He’s recruited really well at Providence and got them to the tourney a few times.
Maybe. But Amaker clearly is not a bad coach, look at what he’s done at Harvard. All I’m trying to say is Shaka would not be the death of our program. There are many other people I’d prefer but I think it’s reasonable to believe he would keep us in a decent spot.
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Funny the same thing that we heard about Coach Beilein in 2007 (has a weird offense, runs an odd defense) is the same thing that is being said about Coach Smart
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Now there’s some hyperbole. Shaka was probably over-rated when he was at VCU when he and his style were the flavor-of-the-month. But now the criticism is over-heated the other way. Kinda like perceptions of Poole. Shaka wouldn’t be in my top 10, but I’d take him over the Moser, Cooley level coaches.
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I agree with you probably as much as anyone on the board. But Amaker was a demonstrably bad coach at Michigan on virtually every level. And he was just as bad at Seton Hall. Amaker, arguably, built his program at Harvard on some questionable recruiting at the outset—at least by Ivy League standards. Plus he finally started to adapt his offense to his personnel, rather than force-feeding Coach K’s on them. I still have nightmares of watching Graham Brown and Courtney Sims standing with ball 10 feet above the 3-point-line waiting, presumably, for someone of defense to fall down.
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Reputation and perceptions are kind of irrelevant. Look at Smart’s teams execute offense poorly. The players don’t combine well at all. There seems to be almost an absence of half court schemes.
Good guy? Seems to be, Yes. Good recruiter? Yes. Coach? The evidence is in watching his team execute offense and I would say solid “no”. His recruiting would keep him afloat for awhile, which in my mind is worse than hiring a total flop because it prolongs the inevitable.
If it’s Shaka, go the Beilein route and hire an offensive coordinator…
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Fair enough. I’m not gonna die on a hill defending Amaker. I agree on his time at Michigan 
Sounds like we agree on Shaka anyway
Agree with this and previous post from bebopson. Very difficult to imagine how the person who is Michigan’s AD isn’t hyperaware of the Martin-on-a-sailboat story and what that means for his own career.
No it’s not.
Smart ‘19- can’t coach offense, dosent develop but can recruit well and coach D.
Beilein in ‘07- Cant coach D but employs a funky 1-3-1. Won’t be able to recruit at high level nationally or in Detroit.
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Baffled at the Shaka Smart stuff. Stale gimmick, one good year, spinning his wheels in his current job. Ant Wright bit on it too. His argument amounts to ``ok he can’t coach worth a lick but can recruit Texas so therefore…’’. I just don’t get it.
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I’ve said this earlier, and I believe Dylan mentioned it today. But a lot of Shaka’s main issues are his roster construction. The teams just have too many big men. It’s possible if he irons that out, and it will be set up for him when he gets to Michigan, that some of his offensive problems are fixed. I don’t think he’s married to an old school style system.
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Who is this guy and how would he know? Don’t think Sam or Dot has mentioned him
Idk but he has a bunch of legit people following including dylan, rothstein, goodman, etc.
New updates from Sam:
Stevens, Donovan are not interested, Marshall off the list.
Donovan, who we had high hopes for, endorsed Shaka.
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Lol no. I’d rather have Yaklich if we are going the unproven assistant route for continuity purposes. Fife was really young when he started as a head coach at IPFW and I’m sure he would be better now after coaching under Izzo, but he had a below .500 record there.
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Not saying I’m endorsing him as a candidate just sharing the tweet/rumor
Ed Cooley has finished in the top 50 in Torvik once. Shaka Smart has finished in the top 50 7 of the last 8 years, including 3 top 25 finishes and 3 more top 40 finishes.
Again, this isn’t to say Shaka is the cat’s pajamas, but he’s significantly better than some of the other names out there who seem to be grouped in the same category. And that’s without considering that Smart is still quite young - 42, while Cooley is 49 and even Chris Beard is 46, for comparison - so maybe has room to grow, has at least had some good offenses, and is seemingly a great fit culturally.
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If Smart kept Yaklich and Sanderson I’d be confident that could turn out pretty well. He’d probably pull some big name talent in the short term without losing a ton of roster continuity from the current team.