Warde's hires at U-M so far: reason to be confident
I know the average person doesn't follow the "non-revenue" sports at Michigan but for those that do, you can learn things about Warde and what he may do with the MBB hire by looking at the hires he has made for other sports.
Let's look-
June 2016-
Just months into his tenure, M Tennis head coach Adam Steinberg resigned to take the job at Arizona State to restart their program that was at the time dropped. Steinberg is a great coach who won a national championship in 2005 and turned the M Tennis program around in just 2 seasons (7-17 year one, 21-8 in year two) and currently has the program right behind OSU who has been on top in the B1G for years.
April 2017
After legendary Red Berenson came back for one brutal season to sadly fall on his sword and go out the wrong way, Warde went out and made the no-brainer hire of Mel Pearson. Mel took over Michigan Tech in 2011-12, a program that had been an absolute trainwreck for many years. Won 5 games total multiple times prior to his arrival. Mel turned Tech around and won the WCHA title, getting the Huskies to their first NCAA Tournament in 35 seasons in his 4th year.
Year 1 of Mel Pearson at Michigan started off really badly but great senior leadership managed to turn the ship around and the team went to the Frozen Four for the first time since 2011. This past season was not good but we didn't have good leadership from the seniors captains by all accounts. Lack of dynamic forwards, an injury to a first round draft pick and inconsistent goaltending led to a 13-16-7 season. Things should get better as Mel gets his guys in here. Nobody should be complaining too hard after a Frozen Four in year one.
May-June 2017
Warde fires BOTH men's and women's lacrosse coaches. Both the first coaches in the respective program's histories. Both did very poor jobs establishing a good culture which led to very little success on the field.
On the men's side, Warde hired Kevin Conry from Maryland, the defensive coordinator of the 2017 national champion. Conry posted an 8-6 record in 2018, a season that included the first win over a top-5 opponent in program history when Michigan beat #4 Notre Dame. The Wolverines also closed 2018 with an OT upset win at #14 Penn State on senior day. 2019 was a setback as the season was derailed by injuries early on. Michigan struggled to a 4-9 record but managed to upset #10 Ohio State on senior day, the first win in the rivalry in program history.
On the women's side...........holy shit. Warde's best hire yet. Then-29 year old Hannah Nielsen was named head coach. Pretty much was the Michael Jordan of women's lacrosse in her playing days at Northwestern where she won 4 national titles as a player and won the lacrosse-equivalent of the Heisman twice. Michigan went 7-10 in year one but she completely changed the culture and attitudes.
If you've paid attention to the threads on the board this spring you've seen how well WLAX did in 2019. 16-4, the first winning campaign in program history. Countless amounts of records set and history made this season. First B1G Tournament qualification, first national ranking, all the way up to #7 at one point, first NCAA bid and hosted. The future seems even brighter once Nielsen gets her players in here.
April 2019-present
In addition to the MBB coaching vacancy, Warde is also working on getting a new Men's Golf coach. Chris Whitten resigned at the end of the season to take a job outside of coaching. Being that there is next to no inside info on Michigan Golf we don't know what actually happened. If he was done with coaching or if Warde told him he's done at the end of the year. Whitten was not under contract (seriously) and his coaching career here has been subpar (no pun intended). Especially disappointing choice to replace Andrew Sapp who left M for North Carolina after getting Michigan to the Final Four in 2009. Good to see some changes are coming for a program who has not won the B1G Championship since 1952.
Warde has done a pretty good job with the hires (and firings) he's made so far. No home runs but he's made some solid decisions.
Good post.
I don't know if Warde will or won't make a great hire. (And I remind myself that a splashy hire doesn't always equal the great hire. See Rich Rod.)
But I think it's quite telling how people use Warde's large appearance and his unwillingness to attack the biased 2016 Ohio refs as reasons for his incompetence.
Over the years, I've come to realize that most fans are idiots and their stupidity is most apparent after losses and during coaching searches. For instance, I recall many people saying Jim Hackett would be another Bill Martin and make a bad hire simply because of their business backgrounds.
In any case, I do have some degree of confidence in Warde to get this hire right simply based on how his previous choices at Michigan have worked out.
(I don't hold Turner Gill against him. He didn't have access to the same pool of candidates at Buffalo as he does at Michigan.)
I am very much a huge fan of sports. I am very much not a fan of sports fans.
* looks up etymology of "fan", remembers its short for "fanatic".
?oh shit, that's why they Cray!
So how do you feel about your self then? Seems like that would cause serious cognitive dissonance.
