Semi-OT: What has LaVall Jordan gotten himself into at UWM?

They went 20-13 and beat Wisconsin and Minnesota. Why was Jeter fired?

The play by play guys instagram post is a HoF worthy torch job. He even stuck the landing. Just a truly great fuck you to an organization he no longer agrees with.

 

In reality, as noted above, LaVall Jordan just needs to keep his head down and coach basketball. That's all that he is required to do. Obviously, we all know what an incompetent AD can do to a school's alumni and fan base, but I digress. If he wins games, he will be fine, if he doesn't, he can always come back to help Coach B at Michigan! Good luck LaVall, I wish you nothing but the best!

All it takes is the right people at the top. No better example than what we've witnessed first hand.

Perhaps LaVall can be the catalyst that sparks change.

Jordan interview up at UM Hoops and kept thinking he seemed overwhelmed and/or over his head. Maybe he was just a little too honest about everything that he has to deal with in terms of the move and new responsibilities and gave the wrong impression. Still it can't help that everything around him that should be helping is a mess.

Otzelberger has been one of the most sought after high major assistants in a long time.  If he truly wanted the gig, they probably fucked up, even though we all know LaVall was a good dude and a good coach.

LOL, when I first read this I thought you were saying their PBP guy was 16 years old.  Did a double take and then congratulated myself on still being retarded.

Not sure how good a coach needs to be to overcome bosses that didn't want you, and probably believe you to be under-qualified or unimpressive vs the guy they wanted.  I don't think Jordan is in a winnable situation here.  If he needs permission to do something for the program, like add a weight bench or change the lunch table menu, I don't think he'll get it.  Seems like he won't...

That said, if he can win on the court the situation will take care of itself.  I firmly believe that if Rich Rod had won here, his unpopularity would have fixed itself.  The donating alumni don't like you?  They view you as an outsider?  Embrace that and win.  You win, people come around to you.  You don't, you get ex'd...

Good luck, LaVall.  Make that team play hard, even if they can't win.  If you end up going out to a bunch of morons, go out with your dignity...  

 

/Rich Rod did not go out with his dignity intact - and he earned it...

I'm not sure what to make of the first story.  That kind of thing may not be unusual in hirings, especially at mid-majors where you're often deciding among unproven assistant coaches.  In any event, if the AD is horribly incompetent, maybe it's just as well the chancellor overruled her.  (It could also mean the AD is on thin ice.)

IF the environement is bad and Jordan succeeds in spite of that, then he has a great story to help move up the ranks.  UWM has a lot going for it basketball-wise, so the opportunity is still there, if not quite as ideal on first glance.

 

Obviously, he was upset and let the world know it, but it's completely short-sighted. Who's going to hire him after that? 

Hope that this doesn't keep LaVall from succeeding there. He did some good work here and it would be great to see him to develop into a potential successor for JB down the line.

Bad move by the play-by-play guy. That stunt's not going to play too well in his next interview.

Got my masters at UWM. Athletic department isn't good. The community is really upset about Jeter being fired. Probably more political than anything.

I hope that the play-by-play announcer planned to retire after that. Whether or not he's right, I can't imagine any school in their right mind would want to hire him after something like that. It oftentimes sucks that we live in a world where we all have to be so politically correct, but it is what it is. 

Doesn't sound like a great situation that Jordan walked into. He doesn't have the world's greatest boss (anyone who doesn't have the courage to deliver bad news to their workers face to face has no business being in charge), but if he manages to succeed there, it provides that much more ammunition when he's looking for to move up the ladder. 

I wondered why Jordan would leave for UWM - he was a finalist for the Butler job a couple years back and I thought he could do better than UWM. I guess a head coaching job is a head coaching job.

The hiring process sounds like a debacle. Hopefully, UWM supports and treats LaVall well, not like some token minority character. And he's able to succeed.

As a UW-Milwaukee alum, the athletic department is an absolute joke. If i was Lavall Jordan, I would of stayed as far away from this job as possible. This athletic department is horrible, underfunded, and goes thru athletic directors like crazy. This campus is huge, and yes is so severely underfunded. yet the current athletic director has run or Rob jeter, and their biggest atheltic donor in a space of a month. They do not even have a decent practice facility currently to practice at, and practice at the Klitschke Center, yet get kicked out for intermural sports. Yes, i said Intermural sports.

 

The chancellors at UW-Milwaukee have neglected sports for years. Currently UW-Milwaukee, is the only Division I baseball team in the state of Wisconsin. Not even Wisconsin has a baseball team. UW-Milwaukee has quite possibly the worst baseball field in all of Division I baseball, even most of the Division III schools in Wisconsin play at better fields and have better baseball facilities. They play at Hank AAron field in Milwaukee, and basically til like 4 years ago, it was wired fenced and the scoreboard was not even working, My cousin played for UW-Milwaukee also, and it is by far the worst facility in all of division I, and thats according to a friend of mine who currently coaches at Kansas State.

Not to mention that former Ohio State atheltic director Andy GEIGER WAS AD FOR 2 YEARS AT UW-MILWAUKEE,AND ROYALLY MESSED UP THE BASKETBALL PROGRAM TAKING HOME GAMES . from the arena downtown back to the klotschke center which turned out to be a biggier disaster, and was instrumental in the hiring of Amanda Braun.

Braun has been very demeaning to the athletic department and the coaches, including texting coach jeter in the middle of a game saying they need to talk ( may have been halftime), and many good people in the department have been let go.

basically all she has done since she has been at UW-Milwaukee is improve the website, and moved the team back downtown for games which any idiot could of realized to do, and basically desroy her donor base now that she has lost some of the biggest donors recently. She did hire Jordan, but seriously, he could of found a better job or just stayed at Michigan.

As a huge Michigan fan, I really think in the long term he is going to regret ever coming to Milwaukee, he should of stayed at Michigan until a better job came.

Situation is obviously less than ideal, but if you're Jordan, you still have to take it. It's still a mid- (not low-) major job at a school that's won before in a league he's familiar with.

These jobs aren't easy to get. Either BA or Dwayne Stephens is going to lose out at UDM, despite quite a track record. Also, if U-M remains middle of the B1G pack, there's no guarantee that schools will keep calling. They tend to chase success.