These vacations. . . painful recurring motif. But I will wait for more details before I conclude that Warde botched it. So much that could be going on there. Could be that it was clear to both, even understood, that John wanted to move on, just for one example.
I am pained at the departure, pretty convinced that the next coach is likely to feel like a downgrade, and evoke annoyance among some large subset of the crowd. But if we consider that John was at Michigan for 12 years, accomplished an enormous amount, and was now staring at something of a wall. . . moving on to a lucrative new challenge just canât look so shocking to most level-headed people.
Jury is out on Warde, Iâll admitâabout to commence some serious deliberations. Among the things that I have not seen yet, though he seems nice enough, is a desire or ability to get out there and fully explain his rationale. His list of desired qualities, as stated in Dylanâs update, is a little bit generic. Doesnât mean heâs not capable of greater specificity. . .
Does anyone know the buyout number for Oats? I canât believe he is going to want to stay in Alabama. Both Oats and Shaka are from Wisconsin. Both played college ball at small Midwestern colleges. While Austin is different than Alabama, I canât imagine Alabama feels anything like home to Oats. I wouldnât worry about the salary that Oats might want, I would worry about the buyout. He would pull a Hoke and walk to Ann Arbor for this opportunity IMO. I donât know him at all but he does have 3 daughtersâŚand he is living in Alabama.
Was that a vacation for Warde? Was he just tagging along or did he have some official role to play? I think we all know that if something happened on the trip, say Harbaugh got into some controversy, Warde would get a lot of blame for not being there.
I donât know if it was a vacation or if he had official duties as AD, but I do know that I donât blame Manuel for us losing Beilein. I think JB was gone. I think he had made up his mind.
I think he had been stewing about some things related to college basketball, and I donât think this past year, especially near the end, was particularly easy for him.
I think he wanted to conquer that last mountain which for him was the NBA. I think going to the NBA was in his heart.
He made the decision quickly. I think he talked it over with Kathy, maybe his kids, Patrick for sure, and then moved on it quickly. I donât think he wanted any input from Manuel. I think he had made up his mind and didnât want anyone trying to talk him out of it.
I donât blame Warde Manuel. Iâm ready to move on and find the next best coach for Michigan. Just my opinion, and my wish for the future.
Based on what we know, Iâm pretty disappointed. Manuel would have to be pretty stupid not to know about the Martin-on-a-boat story. To not bother being in touch for 11 days after the coach says âletâs catch upâ is a pretty bad look. AD is a coveted job. Youâd hope itâs held by somebody who can do a reasonably good job advocating for whatâs best for the school and the program and most importantly the players who have committed themselves to it. Martin at least knew to beg Lloyd Carr for one more year. When you have an irreplaceable coach, thatâs a reasonable thing to do.
Was begging Lloyd for one more year a good idea? It didnât work out that way and Lloyd only had to be convinced to postpone his retirement. Beilein would have to be convinced to turn down a job he wanted, with no guarantees of ever getting another chance at the NBA.
Nobody is irreplaceable and any good boss would accept that. Fans need to accept that Beilein left because he wanted to move on, not because of anything Michigan did or didnât do.
Iâm not defending Manual not talking to Beilein for 11 days but I donât think thereâs was anything that could have been done to talk Beilein out of going to the NBA.
He clearly wanted the Pistons job last year and if youâre willing to go to Cleveland which has a terrible roster, and a maddening owner, youâre talking about a bottom 5 NBA job for sure. Heck, Beilein didint even wait to see what happened in the lottery which could have changed the fortunes of the franchise and instead they got pretty much their worst case scenario in the 5th pick.
Spot on with the Wooden comment. I saw a quote from SpikeâŚparaphrasingâŚâMichigan was more of a basketball school than a football school during Beileinâs tenureâ!
I have to agree with that, perhaps UM will need the BB program to be solid as December rolls around. This hire is a big decision and will make for a bigger transition, UMHOOPS cannot become irrelevant. Itâs not good for business.
I never said anything close to that. Iâve said quite a bit in this thread that he was gone no matter what. That doesnât excuse the lack of a buyout.
I donât know if begging Lloyd for one more year was a good idea, but getting one more year out of Beilein would have been unquestionably a great idea. It costs you nothing to at least give it a try, asking nicely and showing some love is not a human-rights violation, and the Carr example shows that itâs acceptable behavior within the Michigan culture. Itâs true that Beilein left becuase he wanted to, but holding that belief doesnât mean itâs a bad idea for the AD to do his best to keep a valued leader around a little longer. Be an advocate for your student-athletes.
What leverage did Michigan have to negotiate a buyout during the contract extension talks last year? Beilein had already built the program and was coming off of an appearance in the National Championship game. If it was his position that he should be able to leave when he wanted to without penalty it would be very hard for Michigan to counter that.
How common is it to not have a buyout? I imagine even Coach K and Roy Williams have buyouts even though they have jobs at their current positions for however long they want them.
If JB negotiated no buyout and in exchange he was fine with keeping his salary a little lower, thatâs one thing. But even a $2million buyout goes a long way toward paying the buyout of another coach, even if itâs tiddlywinks to an NBA team. And I donât think negotiating for no buyout is something alot of coaches do. Might negotiate for a smaller one. But for none?
Itâs always difficult to apply the normal-workplace standards to these situations that we know and have experienced in our own lives, but if that was the case it simply makes it that much harder to understand Manuel doing nothing and everyone around the program being in shock as per BQâs latest. Sounds like there was plenty of opportunity to be prepared.
Yeah, I donât understand his argument. Warde renegotiated Beileinâs contract after he flirted with the NBA. Does anyone really believe Warde didnât think a buyout would be a good idea? Or that he didnât propose one? Or that it was in his power to force Beilein to accept one?
Beilein ended up with a modest raise. Iâd bet that he turned down more money that was on the table.
In hindsight itâs easy to say now that he should have had a buyout but you have to think in perspective of last year. If, after flirting with the Pistons, it went public that Beilein would not sign an extension with Michigan because Warde was trying to force a buyout on him the masses would have overwhelmingly been on the side of âdo whatever it takes to make Beilein happy.â Beilein had all of the leverage.