Pretty splashy hire for Michigan. I hope it fails miserably!
Juwan Howard in at Michigan
- Thread starter unoHawkeye
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Well they couldn't get Coach K or Roy Williams or Bill Self or John Calipari or Jay Wright or Chris Beard or Tony Bennett or Mark Few. Who else should they go after? They beat the bushes with Brad Stevens and Billy Donovan and neither wanted to leave the NBA. Take a run at Rick Barnes? Mike White? Lon Kruger?
At this point in the offseason, you are basically either looking at digging down to a small school or hiring an assistant.
While Howard doesn't have the HC experience, he at least has a 6 year track record as an assistant in a strong organization and helping develop plenty of young players. He isn't Clyde Drexler who walked off the NBA court straight to an HC job. He is also universally respected by players from superstars down to scrubs. And while he hasn't been out recruiting players before, his kids are both in AAU ball so he has plenty of connections.
I'd have a bigger worry about Xs and Os if the entire NBA hadn't basically turned into near identical tactics to NCAA.
Time will tell how he does, but he at least has a decent chance of big time success. He won't replicate Beilein's Xs and Os, but he can make up for some of it by landing better talent.
They should have just gone with a mid-major coach like everyone on this board says we should do when Fran leaves. That’s a bunch of crap! Get an assistant at a P5 school or show some balls like the Nebby AD did in landing Hoiberg. NO MORE MID MAJOR COACHES!
Personally I would have made a stronger push for Prohm at ISU, Barnes at Tennessee or Smart at Texas.
I get that they were hamstrung by the timing, so the coaching pool wasn’t as deep as it might have been a month ago. And Howard might well turn out to be good, we just have no track record to judge by.
It seems a little weird that I’ve heard chatter about Howard rebuilding the culture and bringing back the glory days. It didn’t seem to me like Michigan was in a bad place that they needed to rebuild or something. Beilein left them in a considerably better position than what was there when he arrived.
That is code for “we now understand that cheating won’t be punished. We’re back!”
Whoa, Smart?? And Prohm????
I wouldn’t wish Prohm on my worst enemy.
Well, maybe ISU. I guess I’d wish Prohm on ISU.
I'd take a pass on all 3, especially Smart. I mean he has a good chance of being fired at Texas in the next 10 months, why the hell would a major program be itching to hire him? Barnes will be 65 this summer.
At least with Howard it will either work or not work and that should be apparent quickly. If it works, it's probably a home run. If it doesn't work, the floor is probably at least fringe NCAA tourney team since he should be able to bring in enough talent. And while some think if he does well he will be off to the NBA, Chris Webber thinks this was always his dream job and he will retire in Ann Arbor.
Prohm
Note. I like Barnes, but he was let go at U TX. I also like Smart, but UT fans aren't exactly in love with that he has brought to Austin either.
I think if Smart is given time, he'll do well there...unfortunately, UT fans also aren't really know for their patience.
“At least with Howard it will either work or not work and that should be apparent quickly.“
Yes, that’s radically different than every other college basketball coach ever hired. 99% of other coaches hired fall somewhere in between working and not working and it takes years and years for this to become apparent. With Howard, this won’t be the case...because... well .... because you said so. Good point.
“The floor will be a fringe NCAA team.” But of course it will, dear.
“And while some think if he does well he will be off to the NBA, Chris Webber thinks this was always his dream job and he will retire in Ann Arbor.”
Lolz Beilein was 66, the winningest coach in the school’s history, and he didn’t retire there. Michigan is everyone’s dream job. Just ask any Michigan fan.
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Butthurt much?
John Beilein is phenomenal. My favorite coach Michigan has had in either hoops or football in my lifetime. But Michigan was never his dream job. He wasn't from Michigan, didn't go to Michigan, etc. Juwan Howard told his friends it was the job he always wanted. Now he's got it. I don't personally expect it, but he has as good a chance of staying forever as anybody else Michigan could have hired.
If you'd care to wager that Michigan won't know for 6+ years if Howard is a good coach or not, well just name it. I'm saying it won't take that long.
Do you just want to hedge every single thing you say? Afraid to go out on a limb?
Honestly don’t care enough to “wager” lolz.
As far as finding out if it was a good or bad hire, there’s nothing different about Howard’s hire than the hire of any other coach — you’ll know by year 3 what you have. Period.
Michigan/Howard is not some special case and the “dream job” idea is 14 year old girl stuff. Sorry.
Somewhat audacious to hire a dude associated with one of the worst pay for play scandals in the history of college basketball but ... jail to the victors, man...
Haha
Tim Duncan
Patrick Ewing
Chris Mullins
Kevin Ollie kind of worked out for a while
...
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I could see an initial recruiting buzz and some success there....and then we have to see his actual coaching ability. If he can recruit well and then brings in good assistants.....and if he can coach, then they could be trouble.
Don't know if he can coach like Beilein, but he'll be an awesome recruiter at a school that a lot of kids would love to play for.
Here’s my rebuttal about people saying how he is going to be a great recruiter. Beilein already was a great recruiter bringing in top notch players as we’ve seen by players drafted out of Michigan under him. Unlike penny hardaway situation where Memphis wasn’t getting many top tier players until he got there Michigan has been and especially of late.
I agree that John B did a really good job of recruiting....but it wasn't Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, NC level recruiting and I think that is the speculation....that it could get to those levels. Maybe not....we will see.
It’s basketball. Lebron and DWade were tweeting about him being hired. Tons of NBA experience. One and dones weren’t Beileins thing. Juwan will get guys.
Who are we fooling dude will get the best players in the league, can he coach them is what we will find out......
I was just talking to an Iowa fan (ironic enough) about how the college basketball landscape stacks the deck against schools and coaches that play by the rules. Is it a stretch to think that Beilein loved Michigan but, at 66, was tired of dealing with an AAU and shoe-deal driven recruiting scene?