I think the reason everyone is freaking out is because Beilein was the best mens coach at Michigan right now. Replacing him isnt gonna be easy. I loved John Beilein. Always believed in the guy always defended him after the team would start slow and the board would melt down due to a bad game. Basketball was a always a sigh of relief after 7 straight disappointing football novembers. With a new coach, i dont know what to expect on the basketball side now. The pressure is gonna be doubled this season on football especially if basketball doesnt make a splash hire.
We don't need a splash hire. We need a great hire.
We want the hire we will look back on in 5, 10, or 15 years and think "Yeah, it worked out well over the years."
Some people "need" both.
tomato, tomato (eh, doesn't work so well in print; but you get the idea)
You say tomato, I say potato.
No reason to attack the refs when it was Michigan's own fault that they lost.
I live in Buffalo and Turner Gill was a great hire. His record wasn't fantastic, but Buffalo was one of the historically bad teams before he took over. Even though Khalil Mack didn't play for Gill he was one of his recruits. When Gill left for Kansas people were sad to see him go. Buffalo still isn't great, but Gill took them from being a joke to something where people see possibilities.
Buffalo is a hard place to sell people on.
It is a sad state of affairs that it took this long to write a rational and researched analysis of Manuel’s wares thus far. Great work on filling the void WD. I don’t think he gets enough credit for his handling of a larger than life figure in Harbaugh. Also, he retained KBA after a monumental collapse before a impressive rebound. He has retained Bakich. He has kept Hutch happy and well-paid. We finished 1st (runner up) in the Stanford Director’s Cup. He has been very solid thus far, but this next hire will likely define his legacy. Go get ‘em Warde, we all want you to succeed on this one...
People are idiots...he's one of the best 5 ADs in the B1G. Top 25 in the country, no question.
They have no idea what an AD does or is about.
However you are 100% correct on this hire...but at the same time, there is literally ONE name that would make all Michigan fans happy. Brad Stevens.
Not even Donovan is universally loved. And I'm not considering Jay Wright or Tony Bennett to be options.
That said, I'm a little confused on the buyout stuff...Beilein had all the leverage. Why would you force a buyout on him when he's already looking to leave? Could you imagine if Beilein accepts an NBA job last year and it leaks that he didn't want to take a huge buyout?
Warde would've gotten DESTROYED.
I feel like he played the cards he was dealt. He wanted a coach and basically let him write his own contract to keep him and keep him happy.
I'm pretty sure if Jay Wright or Tony Bennett walk into their ADs off tomorrow and say...I want NO BUY OUT in my contract or I'm going to Michigan...that whole contract would be in the shredder and they'd get a new extension just for having to waste their time walking into the ADs office.
You all think Dabo or Saban are really worried about a buyout?
Beilein was our Dabo/Saban...there was no one else we wanted (maybe Wright). He was perfect for Michigan. He was clean, he won, not a screamer, well-respected, impossible to hate, survived a plane terror...everything.
Beilein had all the leverage once it was clear he was serious about potentially leaving.
Let Harbaugh win a national championship, he'll have the same power. We will be talking about giving him $10mil per year.
Why would Brad Stevens make everyone happy?? I think Mark Few would have a better effect. It would probably make some Michigan's fans blood run cold.
I am not really hoping it's Brad Stevens. He's maybe at 4 on the list.
edit: no, I don't think it's going to be Mark Few.
I hope it was that you stayed up past your bedtime...that you decided to share this "wisdom" with us. Brad Stevens is a tremendous coach of the game. Few is good-he's no Brad Stevens.
Stevens, Wright and Bennett check all the boxes-that put them in a (top) class of their own...getting either of these three would be a coup. There is a very solid "next" tier who would be excellent hires...which is where Few is.
So what Mark Few has done is not impressive to you?
MaizeBlueA2 - you are spot on about Beilein. Brian and friends are so emotional that JB left, and thus they are conjuring up reasons to blame Manuel to find a scapegoat to assuage their bitterness. There was no way to prevent him from going to the NBA if he wanted to (money, contract strategies, statue and court-name promises, etc.).
He can’t leave for an NbA job if he’s not offered one. He wasn’t last year. No one is saying to put in a $10 million buyout. But a couple million goes a long way toward paying your next coach’s buyout and also isn’t going to inhibit teams expressing interest in JB. I’m sure JB would have understood this.
Beilein met with the Magic and Pistons last year, Cavs this year. Woj has reported that at least FIVE GMs have said that they would've contacted him if they had any inclination he would leave Michigan.
Beilein had leverage, period. Whether the Pistons actually offered or not isn't the point.
So you force a buyout on Beilein...he says "NO!" And sticks with his current contract.
You've just signaled every college and NBA team that Beilein is on the move next year...he's available.
It's lthe same logic we're using with Donovan. He told UCLA "no" and now we think that because he doesn't have an extension he may leave OKC and head to A2.
