Saddi is originally from Lansing where he played at Sexton HS. He played his college ball at Western Michigan, was drafted and played professionally for several years. Saddi coaches at Oakland U for Greg Kampe, a very good mid major head basketball coach. Saddi’s responsibilities are coaching the big men and working as recruiting coordinator as well as being Kampe’s right hand man on the bench as first assistant. He is a very good basketball coach who is truly ready to move up. He was runnerup to, I believe, Lavall last time.
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Give me Saddi and Donlon and call it a day.
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Donlon may have been unjustly fired, but there’s little doubt he would have been fired the following year. During his time at Wright State he was an awful recruiter, played an unappealing style of basketball, and typically bored the WSU fans to death. The team he would have brought back for next year would have been picked to finish last in the Horizon if it wasn’t for a whole bunch of other coaching changes in the Horizon league. Wright State played an easy non-conference schedule and would typically be just ok in league play to get above that 20 win benchmark. While they did make trips to the conference finals, they were never exactly a favoirte.
Now that I’ve gotten all the negative out of the way I’ll say that I absolutely love Donlon and think he’s perfect for Michigan. Donlon gets every ounce of talent out of his players and has consistently turned a group of unathletic players into a defensive juggernaut. His guards have always been really good and I think he is a worthy replacemet for Jordan. I’m confident enough in Beilein running the offense that what Donlon lacks in that regard he’ll make up for on the defensive end. And typical to just about all good defenses, Donlon ran a pack line D at WSU. I’d hope he implements that here at Michigan. As far as the person? Hands down my favorite non Greg Kampe coach in the Horizon league.
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/wsu-coach-donlon-unloads-on-m…
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I want Cornell, but those would be a decent couple of hires and probably would fit well with JB. I’m not sure about their recruiting chops, but that may not matter much given the fact that JB sets the recruiting rules/philosophy.
Thanks for the summary. After reading this I am not sure he’s worth a hire. His best trait seems to be coaching defense. Obviously this team needs help defensively but is it a coaching issue or is it a player issue and their limitations. Donlon might help a bit but if these guys can’t get in front of their man, prevent a drive, box guys out I am not sure Donlon will help that much. It seems like he won’t help much on the recruiting trail either.
It’s not like Wisconsin recruits these amazing athletes at every position. Yet they are a top defensive and rebounding team year in and year out. Defense is part athleticism, but also a major parts attitude, fundamentals and work rate. The latter three can be emphasized through coaching.
Do I think we’re going to all of a sudden turn into a top 20 defense with our personnel? Absolutely not. That will take a couple cycles of recruiting to do. But we can go from atrocious to passable.
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It isn’t necessarily about athletes. They can obviously make up for some shortcomings especially an athletic big who can protect the weak side. Other than that having guys that want to get after, make a commitment means more as you said. What makes you think that these guys would buy in? They haven’t bought in the first few years, it’s a veteran team and the light is going to suddenly be turned on?
Wisconsin D
16 10th
15 54th
14 49th
13 1st
12 12th
11 53rd
10 29th
I would gladly take 54th right now but people forget how damn good they were on the defensive end. Over those 7 years a top 30 finish and 3 top 12 finishes. Maybe Michigan should talk to Bo Ryan as a consultant.
Donlon teaches the same system
Can Beilein find highly talented recruits that are able to play defense like that and not take away from their offense?
Based on purely recruiting rankings, Michigan under JB looks like Kentucky compared to Wisconsin. They have a hell of a system in regards to deveolping guys. I wish JB had that kind of a batting average since the recruiting strategy is basically the same outside of Michigan landing more high end talent on paper. This is the 2nd time JB has had to cut bait and go back to the drawing board while Wisconsin finishes in the top 4 and is a tough out in the tournament like clockwork.
I am continually amazed at what Wisconsin pulls off every year with the level of raw talent they have.
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If it’s emphasized, I don’t see why they wouldn’t buy in. I don’t see anyone on the roster that wouldn’t take to coaching.
I like the sounds of that. Quicker the better. We have some moves to make quick
Curious what people think about what it means if we become a team that fouls more, how this ramifies across the breadth of Beilein’s system. Or is it possible to become a better defensive team and still keep fouls incredibly low? Perhaps not; if you’re digging in you’re probably making contact.
I read that Donlon’s teams have been fairly foul-prone (haven’t actually seen the stats), but that’s not necessarily a feature of the pack-line defense. Wisconsin and UVa are typically pretty foul-averse. In fact, this past year Wisconsin committed the 3rd fewest fouls per game and UVa the 8th fewest.
Exactly, which is why Donlon’s high FTA/FGA allowed surprised me. They also manage to force turnovers at a higher level than you expect from the Wisc/UVA style defense.
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I haven’t watched Donlon’s teams play at all. Do you know why they are more foul-prone? Does he play a variation of the pack line defense? A basic pack line defense takes away penetration and post entry passes and forces the opposition to shoot jumpers. That is usually a pretty good recipe to avoid fouling.
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Does anybody, who knows the nuances of recruiting better than I, know how detrimental it has been to have Hunter and the other guy (forget his name) on the recruiting trail, rather than established assistant coaches? I am all for taking the time necessary to make the right hires, just wondering if that time has negatively impacted the past month or so of recruiting.
Assistant coaching hires are official
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