How do we feel about Hunter Dickinson these days?
Iirc, the Michigan common truth about Dickinson was that he was a program cancer, etc.
But the general affect about Michigan (NIL, Juwan, etc.) these days is in a very different place. Also, dude is BALLING at Kansas. And the team is doing VERY well…
So I’m curious to know where the hive mind stands on Dickinson these days.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:25 PM ^
We mostly do not care.
Thank you for your efforts while you were here, Hunter, good luck with your future endeavors wherever they may be.
February 11th, 2024 at 1:31 AM ^
I forgot he existed till this thread so idk
February 11th, 2024 at 2:36 AM ^
This board: "LOL, nobody is getting huge NIL bags to play basketball. That's absurd."
Also this board: "Who is Hunter Dickinson?"
February 11th, 2024 at 5:53 AM ^
Clearly a smart young man.
Take the bag and get off this current UM team.
February 11th, 2024 at 9:49 AM ^
Is this Hunter’s mom?
February 10th, 2024 at 8:25 PM ^
I hope he wins a title.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:26 PM ^
I don’t
February 10th, 2024 at 8:33 PM ^
Gross. That would mean Kansas and Bill Self winning a championship.
No thanks. Self and their program is ick.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:55 PM ^
I suspect most people here would gladly trade programs with them.
February 10th, 2024 at 9:19 PM ^
Yep. I’m all for trying to be honorable, but the rules are only enforced on those who attempt to uphold them.
February 10th, 2024 at 9:43 PM ^
The NCAA enforces punishment only on those who allow them to. Michigan is firmly in that category. Michigan gets punished because they allow the NCAA to punish them.
Its like a kid getting picked on by a schoolyard bully. Until Michigan puts its fists up and shows its willing to fight back and defend itself, what do you expect the bully to do? You don’t need to go looking for fights, but for fucks sake you need to be able to defend yourself.
Today the bully wants your lunch money, tomorrow he wants your backpack, your shoes, and the answers to tomorrow’s math homework.
February 11th, 2024 at 6:57 AM ^
This, to me, is the single biggest reason Warde has to go. He's adhering to a 20+ year old AD philosophy of dealing with the NCAA that the rest of college programs have learned long ago is a dumbass strategy.
February 11th, 2024 at 7:59 AM ^
And it sounds like he’s getting a big, fat extension, so he’s not going anywhere. So I’d expect the NCAA to keep punishing Michigan every chance that Michigan gives them. And because the NCAA is desperate to maintain any illusion of power or control, Michigan is going to get punished more harshly than it normally would.
And Warde has shown every indication that he’s going to sit there and just let Michigan take it, while the rest of the country has figured out that you threaten the NCAA with lawsuits, and they fold like a cheap tent and back off.
I wonder sometimes how long Michigan has to wait out the remnants of the “old guard” that are still entrenched within Michigan. It seems like there are still so many decision-makers at UM who wake up every day with the mantra of “Would Bo Schembechler want this for us?”
February 11th, 2024 at 7:06 AM ^
This, to me, is the single biggest reason Warde has to go. He's adhering to a 20+ year old AD philosophy of dealing with the NCAA that the rest of college programs have learned long ago is a dumbass strategy.
EDIT: oops, the dreaded double post.
February 11th, 2024 at 7:57 AM ^
Post it again, and I'll upvote you for the third time...
February 10th, 2024 at 9:19 PM ^
Kansas basketball fans seem like Ohio State football fans. Both groups are convinced that their schools get loads of 5-star recruits solely because of the tradition and general awesomeness of the programs. Cheating? Under-the-table payments? No sir.
At least the SEC fans are a little self-aware. Duke's, too, though I'm sure Coach K still thinks he's special.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:25 PM ^
We? Be your own person.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:28 PM ^
i don't remember ever seeing " program cancer " I think most people understood Hunter's decision to move on. Between NIL , and the state of the program. The problem was his comments on the way out..
February 10th, 2024 at 8:43 PM ^
What comments? What did he say?
February 10th, 2024 at 8:55 PM ^
Kansas is real midwest and nice, not fake midwest nice like Michigan. Something like that.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:19 PM ^
Oh. Well, I guess that's not as bad as trashing the program.
February 10th, 2024 at 11:54 PM ^
I think he kinda did that too.
February 11th, 2024 at 12:40 AM ^
I don’t remember saying anything bad about the program but if he did almost certainly he wasn’t wrong. This has 1 guard every road game and 1 center all the time. The coach and strength coach got into some kind of fight/argument/whatever and Juwan told that maryland coach he was going to kill him and slapped a different coach (if that was the only thing it wouldn’t be as bad because that jackass wisky coach grabbed Twill first). If this isn’t rock bottom we’ll see it next season if he’s back.
Not gonna hold leaving here to play for a better team while getting paid against him. As long as what he said wasn’t beyond the pale, he’s probably right
February 11th, 2024 at 8:54 AM ^
The great thing about Michigan fans is that they never, ever, say anything negative about a team that's now 8-16 and in last place in the Big Ten. Or the coach.
How dare he.
Anyway, I'm not fond of COVID years or transfers or whatever, but these are professional athletes and we can no longer pretend that academics means much of anything, so this is a big non-issue for me. I don't feel anything, positive or negative.
February 11th, 2024 at 10:43 AM ^
I'll eat crow here. I thought he was a bad leader and the team would improve without him. I said as much on this site before the season. Turns out the bad leader was Juwan Howard all along.
