Michigan Hires Billy Donlon, Saddi Washington
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These names had been rumored for a couple days and now they are official:
University of Michigan men's basketball head coach John Beilein announced today (Wednesday, May 4) the hiring of Billy Donlon and Saddi Washington as assistant coaches for the Wolverines.
Donlon was just fired from Wright State after a six-year tenure. His axing was controversial, to say the least, after Donlon saw his charges to 22-13 season and 13-5 conference mark, and the conference tournament final. I mean, this is a hell of a resume to fire for a low major*:
Three years after he was named the Horizon League coach of the year and three days after he led his Wright State team to its third 20-plus wins season in four years, a tie for the most league wins by a WSU team and the third appearance in four years in the title game of the league tournament, Donlon was fired as the Raiders’ basketball coach.
Donlon and Wright State had a rough 2015 but the years surrounding it were all 20-win seasons featuring excellent defense considering WSU's place in the basketball firmament. Here are some key stats from his tenure:
| Year | Adj D Eff Rk | 2PT % RK | BLK % RK | TO% RK | REB RK | FTR RK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 58 | 136 | 311 | 42 | 22 | 341 |
| 2015 | 173 | 267 | 275 | 124 | 154 | 257 |
| 2014 | 39 | 154 | 192 | 6 | 83 | 272 |
| 2013 | 30 | 165 | 300 | 15 | 68 | 314 |
| 2012 | 92 | 335 | 300 | 4 | 90 | 321 |
| 2011 | 107 | 335 | 342 | 12 | 111 | 276 |
Donlon's teams played a high-foul, high-TO style that made them somewhere between respectable and just about as good as a low major can rank—with the exception of 2015. He's never had any shot blocking because of the nature of coaching at Wright State, but three of the last four years he's outperformed a ton of teams. (FWIW, His offenses were universally horrible. That doesn't matter because Beilein.) Donlon looks like the "defensive coordinator" I was advocating once LaVall Jordan left. Beilein:
"I have known Billy for almost two decades, and I love his passion and IQ for the game. He has tremendous experience as a player, assistant and head coach at the Division I level. Improving our defense is a huge goal for us, and defense is one of Billy's specialties."
If he can get Wright State into the top 60 three times in the last four years he's probably pretty good in that role.
The obvious catch is that free throw rate. That is emphatically not how Michigan plays right now, and it's an open question just how much rope Donlon will have to deploy his style of D. Beilein is notoriously persnickety about fouls. Insert hours-long autobench complaint here.
Meanwhile, Washington has been at Oakland for a decade, helping the Golden Grizzlies have disproportionate success in the Horizon League. He almost got a job in Ann Arbor during the last staff shakeup. I don't know much about him other than the fact that Sam Webb believes he'll be an excellent recruiter; unlike Donlon he doesn't have a helpful Kenpom page since he was an assistant.
*[Article states that Wright State pays its assistants less than the rest of the Horizon and doesn't have a full time strength coach; they are mid-major only if that's your term for literally every non-big-time CBB program.]
...Donlon deserves a mulligan for 2015. The Raiders suffered massive injury problems in 2015 (as described in the link).
http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2016-01-23/college-bask…
that deserves a mulligan or two for recent attrition beyond his control.
Washington was responsible for recruiting basically everyone you've heard from Oakland the past 6 or so years.
This is perfect. A defensive minded assistant to help in that area plus an assistant known for recruiting. Two areas of weakness lately with Michigan basketball are addressed with these hires.
Great to see Saddi climbing up the ranks. He was a great recruiter at Oakland.
Like tomorrow please lol
anyone else going to have a hard time NOT thinking of Saddi Dumpington?
('what's that jargle? Scritture?')
I'm excited about both of these hires. Got a defensive specialist, who was a past head coach to boot. I like almost everything I read about him. Washington seems like a great fit, especially in recruiting. Well done.
It looks like these are the perfect hires. We were due for some good news. Hopefully, we can find a grad transfer this year and knock it out of the park recruiting for 2017.
I'm a fan. Kind of interesting that our departing assistants both took head coaching jobs in the Horizon and their replacements both come to us from the Horizon. Those Detroit vs. Milwaukee games will be fun with Jordan and Alexander there.
