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"You want people to…

"You want people to acknowledge that Shannon and Love and Hunter would have helped?"

Yes. That's basically my 2 posts in 1 sentence.

They would've helped and Juwan would likely still be employed. 

In the various anti-Juwan threads I've seen, there's been a lot of venom directed at Juwan but no one mentions how he got screwed over on 2 key critical TP recruits which would've significantly altered how Juwan and Michigan program are perceived. 

@BlueDad22

Thank your for…

@BlueDad22

Thank your for the details. I appreciate you providing context to the story.

1. I did not suggest or…

You misinterpreted parts of my post. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough so I want to clarify. 

1. I did not mean to suggest or indicate Juwan's firing was unwarranted. After 2021, the Michigan Basketball program was undeniably getting worse season after season. And an 8-24 record is unconscionably awful. If Juwan Howard had managed to go 15-17 this season then perhaps he deserved 1 more season to see if he could right the program. (Tangent: After a very successful start to his Purdue career, Matt Painter had a 16-18 season followed by a 15-17 season in 2013 and 2014. Purdue chose to be patient and it worked out for the Boilermakers. Juwan needed to show that he could keep the program afloat this season. He did not. Hence, he wasn't retained.)

I did, however, make my case for how UM Admissions hindered Juwan Howard's attempts to rectify the roster and the chain of events that unfolded.

2. I did not compare Coach K's record and Juwan's record. However, I did point out that a similar scenario had played out before. And I want to clarify: by scenario I'm referring to a program that nearly reached the pinnacle being sub-.400 a few short years later.

At Michigan, Beilein went from trending toward getting fired in 2011 (pre-Sparty turnaround) to nearly winning a National Championship in 2013 to missing the NCAAT in 2015 to barely making the 2016 NCAAT as a play-in (and then losing a heartbreaker to ND) to playing for the National Championship in 2018. That's quite the roller coaster, no? Our fortunes changed dramatically within 2-3 year windows.

I was suggesting that Juwan Howard could've possibly engineered a turnaround IF he had greater institutional support/leeway. But if UM Admissions is going to hamper him in the age of the transfer portal, then the odds were low. And if UM Admissions will continue to be a problem for the next coach, then we can expect to see some more rough seasons.

3. When people were still in the honeymoon phase with Juwan Howard in 2021 and the early part of the 2021-2022 season, I said Juwan was making a mistake going after OADs because they are fool's gold. They key to sustained success in college sports is to get old and stay old. Ex: Did you know that the overwhelming majority of Final Four teams have at least 3 upperclassman starters? And multiple bench players tend to be upperclassmen too. Experienced quality talent matters. (Michigan could've had that coveted combination this season if Hunter Dickinson, Terrence Shannon Jr, and Caleb Love were all on the roster. And according to Ken Pom, each was a top 5 player in each one's respective conference this season. Brutal.)

For whatever reason, Juwan did not seem to understand the "get old and stay old" adage and it led to some poor roster management. It was a perfect maelstrom of not getting his top choices from HS (like Calipari does at Kentucky) and then not being able to clear his top choice from the transfer portal. To maintain a program, a coach has to be great at either building through HS recruiting or transfer portal recruiting. He can't fail at both. Juwan made the mistake of going for too many shiny 5 stars who ultimately ended up going elsewhere. 

Hence, there was always a roster imbalance. Consider this: after Simpson graduated (following 2020 season), Juwan Howard had to rely on a series of transfer PGs: Mike Smith, DeVante Jones, Jaelin Llewellyn. Mike Smith was the best of the bunch but none of them were elite. When he finally developed a guard (i.e. combo guard Bufkin rather than a true PG, Bufkin left after 2 years (when he was expected to be a 3 year player). By the the time we finally developed a true PG in Dug McDaniel, the roster had holes elsewhere.

Juwan didn't have a consistent pipeline that proactively filled roster spots with more talent. We were always lacking somewhere and it finally caught up to him the last 2 seasons with the bottom falling out this season. 

