Wow, this is fantastic. Puts a solid perspective on what we are getting with Martelli. Thank you for posting this. I believe JH is going to connect with players differently that Beilien. Not calling one better than the other but I believe there will be a strong vibe coming from these coaches that the players will buy into. It also helps that we have a coach who knows the ins and outs of the college game. This will be a great addition to the staff and allow Howard to take a different approach with the last assistant coach. A guy like Eisley will be a better fit if you have Martelli on board (as an example).
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Great summary of Martellis qualifications. I particularly liked his roles with the coaches association and the ethics committee. That gives Howard someone to lean on for those areas while Howard focuses more on recruiting and team building. Good stuff
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We talked about Martelli a ton on the pod and why/how his tenure ended at St. Joe’s. He would be an unbelievable asset for Juwan in terms of having seen everything and knowing what it takes to run a college program.
I’m not really sure where all this talk about skeletons in his closet or investigations or whatever you guys are talking about is coming from.
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Bebopson linked an article that quoted the St. Joe’s AD insinuating there was something to be concerned about.
I wonder what was going on in his program?
JB: Out of respect for Phil, I’m not going to tell you everything I saw. I can tell you I was extraordinarily concerned about the program on and off the court.
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The AD had to say something to justify firing a program legend. Going this route makes it look like she’s being respectful to Martelli’s legacy and avoids the obligation to, y’know, provide evidence that something actually happened. Considering UM’s history w/ an AD trying to get away w/ that kind of bullshit, I was disinclined to give it any weight even before Brendan’s comments on the pod.
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Her line about being respectful was total BS. I don’t doubt Martelli had more power than a new AD would be comfortable with and this was her way of taking control.
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We went over this ground yesterday; see posts above.
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I agree, Dylan. I didn’t spend days researching Martelli, only a few hours, but I found no skeletons.
Kturnup mentioned in a PM to me the only concern I think we could have, and that’s if Martelli, who has been a coaching legend, can adapt to the role of assistant, and especially the assistant to a “rookie” head coach in his first college coaching experience. I think that’s the only thing that would give me some concern.
Perhaps the reason this seems to be taking some time to be completed is so that Juwan and Phil can really get to know each other in order to determine whether this can and will work. I think it can and I hope it will, because it could be just an outstanding situation…for Juwan, for Michigan Basketball, and for Phil, too.
Juwan has enough humility that I think he could handle it and would welcome the guidance and the counsel. And, Phil? Well, I hope at soon to be 65 he realizes that perhaps his calling in coaching and life now may be, in addition to still coaching and mentoring young players, he could do the same for a young coach who has a chance to be star. I hope it happens and I hope it works.
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Matt, in the Sielski article I read today and refenced above, he addressed this, but it was far from the whole story. Google Mike Sielski and you’ll find the story. I was concerned, too…until I read the article and did some research on Martelli.
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BlueFront, see my comment to Mattski above. There is more to the quote than actually reported. And bebopson, this is not meant as an assault on your reporting…at all. You simply linked the article in which it appeared, but I don’t think that the quote attributed to the new AD tells the whole story.
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Seems to imply that Yak will be moving to Texas without the fam
I’m assuming we won’t hear anything official over the weekend, but I sure hope the new staff will be unveiled next week.
I think we all wanted one of Howard’s assistants to have college head coaching experience (Tim Miles was brought up a lot early in this topic), and I’m in agreement with what appears to be the general consensus that there really isn’t a better candidate available with those credentials than Phil Martelli.
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Did Martelli offer MAAR? If not, his basketball bona fides are suspect.
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This article says “on the radar” but not finding verification of an offer in my quick google search.
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Courtesy of our alter ego mgoblotto
OFFERS
Before picking up the Michigan offer on his visit, Abdur-Rahkman held offers from Bucknell, Delaware, Drexel, George Mason, Lehigh, Robert Morris, and VCU, according to ESPN.
Clear miss, tsk tsk.
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Ha! I haven’t seen St. Joseph’s listed among the schools that offered, but I did read that he had some 30-odd D1 offers, and only a few schools are listed by 247, Rivals, ESPN.
Regardless, I don’t think there’s any question that John Beilein had a special ability to evaluate potential. I wouldn’t dare argue that Martelli was comparable to JB in that regard.
But Shaka offered… 
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The plot thickens!
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Let’s cut to the chase: did Mike Miller offer him at UC Riverside?
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Here’s something I found from CBS Sports from shortly after the Martelli firing. To me, it not only illustrates the high esteem in which Coach Martelli was held by these media personalities but also their belief that St Joes really dropped the ball on the way they handled his firing. It may also add a bit of context to Jill Bodensteiner’s “extraordinary concerned” comment. That comment, too, may have been just another example of how poorly the relatively new president and the absolutely new AD handled this entire affair.
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