Interesting...Oakland, Wright State, Detroit and Milwaukee. Maybe we'll pull a video coordinator from Valpo or a grad assistant from Cleveland St.
I believe Saddi is a Western Alum
billy donlon could be an heir apparent, too. seems like a perfect fit for what we need now, and maybe what we'll need in a few years.
Like the hires. Also even though I hate the two foul auto bench this probably isn't the year to start fouling a lot. Depth is scary thin across the board and gets to unproven and walk on players in a hurry. If any of the non centers get in foul trouble there is nothing to help on the bench.
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hopefully these guys can talk JB out of the offer/visit/tour hogwash
Seem like good hires, but Beilein needs to take the reins off. Let Meyer and Washington do their thing on the recruiting trail, and let Donlon do his thing with the defense. No more of this soft, no foul BS. Teams need to be afraid to drive the lane against us.
with Donnal patrolling the paint, even if he goes full on Bill Lambeer. Teams want to get fouled when driving the lane. They don't want to get blocked, but we aren't going to be a shot blocking team next year no matter how aggressively we play in the paint.
Wagner could be the one manning the paint next year. He's shown some shotblocking ability.
I don't know if these two can fill the shoes of Alexander and Jordan, but they sound like excellent hires to me.
Were Red Auerbach and John Wooden not available?
Cautiously optimistic.
I was doubtful that JB could pull off not one, but two good hires. JB proved me wrong. I think they are upgrades from our last staff.
So, a fired HC and a long term assistant are upgrades from 2 newly hired HCs? Love your optimism.
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If you think those are even remotely valid comparisons I don't even know what to tell you. Probably I'd start with the obvious fact that everyone thinks firing Donlon was stupid, followed by pointing out that we have absolutely no idea how well our departed assistants will do as head coaches, especially as compared to Donlon. Then we'd go into the likelihood that Donlon was probably about as good of an assistant as our previous ones, because they all got hired into the Horizon League. All that might be lost on you, though, because that statement tells us a little something about your grasp of context.
Our new assistant coaches are not in head coaching jobs? You used lots of words to try and argue away facts.
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It would be very hard to hire assistants who are simultaneously head coaches somewhere else.
I'd like to see how quickly he can have an impact in that department.
Washington played on the WMU team that upset us in Crisler. That was Ellerbe's debut, IIRC.
If there are 3 tiers, Wright State is a mid-major. You are what your league is. High-major leagues are the ones that get multiple at-large bids every year; mids are the ones that are capable of landing an at-large or two, and lows are the ones that are basically always auto-bid-only leagues.
The Horizon is on the cusp in terms of their bids, but their top-to-bottom quality is a long way from the NECs of the world.
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begs to differ with "you are what your league is"
Those are OOC games that happen to count for conference standings. I will not recognize them. Ever.
While I agree with your post in general, there is no doubt that the HL has taken a hit in recent years, from where it was.
It's gone from a league Valpo was ecstatic to join to a league they've outgrown--and it's less because of Valpo's success than because of the deterioration of the rest of the league as a whole. Obviously Butler leaving is a big part of that, but it's gone from a 2-bid league to a 1 (despite the fact they deserved to be a 2-bid this year, but that's another post that would become a negbang around here).
Garrett Morris on SNL doing News for the Hearing Impaired
U-M Player: [aggressive defense]
Ref: [calls cheap foul]
Donlon: That's a horrible call, ref!
Washington: THAT'S A HORRIBLE CALL, REF!
Donlon: (to player) Good job! Good effort!
Washington: GOOD JOB! GOOD EFFORT!
Beilein: [calls for substitution]
I agree that it is good to get assistants that have strengths were the HC has weak spots. However, Beilein sets the tone and emphasizes what is important to him. The defense will continue to be a struggle and standard post play as well. I really like coach Beilein, but he is not a good defensive coach, and seems to neglect the post play on both sides.
Maybe, just maybe Beilein recognizes that fact, and that's the entire reason he hired him in the first place.
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Yes, because back-to-the-basket post play is such an important part of college basketball nowadays....
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Yes, those things you list are all important (and all worked on by Beilein and his coaches at his practices - attend one, you'll see).
But outside Purdue, nobody "just throws it in" to the post. Most people, when they are whining about the play of bigs, want to see that. However, it's really a relic of older basketball and NBA basketball where the players have the talent to do it.
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