Tangent: Hunter Dickinson going to Kansas probably saved Bill Self from having an unthinkable 14-17 season. Bill Self (who is arguably the best coach in men's CBB) took Hunter Dickinson and had a 10 loss season. In 24 seasons as HC of a high major team (Illinois + Kansas), he's had only 3 different 10 loss seasons; 2024 is one of them. KU is currently 22-10. Imagine KU without Hunter Dickinson. You don't have to. Did you see how badly KU got blasted in the Big 12 Tournament by mediocre Cincinnati when KU was without Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar? It's basically 2024 Michigan.

Talent acquisition is vitally important to all levels of success. I liked Juwan Howard swinging for the fences but Calipari's approach to HS recruiting shouldn't have been his approach at Michigan. And because that approach failed, he was always relying on the transfer portal to fix the deficit and it never came to fruition despite Juwan's best intentions. (Thanks, UM Admissions.)

Perhaps this should be a…

Perhaps this should be a diary entry but I'll share it here.

My opinion: I didn't like how the Michigan fanbase quickly turned on Juwan Howard. 

In retrospect, it's no surprise given that this is the same Michigan fanbase that wanted to fire Jim Harbaugh.

"What will change in 1 year?!?!" they asked.

Turns out A LOT.

And I can pull up the receipts. I already put a clownsuit on ThadMattasagoblin. I can do it for many more MGobloggers. (The Internet is truly forever thanks to sites like Archive.is or Wayback Machine.)

It's the same Michigan fanbase that was pissed at Warde Manuel for not firing Jim Harbaugh in 2020 and then was pissed at Warde Manuel for not being able to retain Jim Harbaugh in 2024 (even though it was clear that Harbaugh badly wants to win a Super Bowl). The Michigan fanbase talks out of both sides of its collective mouth. The notion that there's something special about the Michigan fanbase relative to other fanbases is horseshit. That was painfully obvious in how it talked (and still talks) about Paterno vs Schembechler. Both men failed to be leaders in things that matter infinitely more than football.

Also, all this talk from the Michigan fanbase about how Juwan Howard inherited a great team. No. He inherited a great program but not a great team. That's an important distinction. 3 starters (Charles Matthews, Jordan Poole, and Iggy) from the 2019 team left. 2 of those 3 were underclassmen.

Michigan Admissions knee-capped Juwan Howard by not letting him get 2 all-American caliber players (Terrence Shannon Jr, Caleb Love).

Timeline of events:
1. Moussa Diabate leaves because NIL can't go to foreign players. Michigan has a big hole at the PF spot because a talented international player (expected to be multi-year player) chooses to be OAD.
2. Juwan Howard tries to get Terrence Shannon Jr but is denied.
3. Michigan loses many close games, doesn't make NCAAT, and lacks someone exactly like Terrence Shannon Jr. at the hybrid SF/PF spot.
4. Hunter Dickinson leaves because he thinks Michigan doesn't have enough to win. He's not wrong.
5. Juwan Howard tries to get Caleb Love and gets screwed. Caleb Love having enough to get into Arizona but not Michigan is HORSE CRAP.

Think of all the close losses we've had the past 2 seasons. Those 2-3 players would've made a difference. Many games are decided in a 4-7 point spread. Yeah, they would've flipped many results.

In an alternate timeline, Juwan Howard gets Terrence Shannon Jr, Michigan makes the 2023 NCAAT as a 23-8/24-7 regular season team (so before BTT), Shannon returns for another season, Hunter Dickinson stays, Michigan gets Caleb Love, 2024 Michigan plays like a 1 or 2 seed (26-5/27-4) and is a Final Four contender. (Yeah, yeah..."spare me the if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle" posts.)

It's amazing how 1 transfer portal snafu had such a horrific chain of events.

FYI: Juwan isn't the first coach to take over a program 2 years removed from a National Championship runner-up finish. Coach K took over Duke in 1980-1981. Duke was 2 years removed from losing to Kentucky in 1978 NCAAT Final in St. Louis (because Jack Givens was on FIRE and scored 40+ points).

Look up Coach K's first 5 seasons at Duke (especially the first 3). And then look at year 6. (i've linked his wiki page for convenience.) It's amazing that Duke's AD Tom Butters didn't buckle to the pressure of Duke's major donors. And back then, nearly all players stayed 4 years. So Coach K inherited super talented players like Gene Banks and Jim Spanarkel from the start and struggled because they didn't fit his preferred system (attacking man-to-man defense).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Krzyzewski#College

I don't know if Juwan Howard would've been able to engineer a turnaround. But Michigan fans knowing that UM Admissions knee-capped Juwan Howard on 2 elite players and then acting surprised that his tenure collapsed? I find that annoying. Juwan isn't without faults but there's no doubt that he got sabotaged by UMAdmissions with its goofy graduate transfer vs upperclassman dichotomy.