Beilein would've been offered 10+ jobs this off-season once word that he wasn't renewing with Michigan leaked.
And guess who you and all your friends would be blaming?
Warde fucking Manuel.
Like I said, he had no leverage. All he could do was try to keep the man happy and hope that would be enough to keep him. Trying to put some Jamie Dixon buyout on him would have never worked.
Let me ask you all this...if Brad Stevens, Tony Bennett, Mark Few, Jay Wright or whoever your #1 guy is said "yes, I'll accept...but if you add a buyout to my contract, I'm staying." Are you willing to let your dream choice walk? As a fanbase are we willing to settle for Shaka Smart knowing we could've had our almost universal #1 under certain conditions?
Give me Stevens, Wright, or Bennett and I'll give you the salary and incentives I can live with and you can write the rest of the contract. Buy-out be damned...I'd rather have one of them for 4 years than settle for some 3rd tier choice that sets the program back to mediocre.
Fuck that, I got a taste of the Final Four, and that shit tastes amazing! I'm not here for NIT Championships.
I’m a Celtics fan and a Michigan fan. Please let me keep Stevens on the Celtics. He’s as principled as Beilein, and after a couple of years to see how ridiculous high-major basketball recruiting has become, he’ll head straight back to the NBA. Then I’ll be without Beilein AND Stevens.
So no thank you, don’t make me go through more coaching change misery.
100% agree. Thank you for making sense. They guy hasn't even hired someone yet and 90% of the morons on this board are already ready with the pitchforks.
Sad state of affairs that it took so long?
I think the majority of posters on this board know generally what his hires/fires/extensions have been. Granted not as detailed as WD's but not sure it's a sad state of affairs.
Just my opinion.
Is that Gymnastics hire/fire in there somewhere?
Nah, it happened so quick that it's not on his resume...
Great point. That’s what I was thinking.
I think this thread is just about people Warde Manuel hired.
Thank you. He hasnt been here long enough to see if his hires will be great but so far he hasn't disappointed. People have to relax. My hope for michigan basketball is to hire a guy that can get the big time recruits. The Beilein method was amazing but it had its limitations and cannot be replicated. Beilein was the best at developing talent. Anyone else is just a cheap copy. The program is back from the ashes and is well known nationally. Bring me a coach that can get 5 star talent. The big ten is up for grabs as far as talent is concerned. Not many elite athletes are going to any big ten schools. We can change that.
With all that said, some Michigan fans are happy when they are unhappy. Then have it in their head that he will screw it up. Let Warde make a hire and then judge him because hopefully this is his biggest hire. He should be thinking about how to keep the basketball money cannon going.
I'm sure he knows the weight of the decision. Michigan has deep pockets. There's no reason he can't find a coach the caliber of which even North Carolina and Duke would want to hire.... say, Mark Few. But I know, he doesn't want to leave Gonzaga.
I'm hoping it happens...
Bill Martin hired lots of good coaches in the non revenue sports too and ultimately he fucked up the biggest hire of his tenure when he decided on Rich Rod. Time will tell how Warde's basketball hire will work out, but just because he hired a good women's lacrosse coach doesn't really mean much. Mel Pearson was going to be the next hockey coach no matter who was the AD after Hackett and the mens lacrosse hire (which from all accounts was a giant clusterfuck of a search) is still a giant question mark. I'm rooting he gets this right though.
Bill Martin also made one of the best hires in M basketball history after he screwed his first one. And I don't blame him for Rich Rod, it looked very good at the time, after who knows what happened to Les Miles.
How can you not blame him for Rich Rod? He had a national championship winning coach in Les Miles wanting the job and he said thanks but no thanks.
Nick Saban built that team.
Did he?
Nick Saban left after the 2004 season.
Les Miles led LSU to the National Championship in 2007 with a 12-2 record.
I think 3 years is enough time. I'm sure 07 LSU still retained some players recruited by Saban but I'm willing to bet the core of the team was put together by Miles.
Ron Zook was fired after the 2004 season. Urban Meyer coached Florida to National Championship in 2006 and 2008. I don't recall people saying Zook built the 2008 Florida team - nor should they.
Ron Zook would be above the Yak line for me.
Possibly.
But I don't think Les Miles would have won that National Championship if he had taken of a bad team rather than a one that was one season removed from a National Championship. I don't think the recruiting for Les Miles would have been the same. I think the effect of the National Championship helped him. Would he have gotten the same recruits if he had taken over a bad team? And I don't want to take the time to look it up, but how many players on on the 2007 team were recruited by Nick Saban? Would Miles have had same those players already on the team if he had taken over a bad team, with players recruited by someone other than Nick Saban? I like Les Miles a lot. And I am going to be following Kansas this year. I hope he does great. He's a like-able guy. I hope he can build Kansas into a football dynasty. I just think he won that National Championship at LSU because of what Nick Saban did there before him, and he wouldn't have gotten it without it.
