Potential Assistant Coaches

Would love to get some information on whether we really got turned down for pay. I had expressed this concern a few weeks ago and it was not met favorably. I really hope we’re not losing assistants to Creighton because they pay better. Anyone with reliable info able to confirm or deny?

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Creighton pays a lot and there are a TON of perks of being the only show in town. One of Beilein’s former assistants was an assistant there in Mike Maker. No football and they sell out an 18,000 seat arena all the time, even for exhibitions.

Definitely perks and program is successful in the Big East but they just lost an assistant to Purdue. 2 year deal at 250k.

Thanks for the info, and I get that they are a bkb only school, but it doesn’t bother you at all that if all this is correct, Michigan is refusing to match/can’t match the $ and perks of GD Creighton??? Creighton?

Honestly, it makes steam come out of my ears. This is Michigan, dammit.

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I just read a bit more and see that some of the perks at Creighton are pretty swank, but honestly, I just don’t care. If it takes a GD private plane on reserve for assistants to tool around in, BUY ONE. Michigan is as rich as it gets. The NCAA - and I’m not saying I have a problem with this - at least in word limits the competitive advantage the big boys can bring to bear. CFB teams only get to have so many official coaches, and so on. But that always leaves places where a school can bring its financial weight to bear - like OSU having 300 quality control coaches and so on. Thank GOD for Harbaugh and his refusal to be outdone on any of those counts. It’s like a rich baseball team - before they even clamped down on this - signing internationals because that’s where they could bring their financial might to bear. Having a top bkb program is freaking awesome. Why are we getting outdone on what it takes to get there? Some things are over the top, but not much. Sounds like Creighton is a swell gig, but they are still Creighton to me at the end of the day and this is Michigan-Jordan Brand basketball, come on.

I hear what you are saying but Beilein doesn’t operate that way and if he does, it’s selective.

I’m not going to pretend to know (or really care) what Murphy gets at Creighton but there has to be a lot to look at. Salary, cost of living, happiness, and/or family’s happiness (if he has one). Ann Arbor isn’t exactly the cheapest place to live.

And who knows what really happened in regards to the conversation(s)/interview/job offer. Much like a lot of recruiting that Beilein does, he isn’t exactly going to make anything public. We may never know what really happened.

Definitely have to see how this plays out. Just very disappointing to not get a guy that they apparently wanted and that the kids were in favor of.

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I have no info on Murphy’s conversations with UM, but reading back it looks like BC gave Murphy a multi-year deal at $250k/yr to leave URI in 2014. Creighton hired him away in 2015 and presumably he also received a salary bump when he jumped schools?

According to public records all 3 UM Men’s Hoops assistants made identical $205k base salaries. So another $50-70k/year is a totally different assistant coach salary structure than UM has been operating. And presumably would have to Saddi a raise to match?

Add in, the article on Murphy leaving URI for BC also referenced URI including some version of “Head Coach in Waiting” status should Hurley leave the school…I don’t know if that type of language is in his Creighton contract or if that would be a requirement for any other job to lure him away?

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I’m hearing 205k is not insubstantially less than our competition.

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Taking a quick look at available FOIA data from public universities, our MBB Asst Coach salaries seems to be in line with Wisconsin, slightly above Ohio State (at least last year’s staff), above Purdue, above Maryland, below Indiana (at least last year’s staff), below Michigan State. Indiana and MSU are in-line with the $240-250k or more assistant coach salaries.

So I guess, spin that as one wants?

We just heard Purdue paid out a 2 yr/$250k fwiw. I read a post on another board that MSU’s guys were making $75k/yr per guy more than ours. Where are your numbers from? Where’s the best place to look at this? I would not be happy to be $75k per assistant behind MSU but if the numbers are smaller then the numbers are smaller.

From this article, I’ve got 273k+ per year per assistant for MSU and that was August 2016, so I don’t know if they’re up from that.

That would represent a substantial difference from what we’re paying if the article is correct.

Fixed your post.

As far as why Michigan is being outdone, I chalk that up to a question for Warde.

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There is no dispute that football is the king and carries entire Athletic Department on its shoulder. I don’t have the exact number but believe that MBB program does more than sustaining itself, and can well afford giving 100K a year increase to three assistant coaches. I would be surprised if Meyer did not get a substantial raise when he moved to Butler.

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And the idea that you couldn’t find a donor to assist with this is - imo - nuts.

Really? Holtman was getting something like 40% of Beilein’s salary. Jordan is probably getting the same or less. I doubt Butler opened the Brinks truck for Meyer.

I’m sure the Athletic Development Office would love to hear any names you care to suggest. If there are donors out there who could chip in, I’m sure they’ve been contacted. I also bet that they’ve also been contacted for football as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for whomever funded the new locker rooms, the practice facility, the remodeled Crisler Center, and the other modern amenities the program enjoys. I know it was harder to recruit players with the facilities of the past. But even with creative donations (such as the endowments for the coaching staff titles) the program clearly has a budget. That’s not on Coach B, that’s the A.D.'s call.

Would we want that extra money to go toward assistants or toward a bigger travel budget for recruiting? How about a little extra money for that recruiting day experience? How about some money for technology like the NOAH system or some more goodies for Sanderson? There’s no shortages of places to spend money but a budget line has to be drawn somewhere.

Would I want the budget to be bigger? Of course, but realistically I know that basketball is never going to be given the blank check that football gets.

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I don’t think they’ll ever get a blank check like the football program, nor probably should they. But if you’re looking at even an extra 100k per year in total (not per coach), to be competitive with other BIG10 and national programs, and you can’t even do that, at this university for the basketball program, that is definitely not a good look. In this day and age, especially for a school like Michigan, that is peanuts, and quality assistants are too important to the program.

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Another thing to think about with Michigan State coaching staff is that they’ve been there a while. Not justifying their $70,000 pay difference in assistants but having that kind of stability makes a difference in potential pay. Fife has been there the shortest period of time and he is going into his seventh season.

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Is that because no one else wants to hire them away from MSU? Or is it because they aren’t looking to move up?

Continuity is good, but getting stale is the flip side of that coin.