And spare me the "he wasn't classy" nonsense. Our in-state rivals have that prick Tom Izzo as HC. Izzo abuses refs every game with his tirades. And there's many instances of him going overboard and chewing out (or even trying to manhandle) his own players.

Juwan shouldn't have slapped the Wisconsin dipshit. The Mark Turgeon confrontation was a nothingburger. And Sanderson was a he-said, he-said affair that didn't turn physical even if it was confrontational.

Winning cures everything. Just ask Michigan Football. And Juwan Howard didn't win enough. But he also didn't get to stock enough ammo in the arsenal to win enough.

UNREAL comeback by Michigan…

UNREAL comeback by Michigan WBB to beat ranked Indiana WBB.

If we hadn't already, this win should've earned us a spot in the WNCAAT.

Do our own fans know or…

I wonder: do our own fans know or remember that Steve Fisher had a brutal 1991 season? 

Michigan went 14-15 season that season and was 8th out of 10 teams in the conference (back when the Big 10 was actually 10 teams). 

Fab Five class led to success the next 3 seasons. We lost to the (eventual) National Champions each of those 3 seasons...dammit.

Yes!
We anticipated what the…

Yes!

We anticipated what the objections would be and came up with solutions.

He still wasn't convinced at the time. 

But at least he came around. It's still not clear to me what led to his change of heart but better late than never. That said, it sure would've been nice to work with a proactive AD who can see around the corner, ya know?

The DC doesn't need to be an…

The DC doesn't need to be an elite recruiter if the position coaches recruit very well and sign the right players for the system.

Yep. I don't where the…

Yep. I would like to know where the notion Don Martindale isn't a good DC originated. He's smart, demanding, experienced, and no-nonsense.

Ravens defense under…

Ravens defense under Martindale was (very) good but dipped to decent in his final season.

The problem was the high number of injuries to starters which forced Wink to rely on backups.

Also, Lamar Jackson was injured and that forced backup QB Tyler Huntley to start. And any defense will tire more easily if the offense can't sustain drives to stay on the field. Generally, fewer snaps for defense = better results.

Source: Family members who are hardcore Baltimore Ravens fans.

Yeah, isn't it hilarious…

Yeah, isn't it hilarious that some Michigan fans hated Warde for not firing Jim Harbaugh after the irregular COVID 2020 season?

Now they want him fired for not finding a way to retain Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.

/Like I said above, I don't like Warde Manuel but I have principled reasons. 

I used to be on 247Sports…

I graduated from Michigan in the 2000s. I used to be on 247Sports as Frank Chuck (not Chuck Frank). But I stopped posting when the board was closed. The Michigan board was one of the last open boards on the 247Sports network. That changed permanently after the merger with Scout.com. (I don't know if I can even log into that account any more.)

I did take courses at U of M Ross and Law School for the combined MBA & JD dual degree program. But I took an extended hiatus to pursue an opportunity...

I won't go into all of them…

I won't go into all of them but 3 bigs ones were the following:

1.  "Transformational, not transactional" 
2. Uncertain ROI
3. Questions surrounding lack of guidelines or guardrails

Btw, Warde Manuel isn't totally in control. Some of it is also lack of clear leadership from the regents. At times, Manuel is a mouthpiece and not a leader with total agency. (And I find that very annoying. We need an adaptive pro-NIL AD who will advocate relentlessly for *his* (or her) vision of Michigan Athletics and implement it with a clear, actionable plan.)

Hilariously,…

Hilariously, ThadMattasagoblin is the same user who started the Fire Harbaugh thread on November 28th, 2020.

https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/fire-harbaugh-10

The internet is forever. (It's funny to see some of the board regulars argued for firing Harbaugh.) 

"It ain't getting any better next year." - ThadMattasagoblin

It did in fact get better - MUCH BETTER - the following year.

