Dylan, is there a perception about how easily an NBA guy can come to the college level in terms of tactics? In the football side there’s been the criticism that you can’t necessarily expect NFL coordinators to come to college and do the same stuff. I personally perceive the strategy and tactics much more similar between the NBA and college basketball compared to the NFL and college football. But I don’t know the extent to which we’d want Juwan to tap his NBA network for assistants, or if he’s minded to have an offensive coordinator so to speak. If so, I don’t know if it would be important for that guy to know the college game more intimately than the NBA version.
Can almost see the other four Fab Fivers sitting together at Crisler Center now.
1 Like
someone mentioned Wisconsin assistant Howard Moore, no sure the right person to run offense
Tim Miles? or retain Saddi Washington maybe?
Juwan Howard is a good candidate, but there is a guy who would be even better. He could succeed where Beilein fought and failed. With his connections he could truly be our 6th man. He could reduce Tom to a sobbing invalid. He could cause Fran to actually explode. In a world where Trey Burke’s clean block gets a foul we could finally have the wind at our back. Warde Manuel, it’s Ted Valentine time.
11 Likes
love or hate him, this interview by webber gets you fired up about Howard
10 Likes
Top notch first post👌
2 Likes
That interview fired me up too. I am sure Juwan will bring in a quality staff with him. Who knows may be Franz will still come to M and maybe Jalen Wilson would recommit or maybe Juwan bring in his nephew a highly reguarded 2019 recruit.
1 Like
Just thinking of what programs we might target to steal an offensive mind from as an assistant, what would be a good short list? Lets say we have a bigger budget now if Juwan is not necessarily going to command the salary Beilein had. Gonzaga is certainly always running good O (and has recruited NBA guys more too), who are the others?
That’s a tough question because so many offenses are so dependent on the head coach. Michigan was a great offense last year but I wouldn’t think you would hire Saddi or Deandre to revamp your offense, if that makes sense.
The Yaklich situation is fairly unique for the college game.
1 Like
Just looking at KenPom rankings, and a name/team that immediately jumped out at me is Hofstra’s Speedy Claxton. Former NBA player with a ring for the 03 Spurs, and spent a few years with Golden State before jumping back to his alma mater.
Hofstra’s offense jumped into the top-twenty this season and despite the 262nd best defense, they were top-100 in KP and up about 65 spots from last year. He had a very good relationship with star guard Justin Wright-Foreman as well.
I know just about nothing about his involvement in the coaching ranks, but it’s an intriguing resume at least.
1 Like
They are definitely a huge ball screen team, so that’s a fairly interesting one I suppose.
I personally would expect Juwan to hire people that he’s close to rather than a Beilein-style KenPom scan. But that’s just a guess.
4 Likes
Yeah I think Yaklich has made Michigan fans get a little too caught up on the offensive/defensive coordinator thing. Hard to say any assistants are offensive geniuses. I don’t think Juwan is going to hire an assistant and hand the offense over to them.
The good news with Juwan is that his pro background is a complete positive point indicating that he’d prefer a modern offensive approach even if he isn’t a great developer of guards himself. It’s not like an NFL hire where they are going to run FBs all day, cough cough
5 Likes
Oh for sure. I don’t imagine Juwan’s gonna be looking at jumps in KenPom metrics over season-to-season and deciding his assistants that way. I don’t really know if I’d want a coach doing that, to be frank.
agreed, that is probably more of a football mentality (Harbaugh hiring Don Brown, e.g.) but maybe just thinking about a “what teams run great O” and would be a starting point to look at adding value to the staff for that side of the ball.
I get what you mean, but I’d want a coach to look at who is successful at the modern O game, and who might be good at teaching it as one factor of adding assistants. Not saying it has to be kenpom O list browsing but that is one data point of relevance (maybe filter it for people you have relationships with or that those close to you have had relationships with…)
Not sure why, but I am having trouble keeping my excitement in check. Just so many high level endorsements that it seems like too much up side to pass on.
Who knows if he’d take an assistant job(probably doubtful) but John Thompson III would be a great candidate as an assistant to lead the offense and help juwan through being a first time head coach. Maybe juwan knows the Thompson family from his time in DC. Just found an interesting connection, Howards agent was John Thompson sr’s agent.
Hopefully if Hired he can retain Luke Yaklich then go and grab his Former Teammate Rod Strickland as an Assistant and his 5 Star Nephew Jalen McDaniel as his first Big Time Recruit!
1 Like