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Background:  I went to a…

Background:  I went to a massive high school in Cook County (~1000 kids in my graduating class).  Several of my close friends went of UofI.  I was the only person in my graduating class to go to Michigan.  So I know this "rivalry".  It is defined by a handful of instances:

1. We constantly beat the shit out of them in football, and after they fired Gary Moeller, we took it out on them even worse.  This is what older Illinois fans remember.

2. We derailed the best Illinois basketball team ever and went on to win the NC in 1989

3. Illinois should have won the 2000 football game, but some bad officiating benefited Michigan

4. They are a "safety school" academically compared to Michigan and they hate that.  Illinois engineering program is arguably better than Michigan's, but they never get the credit for it. 

No.  It was a joke.  But…

No.  It was a joke.  But with that, Medved did have a huge lead in that game against Juwan and still dropped the ball.

What would his record be if…

What would his record be if both Terrance Shannon and Caleb Love were allowed to enroll?  These are 2 points that I think the athletic department did a poor job helping

Are you seriously…

Are you seriously considering a coach who could not beat Juwan Howard?

Michigan certainly got lucky…

Michigan certainly got lucky with JB, but if it wasn't for the first Aneurysm of LeadershipTM, he was probably going to get fired after the 2011 season.

I agree that I don't think…

I agree that I don't think it will be worse than this year, but I don't think we'll make the NCAA tournament for at least 3 more years.  We have a hard enough time getting people from the portal.

Yes, he committed around…

Yes, he committed around December 2023.  He was a perfect 5-star - someone who needs a couple years before going pro.

Well, this sucks. 

I get…

Well, this sucks. 

I get that this was going to happen, but it should now be abundantly clear that we are up for a few or more years of some really rough basketball.  The crop of potential coach replacements look interesting, but no one is going to come in and be successful.  Wonderful.

After a few days of thought,…

After a few days of thought, the firing of Juwan Howard, while warranted, still does not still well with me.  I don't think I've ever felt this way about other firings in the past. I'm sad, very sad.  And I feel most of the blame should not go to Juwan. 

Juwan is one of our own.  We knew he was a first time head coach, and it just seems to me that our athletic department didn't do enough to support/help him.  No doubt, Juwan deserves some blame.  I just hope that our next coach gets more support.

You buried the lede!  There…

You buried the lede!  There is serious chatter about Calipari to Michigan?  Do tell...

This is awesome! I’m…

This is awesome! I’m definitely bookmarking this post and coming back to it when I go back to Japan. 

I felt I was a little harsh…

I felt I was a little harsh on Tokyo. It’s a great place. If the timing is right, look up if they still do the fish market auction with breakfast sushi. It’s super touristy but I thought it was worth it. 

In addition to some of the tips in my other post, I recommend if possible getting your Shinkansen tickets ahead of time so you can ensure you can all sit together.

It was mostly a cash society when it came to commerce, but I’ve heard the use of CCs are becoming more common. With that, carry cash. At the time, the only place I could get cash easily was at the 7-11 ATMs. They are everywhere, so it wasn’t a problem. 
 

The toilets are amazing! 
 

if you have any specific questions, let me know. 

Yep. The only place I could…

Yep. The only place I could get cash was at the ATMs in the 7-11s

As you’ll see from other…

As you’ll see from other post, I spent a year in Japan. Overall, one of my favorite places. I think you have a great line up of cities.  If just focusing on things to skip, I honestly don’t think Tokyo is all that great beyond a couple days. It got bombed to shit during the war, so most of the city is brand new. The food is good there, but so is the food in most other Japanese cities.  
 

On the other side of the coin, I would spend more time in Kyoto. Just an amazing city. Untouched by war damage. 
 

I thought Nara was just OK. They have a lot of really annoying deer that will harass you for food. 
 

Hiroshima is definitely a must see. Obviously got a lot of war damage, but the museum about it is really well put together. And visiting Miyajima Island is a must while you’re there. 
 

I could go on…

I spent about a year there…

I spent about a year there for work about 10 years ago. Great experience and awesome food. 
 

Japan is strangely not an English speaking friendly place.  So I recommend finding a restaurant ahead of time and getting a reservation. Unfortunately, a lot of places don’t take reservations. If you are going to walk in to a place, most of the time that will work, but make sure the menu has pictures (or in some rare cases, in English) so you can order properly even if there is a language barrier. 
 

Kyoto is such a magical place, but there is an area where no foreign white people are allowed. I forgot the name of the area, but look it up and stay away. 
 

If you are really into beef, you have to stop in the Gifu prefecture and try the Hida beef. IMO it’s better than Kobe/waygu beef. 
 

Japan is one of the cleanest and safest places I’ve been.  No doubt you’ll enjoy it. 

How is Chris Collins the…

How is Chris Collins the closest thing to JB? I’m genuinely curious, because I don’t see it at all. 
 

But perhaps Brian was pointing out that Collins would not leave NW for us (which I agree with), hence the “no”. 

Well, we used to be able to…

Well, we used to be able to rip into the lions. We can’t do that now. 

I think it’s been pretty…

I think it’s been pretty well established that there are no elite coaches that will come here. We’re going to have to with a risky hire as well. 

The Bears are the worst. And…

The Bears are the worst. And I still love them. 

Brian. This post is great…

Brian. This post is great because we need to get people calibrated to fact that we are not getting anyone “good”. We are going to have to roll the dice on someone with little track record and see what happens. 

Lawrence? I ask this because…

Lawrence? I ask this because this was my literal experience when I visited a close friend at Lawrence in the late 90s. Kegs in the quad and everyone joining in. We were all underage and we were told Wisconsin doesn’t really care about drinking age. 