/I don't like Warde Manuel but some of my reasons are different than the reasons of reactionary Michigan fans looking to scapegoat someone whenever something negative happens. I had a role in pitching a NIL collective to Warde which he turned down. It was funny to see him come around less than 12 months later...

//Michigan needs an aggressive, visionary Athletic Director. Unfortunately, Warde Manuel thus far has not shown anything to indicate he fits that description.

Hey Blue@LSU,
I hope things…

Hey Blue@LSU,

I hope things are well.

Please send me an email to [email protected]. There are some questions I want to ask about prior diary entries you've done.

(I'll ask a few questions on other topics to check if it's you or an impostor emailing me.)

Regards,
Frank

"The idea that MOST Michigan…

"The idea that MOST Michigan fans wanted the Prodigal Son fired is absurd, bullshit revisionist history."

That's definitely not how I remember it. 

I remember having serious, protracted arguments here with many know-it-all fans.

We can revisit some threads on MGoBlog. Here's a thread that popped up right away.

Oh...would you look at that...some very frequent well known MGoBlog posters on that thread. Interesting...

https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/fire-harbaugh-10

@bo_lives: Would you like me to link more threads? The postgame threads were particularly nasty and vicious. They reeked of anti-Harbaugh sentiment. Perhaps you need to be reminded of the things that were said and repeated against Harbaugh during and after the COVID season. We can also revisit preseason threads before 2021...

"What did Warde contribute…

"What did Warde contribute to the national championship?"

I'm not a fan of Warde Manuel but I would say Warde not firing Jim Harbaugh when most of the fanbase wanted him fired is undeniably a big feather in Warde Manuel's cap. Warde not being reactionary and not yielding to massive pressure was a major positive in the long-run. The 2nd chance he gave Harbaugh cannot be understated.

Many Michigan fans might not want to admit that they once wanted Harbaugh fired (0-5 against OSU, 3-3 vs MSU, 2-4 in COVID season) but they know who they are. Many of those posts on MGoBlog can be easily accessed with a Google search. Some of those posts are still up on Twitter/X. (The internet is forever.)

I didn't understand why Kirk…

I didn't understand why Kirk Campbell was fired by ODU. He significantly improved ODU's offense based on the numbers. Can someone shed some light?

Also, Jesse Minter was DC at Vandy and Vandy had a terrible defense. That didn't end up mattering. We need to look at fit...

Agree. Carr should've put…

Agree. Carr should've put his foot down and advocated for someone.

Heck, Lloyd Carr's decision to hire Scott Loeffler over Jim Harbaugh for the QB coaching job was also an egregious mistake that changed trajectory of Michigan Football program.

1. Yost
2. Crisler
3…

1. Yost
2. Crisler
3. Harbaugh 
4. Carr
5. Schembechler
6. Moeller (my personal favorite, his firing changed Michigan's long-term trajectory for the worse)

I value winning National Championship a lot. Hence, Schembechler is #5 behind the first 4 who won it all. If this was just modern Michigan coaches (so 1960s and on then Schembechler would be 3rd on my list.

Schembechler had many National Championship caliber teams but could never find a way to go perfect. One year a reliable kicker missed a makeable kick. Another year, a sure-handed WR dropped a (TD) pass that would've sealed the game or won the game. Another year, the beef with refs led to a phantom call. There was always something. 

I want Juwan Howard to…

I want Juwan Howard to succeed so I hope you're right. 

Most basketball games are decided by a few plays. After the loss to Villanova in the 2022 NCAAT Sweet 16, Juwan Howard's Michigan has struggled with winning close games.

We're not far off from being a winning program but he must figure out why his teams are having trouble finishing off teams regardless of venue.

Uh...the previous coach …

Uh...the previous coach (Beilein) had a well-deserved and well-earned reputation for:
(1) being a poor defensive coach
(2) his teams consistently getting outrebounded on the glass

So much so that he was forced to hire a "DC" to fix the defense and rebounding.

Not sure how our fans forgot this...

From skimming the comments…

From skimming the comments below, it's kinda obvious who did and who didn't read Josh Henschke's post.

So I'm copying and posting the relevant part here because it seems some posters can't be bothered to read.

M&BR can confirm through multiple sources that a physical altercation between Howard and an assistant DID NOT occur on Thursday as originally rumored.

