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:29 PM ^
To be fair, until 1975 you had to win your conference to make the NCAA tournament, so it's not entirely an apples-to-apples comparison.
But yeah, he's had an incredible run.
February 15th, 2022 at 7:39 PM ^
Is this true? That would be a small tournament if only conference champs got in
February 15th, 2022 at 8:10 PM ^
22 teams in 1966. The NIT was actually a big deal before the NCAA grabbed everyone that would normally have been invited to the NIT.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:30 PM ^
The tournament didn't expand to 64 teams until the mid 80s. I think it was 48 teams before then and at one point I believe only 32 teams got in.
February 16th, 2022 at 10:35 AM ^
Correct. Still should be 48. 68 only for tv revenue. Not a bad reason of course.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:46 PM ^
This can't be stated enough. A completely different world pre-1975. The 2nd best team in the country in 1971 was Southern Cal. 24-2. That got them a ticket to . . . their locker room. No NIT, no NCAA bid. Why? They lost to UCLA twice.
And Duke had to do this with UNC in its league. It wasn't like the SEC back in the day with Kentucky and 9 football schools.
Coach K elevated an already solid basketball program into a national brand, but this wasn't like say Coach Cal turning UMass into a national power for half a decade from complete dogshit.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:34 PM ^
The great Coach K hasn’t won an ACC regular season title in over 10 years.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:27 AM ^
Tommy's coaching ability prevents him from getting the Duke job.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:29 AM ^
Yeah Tommy Turtleneck should never of even been considered. He is rotten
February 15th, 2022 at 10:30 AM ^
Makes sense to me. Smart move.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:32 AM ^
I think Amaker is a better coach than he showed in his time at Michigan, but I also don't think it makes sense to go from a guy who's 75 and been there for 32 years to a guy who's 56. Going with a younger guy you could see as the future of the program for decades to come makes sense.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:17 PM ^
56 isn't even close to old enough to be a factor if you think he's good enough. He could coach another 2 decades. It has more to do with his ability.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:22 PM ^
Which is why I wonder why people talk about Harbaugh like he is going to hang it up in 2-3 years?
February 15th, 2022 at 10:34 AM ^
I wonder if Jay Bilas will criticize coach K.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:11 PM ^
I laughed. It always seemed to me that Bilas was overly critical of anything Michigan when he covered games during the early ascendant Beilein years - probably because of the way Michigan broomed his buddy out the door a few years earlier.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:36 AM ^
Like him or not, the guy is a legend and wanted to leave the program in the right hands. Can't blame him one bit for not wanting Amaker to be the man. It's not like his coaching tree of former players is filled with any obvious candidates either.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:36 AM ^
On a scale of Ellerbe to Beilein, it always feels like people here want to put him next Ellerbe, when I think it's much more accurate to say, at worst, he belongs squarely in the middle of the two.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:13 AM ^
I agree. Amaker gets a lot of shit from Michigan fans because he never got to the tourney and his teams were so-so. What these guys fail to consider is that Amaker took over from Brian Ellerbe - a guy I can outcoach. Ellerbe (in combination with Tom Goss) just thoroughly destroyed Michigan basketball after Fisher was forced out in disgrace.
Amaker fixed the Ellerbe mess, and restored dignity and integrity to Michigan basketball. No, he was not a very good X's & O's coach. But he was a damned good leader of people, came with the Duke stamp of approval, and his integrity and honesty was unquestioned around the country.
While at Michigan, he rebuilt a legit dumpster fire (that made MSU football look smooth) into a team that won the NIT tourney. He isn't a very good coach, but he was exactly what Michigan needed at that time. I don't understand why he gets so much hate here...
February 15th, 2022 at 11:37 AM ^
I agree with you here, but really what you're saying with your spectrum is that Ellerbe was grotesquely bad. I'd hope nobody disagrees with that. Beilein was a 10, Ellerbe was a 0, and Amaker was somewhere in the middle, maybe a 3.5 and maybe a 6.5.
Amaker was the front man when the university decided to disassociate itself from the Fab Five. It came off as the once-and-future Duke guy shitting on a program that challenged Duke. I mean, obviously the whole Ed Martin mess was, uh, a mess, but a Duke guy taking down those banners is going to leave a bad taste in your mouth.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:50 AM ^
If it was possible Ellerbee should be -1. Was at one of the horrible MSU beatdowns of UM during Ellerbee's tenure. Staee put up over 100 and won by 50 I think - not sure got drunk that night to forget. The moment that stood out for me re: Ellerbee was when he took a kid out for a bad play and then just glared at him on the bench. Never said a word, just kept staring. Missed opportunity as a teaching moment.
Late in the game Staee player did a 360 dunk. Izzo called time. Pulled the kid and chewed him out which I assume was for disrespecting the opponent. Not a huge Izzo fan but quite the contrast.
February 17th, 2022 at 2:22 AM ^
I remember the Duke game at Cameron that started out 34-2...
February 15th, 2022 at 12:46 PM ^
I don’t think many hate him, just realize and recognize he is not a very good coach. Just because he may have been the right person at the right time, doesn’t mean he deserved any more time.
He stabilized the place but it was clear he could not take it any further.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:37 PM ^
Amaker gets a lot of shit from Michigan fans because he never got to the tourney and his teams were so-so.
Well, those are pretty legit reasons.
Hey, I liked him as a person and cheered for him. But to never make the tournament in five years (we were ineligible the other year), at Michigan, warrants getting fired. Making the tournament isn’t that hard. The fact that we were looking at a tourney bid like the holy grail sums up how far our program had fallen. This is a program that played for the national title in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, and did again (twice) in the 2010s.
He inherited a terrible program, sure, but if there’s any sport in which you can turn around a program in a hurry, it’s basketball. Amaker just wasn’t a good enough coach to do it himself.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:22 AM ^
On a scale of Ellerbe to Beilein, no head coach at Michigan in my memory has been closer to Ellerbe. I wasn't following women's basketball when the team was at its worst, but they may have a candidate or two.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:48 AM ^
Cheryl Burnett was pretty awful.
For what it's worth, Amaker had two seasons where they were (by some accounts) snubbed by the selection committee. In 03-04 and 05-06 they finished in the top half of a competitive conference.
Ellerbe's only tourney appearance was by many accounts a fluke.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
Both of those seasons we went 8-8 in Big Ten play. We were probably one of the last four out each time, but it didn't feel like a snub. I was not confident of a bid either time. Amaker's teams just could never seem to get that signature win that would put them over the top.
Ellerbe won 25 games and the BTT as interim coach. The season itself wasn't a fluke, but he would never have a roster like that again.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:56 AM ^
To be fair, what has Tommy Amaker accomplished on the court to justify being put in charge of one of the best, if not the best, most prestigious college basketball programs in America?
I don't know if any of this is true, don't know if Amaker was actively pining for the job or not, but if there is only one coach in all of college basketball who should have the deciding vote on who succeeds him, its probably Coach K.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:59 AM ^
Do I believe that K got to choose his successor? Yes
Do I believe that the Duke admin considered Amaker for the job? Yes
Do I believe that the Duke admin offered Amaker the job without getting Coach K's approval in advance? Not for one second.
I think that this is a made up "controversy" to promote book sales.
February 15th, 2022 at 11:13 AM ^
^ This