As an aside, Wisconsin still…

As an aside, Wisconsin still has some of the loosest drinking laws in the country.  You can drink at any age if you are with your parents.  I think Wisconsin was one of the last states to go to 21 in drinking age.  I remember my older cousins would drive up to Wisconsin in the early 80s to get beer at 18 years old and bring it back to Chicago.

I’m willing to make a small…

I’m willing to make a small bet that we will hire some “nobody” coach with an interesting up and coming feel to him. 

Not happening, unless we dig…

Not happening, unless we dig really deep into a major conference.

So stupid. If JB wants to…

So stupid. If JB wants to ruin his legacy at Michigan, then he should definitely come back. 

Seriously!  People are…

Seriously!  People are insane!  No way anyone in your list even considers us for 5 seconds.

Bobby Knight.  Because he as…

Bobby Knight.  Because he is just as realistic as anyone else's recommendations.

I gotta say.  I'm not happy…

I gotta say.  I'm not happy.  To some, this is a needed day.  To me, it's a sad day.  When we don't have an effective program to help cultivate one of our own, then I have little hope for this program going forward.

All these Beilein to…

All these Beilein to Michigan ideas need to stop.  He would get eaten alive in this environment.  No need to ruin his legacy.

Agreed! Having been "one of…

Agreed! Having been "one of the Bobs" and experience starting my own company, I learned it is surprisingly easy to let someone go legally.  As long as the reason is not related to gender, race, etc., you can let people go fairly quickly without major risk of legal recourse. 

With that, Juwan Howard is in a completely different league compared to most other every-day workers.  He has a contract, a big contract at that.  He is also a POC which, in my experience, requires extra thought/care when deciding to let him go.  The actions that the AD is taking is quite prudent when considering these factors.

You hire an outside firm to…

You hire an outside firm to ensure any major decision is based on arms-length data.

Disclaimer: former management consultant

jeesh!  I better pick up my…

jeesh!  I better pick up my dry cleaning then.

Along those lines, its worth…

Along those lines, its worth noting that the moon is farther away from earth than what people think.  To put it in perspective, you can fit about 30 earths between us and the moon.  It's extremely difficult to get to the moon and the legacy shuttle program couldn't do it.

I don’t know if you’ve look…

I don’t know if you’ve look at Oats, but look up Brandon Miller and see if you think Oats is a better culture fit than Juwan. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nobody of significance is coming to Michigan until we fix the issues with NIL and getting transfers. 

Personally. I don't care is…

Personally. I don't care if something comes from Barstool, since the founder is a "Michigan Man".

With that, I'd rather contribute to a thread that won't get deleted.

So is this going to be…

So is this going to be deleted as well??

Damn you Rob!  I had one my…

Damn you Rob!  I had one my most profound Mgoposts ever ready to post.  Then you deprived me of my chance to become an Mgoblog posting legend!

(if you can't tell, I was being sarcastic.  Keep doing good work being a moderator!)

There were for real pro…

There were for real pro-Putin people?

RIP

RIP

I'm sorry.  The band is cool…

I'm sorry.  The band is cool and all, bit I don't show up to a game to watch the band play instruments, I show up to the game to watch the football players play football.

No counter needed my friend…

No counter needed my friend. We’re just having a friendly discussion. 
 

As for JB being a racist. Yes, it all stemmed from the “thugs” incident at Cleveland. And let me be clear, I don’t think JB is a racist at all. Just that, me being white and all, I’m really not allowed to have an opinion on what is and what is not racist, especially in front of socially progressive POC. 

surely a program with the…

surely a program with the history and brand-name of Michigan can hire a coach capable of producing better results than what has transpired this season
 

We’ve been trying to use the “this is Michigan fergodsakes” for basketball and it has resulted in some horrible hires in the past 30 years.  Now, I’m with you, it shouldn’t be hard to find a coach that could get us more than 8 wins a season, but can we find one that can get us to some level of consistent success? Under these systemic issues we currently have, I don’t think so. 
 

EDIT: so I refrained from saying this at first, but I think it’s probably worth a thought. Between my POC Michigan friends, the fact that all the shit basketball coaches have all been black is not a good look. Additionally, that our only good coach in 30 years was white, and that this white coach is considered a racist in some circles doesn’t help the situation. I don’t know how big of an issue this is, but it’s definitely a thing. 

I think that’s a bit of a…

I think that’s a bit of a stretch in how you are characterizing Northwestern. They have been to the NCAA tournament twice in 10 years, and they had 3 20-win seasons in that span.  They also had an 8 and 9 win season recently.  We have performed much much much better than Northwestern in that time frame. Northwestern in not the good comparison you think it is. 

Money, and the ability to…

Money, and the ability to get to the NCAA tournament more than twice a decade. 

I still think many over…

I still think many over confident that we can even attract a good coach here, knowing that (among other things) our NIL is bad and bringing in key transfers via the portal will be a huge hurdle.

NOTE: this is not an endorsement of Juwan.  I do think he should be let go, but don't be surprised if we find it difficult to hire someone better.

(No subject)

13 Action News on X: "To quote the great philosopher Michael Scott, "I'm  not superstitious, but I am a little stitious." In honor of Friday the  13th, what are some of your

Chris Collins is from a very…

Chris Collins is from a very different part of Chicago and a very different upbringing. 
 

EDIT: I also don’t think Collins would come here unless we fix the systemic issues with the program. 

I assume this was the reason…

I assume this was the reason we won an NC in football. We had to make a sacrifice to the college sports gods. 

He’s been gone for almost a…

He’s been gone for almost a month (maybe longer) so he might have been looking for jobs since then.