- Howard is NOT set to step down or be fired, which has been confirmed through multiple sources.

Sources have used the words 'unequivocally false' and 'all nonsense' when asked about the rumors surrounding Howard.

And yet a bunch of pearl-clutching idiots are running wild with speculation. It seems this was quite the hitjob on Juwan Howard. 

Yep.
It seems many Michigan…

Yep.

It seems many Michigan fans have forgotten about the many midseason turnarounds we had under John Beilein to make the NCAAT: 

2011 (11-9)
2014 (6-4)
2016 (6-3)
2017 (12-7)
2018 (7-3)

This Michigan team blew 2 late leads at home (Long Beach State, Indiana). Win those 2 games and Michigan is 7-3 instead of 5-5. But we are what our record says we are (to echo Bill Parcells).

I'm hopeful that Juwan Howard can engineer a mid-season turnaround. 

The most shocking thing about this Michigan team is that its defense is not good to put it nicely. (Michigan has 122nd ranked defense on Ken Pom and Bart Torvik but a top 20 offense on both.) Many expected defense to be this team's calling card. 

Source close to the program…

Source close to the program just told Josh [Henschke] it's "all nonsense". With all the smoke seems unlikely nothing happened, but probably not physical. Which again, would explain Howard being at the game.

Yeah, I don't hold MGoBlog's…

Yeah, I don't hold MGoBlog's opinionated denizens in high regard. 

I remember the "Fire Beilein" thread in 2017 (where posters were advocating for Dayton's Archie Miller). LOL!

I remember the "Fire Bakich" thread. 

And I remember the MANY "Fire Harbaugh" threads here in 2020. (If I could bump threads, I would.)

There are a lot of confident idiots here. And some don't seem to ever learn and then level up.

-----

If Juwan did something as the aggressor, then he'll be terminated. But if this rumor was overblown, then a bunch of haters look like clowns.

I'll take a wait-and-see approach on how events transpire.

This is false. Michigan…

This is false. Michigan defense was good against Youngstown State and St. Johns (SJU inflated it in garbage time). 

You can see analytics performance ratings game by game here:

https://barttorvik.com/team.php?team=Michigan&year=2024

 

/And lol at criticizing Juwan for a game he's not even on the sideline for.

Yep. I was optimistic about…

Yep. I was optimistic about this season's Michigan team (even though many were doom and gloom). Olivier Nkmahoua and Tray Jackson were what a sophomore Moussa Diabate would've been for us (but sadly he was one-and-done and couldn't benefit from NIL as a foreign player). And Nimari Burnett looks MUCH improved. Perhaps Burnett is coming into his own as an upperclassman. I hope he finds an enduring home at Michigan.

Tonight was an a promising performance. 

Question: did Stephen Bardo say Michigan shot 15/26 (57.6%) from 3 against #5 Marquette in the scrimmage? 

If so, that's further proof that this Michigan team might be an excellent 3 point shooting team which would be a major surprise.

Perhaps this Michigan team will be greater than the sum of its parts. It seems to me we have a deep team.

I like George Washington III. Even though his shots weren't falling, it's clear he sees the game well.

And Dug McDaniel was AWESOME. I was super stoked when he committed to us because I had seen him play in HS. He looked like 2013 Trey Burke tonight. I hope this is the start of a new era of Michigan Hoops.

I firmly disagree with your…

I firmly disagree with your mischaracterization. I don't care for Drew Sharp but Sharp didn't give Hoke a hard time at all in this instance. Sharp's follow-up questions were legitimate.

Context: In his introductory press conference, Brady Hoke talked about leading Michigan to Big Ten Championships but conspicuously did not mention anything about National Championships.

Sharp asked Hoke why he didn't mention National Championships. As a fan watching it live, I had the same question. Brady Hoke's rationale was that the Big Ten Championship was a stepping stone to the National Championship so Sharp wondered why the National Championship wasn't the ultimate goal.

If someone thinks my interpretation is incorrect, I encourage you to re-watch the introductory press conference with the Q&A session afterwards. (I've typed up a similar response to someone else back when I was on 247Sports.) 