This is a strange argument. I do agree that having a really good team sets up the next coach for an easier transition to having his own really good team. If Harbaugh had replaced Tressle, I have no doubt he would have won big just as quickly as Meyer did. But he took over from RR/Hoke and had little to work with in relation to OSU. Does that mean he's not as good a coach as Meyer? Would Meyer have done as well following Hoke? Probably not... So many variables involved!
Regardless of where players came from, why not just give coaches credit for the seasons their teams had? I mean, they still had to instill their own coaching methods, get the players to buy in, install (probably) new schemes, new training methods, etc... Saban cannot have credit for the championship LSU won 3 years later because he recruited a few players anymore than Hoke can have credit for Harbaugh's opening 10-3 record.
A lot of those hires are incompletes. Mens lacrosse was horrible this year even with injuries. Brandon hired the tennis coach. Hockey is an incomplete.
I don’t understand the M Tennis paragraph. What is the point of that?
Same here.
Steinberg quit to take on the Arizona State job and has turned around our program?
Is Steinberg working at U of M and at ASU? Is the OP also DD (Devil Devotee)?
Left because he got a better offer, Warde panicked and paid him more. Warde never locked him up before the wandering eye.
Agree. It's never great to start a post with an ambiguous statement. If there were a means to edit original posts, I'm fairly certain that Wolverine Devotee would've edited his post after he'd read it again. #BringBackEditingAndVotingForOriginalPosts
Here's a LINK to an article describing how Adam Steinberg left Michigan to take the job as Arizona State's men's tennis coach in June 2016, but changed his mind nine days later and returned to Michigan.
Although the Athletics Department website for Adam Steinberg's bio wasn't updated for the 2018-19 season, it says that he was hired on June 14, 2014 before Warde Manuel became Michigan's Athletic Director. Credit to Warde Manuel for agreeing to allow Steinberg to return to Michigan, but Manuel wasn't responsible for originally hiring Steinberg.
Warde is in a no-win position. There is not a 'no-brainer' candidate out there like Harbaugh was when the football job was open. Some of the better known candidates either won't come (Stevens) or will have to be overpaid (Donovan). Same with some of the college options (Wright, Beard, Oakes). That leaves a pool that a plurality of fans will probably not be pleased with. Whoever AD Manuel hires with have a segment of the fanbase up in arms.
I trust Manuel. My only deal-breakers are first time head coaches (yes that includes Saadi, Yaklich, and Juwan), and guys who carry the air of corruption (Pitino, Larry Brown, and others).
This is very true. But I think most fans would be supportive with a Yak-line type hire if we knew that he really tried to poach the higher tier coaches. I don't know how we'd know if he did/didn't, though - and that's going to be the issue fans will have. If they're assured - somehow - that he had serious discussions and/or serious offers that were just turned down, I think we'd be okay. But if we're not assured - somehow - of this, our collective rage will be apparent because 'he didn't try'.
Given Warde's demonstrable silence, I believe we'll be left to scrapping for inside info, rumors, and innuendo from all sources (which is exactly what we're doing now). The more any particular item surfaces, the more believable it will seem. Unfortunately, the preponderance of rumor will probably end up determining how we feel about any forthcoming hire.
What will be will be, we have no control over this decision
Warde is a dope. He will fuck this up. Watch.
Beaver, I think you’re being too hard on the Warde.
You’re not my comrade but you’re most likely to be right.
Thanks, WD, not only for your perspective but for your continued sharing with us your knowledge of the non-revenue sports. I am very excited about the remainder of the baseball & softball seasons. I look forward to your posts.
FYI, I have posted a few comments this week similar to yours re: Manuel & the need for perspective. I think we are going to get the right hire.
Also, I don't think hiring an assistant with no collegiate head coaching experience is necessarily a bad move. We have been very successful in hiring assistants
Johnny Orr was Strack's assistant. Orr-Frieder. Frieder-Fisher. That amounted to over 30 years of Michigan basketball success, from Cazzie/Buntin to the Fab Five. The only down period was when we ventured outside the program.
Yeah, so... Ellerbe was a Fisher assistant, so he was an inside hire. And he largely destroyed the program, sanctions or not. Amaker, the first outside hire in a LONG time, did a good job of restoring respect to the program and running it cleanly. Not a lot of NCAA tourney success, but was far better than Ellerbe could have ever hoped to be. Beilein was an outside hire.
I'm getting old, my memory of Michigan sports goes back to the early 70's. The worst coach I've ever seen on the Michigan bench is Brian Ellerbe, and it's not close. The only truly down period we had was from an inside hire.