February 11th, 2024 at 2:42 PM ^
In hindsight, he was probably the only thing making Juwan's teams somewhat decent. If Juwan didn't strike gold with Hunter as a freshman, Juwan's tenure probably would've ended a few years ago
February 10th, 2024 at 8:29 PM ^
Hunter knew Howard was taking this program nowhere and the team had no identity beyond him
February 10th, 2024 at 8:47 PM ^
No. Hunter left to chase the bag. He basically said as much.
February 11th, 2024 at 7:40 AM ^
Well, at least he chased something. There was definitely no chase and little effort when he was in Ann Arbor.
February 10th, 2024 at 9:09 PM ^
This isn't remotely true. He expressed a lot of remorse about leaving Juwan and made cutting remarks about the state of Michigan's NIL. The kids to a person, from what I have seen, revere Juwan. Part of the issue here is that Juwan has been too nice to scream bloody murder about NIL and admissions. He DID make some remarks last year, but who wants to be called a sore loser, or be accused of coming up with excuses? If I'm him I get so far away from here at the end of this season. . . and--at least if Warde stays--watch the program flail for years to come. He's gonna have some stories to tell, though, and some of them will not be pretty.
February 10th, 2024 at 9:24 PM ^
You are not suggesting Howard has no role in this roster and poor performance, are you? Cause that would be silly.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:38 PM ^
MGlobules, correctly, believes that Howard is hamstrung by institutional issues that prevent him from building the team exactly as he would like. Specifically, Shannon, Love, and Dickinson are all players that could have conceivably been here this year. There is no coach in the world who could have gotten Shannon or Love into Michigan.
Any replacement coach will also have to navigate these issues, which is a hindrance to success.
The question then becomes, is there an available coach who could operate within Michigan’s current constraints to a level of success that we would accept? Or perhaps a better question is, is there a coach who could outperform Howard, even if it falls short of our most modest expectations? That is the question I find more worthwhile, and my assumption is the answer is yes.
I do think it’s worth noting, looking at our program’s history, we were quite something when the school was willfully ignorant (at best) of Ed Martin. Then after that, we determined we had to be irreproachable and suffered on the court until a wizard named Beilein arrived. And even he needed a few years to get it going.
John Beileins are hard to find.
Who is a highly successful coach right now? Bill Self? Do you think Self would have a #4 team at Michigan? Mmm, I don’t know. Do you think Self would have a last place team at Michigan? Probably not.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:30 PM ^
Shocking that Hunter plays really well when surrounded by talent and coaching. He looked really damn good his freshman year with a bunch of Beilein players and a couple portal pickups.
February 10th, 2024 at 9:22 PM ^
I didn't realize Franz Wagner (who was never coached by JB) was a "Beilein guy." ;)
Also, that "bunch" amounted to Livers (very important, of course), Brooks (ditto), and Johns (less so). That's not even 50% of the core.
No, I'm not thrilled with Howard and I won't mind if he's gone after this year.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:46 PM ^
And Austin Davis. Just for completeness’ sake.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:55 PM ^
That’s why I said and a couple of portal pickups. We both agree that Hunter had his best season with talent around him and Juwan sucks as a coach.
February 11th, 2024 at 7:20 AM ^
Franz was recruited by Beilein and his staff who, if you recall, also recruited his brother. This is pretty well known. You're being obtuse if you're giving Juwan any more than partial credit for Franz coming to Michigan.
But you already know that. Brian even said as much on the front page a few days back. Sardonic winking emoji.
February 11th, 2024 at 7:50 AM ^
Here's another one for you. ;
I guess I'm a little confused on what's meant by a "Beilein guy." Did JB coach Franz for two years?
February 11th, 2024 at 3:37 PM ^
Before he left, Beilein was close to signing Franz. Howard put the finishing touches on the commitment.
Without Beilein, I'm doubtful that Juwan goes after Franz.
Had Beilein stayed, it's very likely he still commits to Michigan.
So yes, Beilein guy.
February 11th, 2024 at 12:08 AM ^
He is in the running for player of the year.
Im rooting for his success.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:32 PM ^
I like him, but also think they'll get knocked out of the tournament relatively early unless they get favorable matchups. Same way I feel about Edey and Purdue. It's hard winning 6 straight with a team built around a slow-footed big.
I'll be genuinely happy for him if they win it all though.
February 10th, 2024 at 9:23 PM ^
You mean like Clingan at uconn?
Your narrative doesn't work with that one, they have a really decent chance of repeating this year.
February 10th, 2024 at 10:08 PM ^
Clingan played like 13 mins a game last season and plays like 20 a game this season. That's not a team built around a big, like Kansas and Purdue.
February 11th, 2024 at 3:39 AM ^
Clingan is miles more athletic than Hunter.
February 11th, 2024 at 12:12 AM ^
I agree on Kansas. They also ZERO depth.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:33 PM ^
He has the bio of the generic Jayhawk center. I don't follow him. No feelings one way or the other.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:33 PM ^
I feel the same
February 10th, 2024 at 8:34 PM ^
Indifferent to him. He’ll have a long and fairly lucrative overseas career though.
February 10th, 2024 at 8:36 PM ^
He did what he had to do, and I'm sure has benefited financially from his decision. He gave up his Michigan legacy (my opinion) to do it.
February 10th, 2024 at 9:17 PM ^
I don’t think playing on this team would have done much for his legacy.