For many years, admins and coaches at Michigan seemed afraid to mention "National Championship" as if it was some kind of bogeyman. To me, it felt as if they thought mentioning the words "National Championship" would activate some kind of curse and lead to automatic and guaranteed elimination from contention. I wonder if it had a lot to do with Bo Schembechler always finding a way to squander an opportunity to win the elusive National Championship. Schembechler had as many National Championship caliber teams as Bear Bryant did at Alabama but Schembechler never won one for a host of reasons. (One year it was his reliable kicker suddenly choking. Another year a WR dropped a key pass. Another year it was a ref with a vendetta refusing to call a fair game and bragging about it later and then being disciplined for it.)

When I visited Michigan on a college tour in the early 2000s (as an out-of-state student who wasn't familiar with Michigan's history), a family member who lived in Ann Arbor took me to see all the trophies displayed.

When I noticed a big gap between 1948 and 1997 for football w/r/t National Championships, I asked him and his son what happened in the intervening years. Both of them became visibly embarrassed and somewhat defensive until the son finally conceded that Michigan had wasted a lot of chances in the 70s and 80s to win more and that Michigan had an inferiority-complex w/r/t National Championships.

Hence, I find Jim Harbaugh openly talking about pursuing the National Championship as refreshing. He encourages his players to dream big and tells them not to shy away from talking about the ultimate goal - as long as they are respectful about it.

November 7th, 2020.
ND beat …

November 7th, 2020.

ND beat #1 Clemson in overtime 47-40. Clemson was playing with its back-up QB in place of Trevor Lawrence.

But it didn't end up mattering because Clemson avenged this loss to Notre Dame by beating Notre Dame 34-10 in the rematch (ACC Championship Game).

Yep.
1979 Alabama played the…

Yep.

1979 Alabama played the following teams through its first 5 games:

4-6-1 Georgia Tech
8-4 Baylor
1-10 Vanderbilt
1-10 Wichita State
0-10-1 Florida

Whenever Alabama played a ranked team later in the season, things were a lot closer.

Ex: #1 Alabama beat #18 Tennessee 27-17 and #14 Auburn 25-18. 

Heck, that Bama team won 3-0 at 7-5 LSU. (Yes, Bama scored only a FG.)

/1993 FSU had a much more impressive resume against far superior competition through 5 games.

When you say "coach" in the…

When you say "coach" in the first sentence who are you referring to?

Jim Harbaugh was there to coach during the week. So are you blaming Harbaugh for supposedly not having "the team ready to go" against BGSU?

Btw, I thought the team looked ready to play. We were up 7-0 and dominating. We were about to go up 14-0 when Hibner led his defender to the interception. 

After that, things got weird. 

I'm so happy for Novak…

Yep. I'm super happy for Novak Djokovic.

I've been a fan of his since 2007 so I've gotten to see his rise, his evolution, his struggles, and his resurgence.

It's fun to see him reign over the sport. After overcoming and surpassing Federer and Nadal, he now has the strongest claim for the GOAT title.

We need both. 
We don't have…

We need both. 

We don't have depth at PF or C positions. 

As a Novak Djokovic fan…

As a Novak Djokovic fan since 2007, I'm disappointed for him.

He choked in the 2nd set tiebreaker with set point and then wasted a break chance in the 2nd game of the 5th set that would've nearly won the match for him.

He suffered from uncharacteristically error-prone play in some key moments.

No matter. I hope this setback fuels & inspires Djokovic to new heights. If he can play elite and injury-free tennis for the next 5+ years, he might be able to reach 30+ Grand Slams. If he does, I don't see anyone catching him.

Can you share a link to this…

Can you share a link to this reddit post?

Michigan Football is clearly…

Michigan Football is clearly targeting a certain type of player at SDE - 6'5"/6'6" and 230+ pounds with high upside. I like it.

Go Blue!

Will NIL be the bogeyman…

Will NIL be the bogeyman excuse every time we miss out on a 4 or 5 star?

We just got 4 star WR I'Marion Stewart on Friday but lost out 4 star Boo Carter and 4 star Aaron Chiles on a Saturday night

So was NIL not necessary for Stewart but was necessary for Carter and Chiles?

How do you reconcile that?

"Bo never won one and it…

maquih wrote: "Bo never won [a National Championship] and it doesn't tarnish his coaching legacy at all."

It does for me. And IDGAF how other Michigan fans attempt to rationalize it.

There's a reason Bo Schembechler doesn't show up on any top 5-10 lists of all-time CFB coaches. 

Schembechler had at least 10 National Championship caliber Michigan teams in 21 seasons and never managed to win 1.

Multiple years a kicker missed a game-winning FG. Another year, his #1 ranked defense gave up a game-winning drive to lose the game. Another year, a WR dropped a catchable pass that would've iced a game that we ended up losing. There was always something.

National Champions find a way to get the job done. And Schembechler didn't for whatever damn reason.

-----

maquih wrote: "National championship is a joke."

No, it isn't. 

Schembechler couldn't do it and that reflects poorly on him. Was the system back then stupid? Yeah. But he never managed to win every game in a season. So ultimately, that's on him.

"Dread it. Run from it…

"Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives." — Novak Djokovic aka Thanovic

I'm rooting for the Djoker to accomplish the Calendar Slam this season and then accomplish the ultra rare Golden Calendar Slam next season (with the Olympics in Paris) in route to winning 30+ Slams over the next few years.

I feel privileged to have watched Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic all play but as a fan of Djokovic this feels so damn good considering all the shit-talking we had to endure from Fedal fans for many years.

I like the schedule. Yes, it…

I like the schedule. Yes, it's challenging.

But *IF* JJ McCarthy returns for his senior season, this will be a fun season.

/I know people are worried about losing a lot of players from the 2023 team. I'm not. Captain Comeback Jim Harbaugh has built up the necessary depth. We don't have backups; we have future stars waiting their turn.

I'm surprised more people…

I'm surprised more people haven't chimed in.

I realize we're not a historic power in lacrosse but this was a program-changing win. 

We've only been in Division 1 for 12 years. When we moved up to this level, many lacrosse people believed that Michigan had the brand to become a powerhouse. It's taken some time but we're starting to become formidable as the program continues to improve. 

I fully expect our recruiting to get better. 

"I hope we get another year…

"I hope we get another year out of JJ"

Yep.

I think JJ can be a 1st round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft season but I think he has the physical talent and mental make-up to be the #1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

1. Yep. This isn't the Jim…

1. Yep. This isn't the Jim Tressel era. Ohio State leveled up its passing offense going from Tom Herman to eventually Ryan Day during the Urban Meyer years

It's funny that some childish Michigan fans don't realize any decent Ohio State QB will put up video game numbers - numbers that no Michigan QB has come close to touching because of our bullshit conservatism (as if the ghost of Schembechler still haunts us). Anyone else remember when Kenny Guiton started the 2013 season in place of the injured Braxton Miller and put up eye-popping numbers?

It's the philosophy + system.

No Michigan QB in program history has yet to put up 3,000+ yards and 30+ TDs in the same season. (Record is 25 by Elvis Grbac in 1991 which was tied by Henne as a freshman in 2004.)

Meanwhile, recent OSU has a parade of QBs that pass for ~4,000+ yards and 40+ TDs each season as if it's now their birthright to do so.


I love our dominant run-oriented offense but I wish our passing game was significantly better - like ~3250 yards and 35 TDs over 12 regular season games. A better passing game would make our run game *that* much more lethal.
 

2. After watching Air Noland's tapes, I think he has a strong case to move up to 5 star status. The massive improvement from his sophomore season to junior season was clear. With a senior season that matches his junior senior, he'll likely be upgraded to 5 star. He's playing against good competition in Georgia and doing really really well.

 

I like Juwan Howard and I…

I like Juwan Howard and I hope he rights the ship.

And I also like Dan Hurley. Based on his success at Rhode Island, I had him in mind as a candidate to replace Beilein eventually. However, he took the UConn job after the 2018 season.

But I think people are prisoners of the moment. Examples:

This is UConn's 3rd NCAAT appearance with Dan Hurley as HC. In the first 2, UConn lost in the Round of 64.Hurley hit on some transfer portal guys this past offseason and that elevated the team.

However, this UConn team played a 13, a 5, an 8, and a 3 to reach the Final Four. (In other words, it's kinda like our 2018 run where we avoided a 1 seed until the NC Game.) And UConn is now the highest seeded team in the Final Four at 4 with the others being 5, 5, and 9.

Similarly, Brian Dutcher's SDSU has reached the NCAAT 4 times. In the previous 3 appearances, SDSU lost in the round of 64. SDSU finally broke through this year and went on a deep run.

Many QBs want to play for…

Many QBs want to play for Michigan.

Besides the prestige of playing for Michigan, they know a dominant OL and a strong running game massively help out a QB.

But those same QBs also want to know that they'll pass for 3300+ yards and 30+ TDs over 12 regular season games. Hopefully, we'll see that from JJ McCarthy this season.

We don't need to put up video game passing numbers on offense (such as 325+ passing yards per game and 3+ passing TDs per game). But we do need to be better than 200 yards per game. In 2022, McCarthy averaged 206 passing ypg and 1.69 passing TDs per game in his 13 starts last season.  Hopefully, he'll take a big jump this upcoming season.

And in case anyone is curious: McNamara averaged 184 passing ypg and 1.07 TDs per game in 2021.
 

"A program that has won 79…

"A program that has won 79 games over the last 4 seasons"

1. We didn't even get to play the BTT or the NCAAT in 2019-20 because the pandemic hit.

2. We had fewer games in 2020-21 season because it was a COVID season.

So LOL. This isn't an apples to apples comparison.

Btw, did you notice how old most of the guards in this year's NCAAT are? Because of COVID eligibility, this is the oldest NCAAT ever by a considerable margin. Ken Pomeroy shared a post about it.

Meanwhile, our top 3 guards/wings were: PG true freshman, SG true sophomore, SF true freshman. Even our backup options were young (re: Tschetter is a redshirt freshman and Khayat is a true freshman). But people expected us to overcome that easily? Those people are delusional

-----

Given the lack of quality in your posts, I'm inclined to think you would've been one of those posters that would've been calling for Beilein to be fired midway through 2017.

For those that have forgotten:

2015 - missed NCAAT

2016 - barely made the NCAAT through play-in game which we won and then lost in round of 64 by blowing a double digit halftime lead to Notre Dame

2017 - Beilein made changes to his staff in the offseason. Michigan struggled a lot until the "Junkyard mentality" game vs Illinois in Crisler helped turn around our season. We were 12-7 before playing Illinois. Winning the 2017 Big Ten Tournament and getting to the Sweet 16 made people forget a lot of the ups and downs. There's a reason we entered the 2017 BTT as the 8 seed - the same seed as this year's Michigan team.

I haven't forgotten about how idiotic some posters here were about Beilein. And if I *really* wanted to, I could go back and check people's posting history in those threads. There were a lot of people that weren't happy with Beilein because his recruiting wasn't up to standard and the Wins/Losses weren't looking good either.

But nostalgia has made many forget Beilein's warts, missteps, and struggles. Under Beilein's leadership, Michigan nearly reached the mountain top, crashed back down to earth, and rose again.

I think these past 2 seasons have taught Juwan Howard the value of returning experience, not recruiting so many OADs, and fixing his roster construction by taking more shooters/scorers. Let's see if he makes the necessary changes and gets the program back on track.

I think someone should start…

I think an anti-Juwan poster should start a serious "FIRE JUWAN HOWARD" MGoBlog thread.
 

The "Maybe we should fire <insert coach>" reverse juju of the fanbase has worked for multiple coaches.

-- It worked for Beilein and the basketball program. (Twice!)

-- It worked for Bakich and the baseball program.

-- It worked for Harbaugh and the football program.

/I believe in Coach Howard so I don't think it would work if I started it. But you know there's some impatient clown who's itching to start that thread.

//The fanbase doesn't learn...

"WUT CHU TALKING ABOUT…

"WUT CHU TALKING ABOUT WILLIS?!?!"

Fixed.

(I meant to type "turnover" and typed something else.)

I love Dug's resilience and…

I love Dug's resilience and poise. He's growing and maturing...

He was 1/5 from the field in the 1st half, hit reset at halftime, was 5/7 in the 2nd half.

He finished with 16 points (6/12 FGs), 5 steals, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and only 1 turnover against a top 5 defense according to Ken Pom.

I saw some people on social media referring to him as DAWG McDaniel. I don't hate it.