Sounds like 3 people are getting interviewed next week. I’m sure you can guess which 3
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Howard , vall and…?
Steve Kerr
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he’s just winning with Mark Jackson’s players, can he build his own program
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It’s a little disappointing that the only real candidates appear to be limited to guys with Michigan ties. I’m willing to take a risk on Howard because he has the most upside of the realistic options, but is this really the best we can do?
Is the field so limited simply because of the poor timing? Or is it a function of Warde lacking imagination and/or them cheating out?
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Poor timing seems to have a lot to do with it. Had Beilein left immediately after the college season (not necessarily realistic, since the NBA season was still going on), they would have had a better shot at candidates like Beard, Oats, and others who have either changed jobs or gotten extensions (i.e. increasing their buyouts) in the past six weeks. Not all of those guys would have been realistic (Beard wants to stay in Texas because of his daughters, it seems) but the pool would have been larger, or at least a bit more receptive, in Oats’ case.
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I don’t recall the narrative among Ohio State fans. I seem to recall it being praised nationally, however—though it’s possible I could be mistaken about that. I certainly believed at the time that it was a home run, considering how quickly he turned around a team (as interim head coach) that had a very poor season the year before under Brandon Miller. It was clear to me that he was a very good coach based on what I saw of his Butler teams (which was considerable), and I think the results so far at Ohio State, considering the circumstances, have demonstrated this.
I think of a “home run” as either something like us hiring Harbaugh - a huge move that gets everyone’s attention - or else, in retrospect, a move that massively paid off, like us hiring Beilein. Holtmann is a promising guy but I don’t think he quite fits either of those, not yet anyway.
We will never know unless John U Bacon wrote a book on the search. But I suspect that we would’ve ended up with the same names had it happened a month earlier.
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I guess I am unclear what names Michigan really missed out on from the search taking place “late” so to speak.
Nate Oats? He’s a guy you would have interviewed if he had been on the market but it isn’t like he is a proven high-major coach or anything. There are a few under the radar mid-major types who might have gotten a look (Kyle Smith, Mike Young, names like that) but I’m not sure that people would be super jazzed about them either.
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Fred Hoiberg? I suspect you’re right, but it’s possible that someone like Mike White would have more reluctance in leaving his team now than two months ago. Also, we could have gotten tied in somehow to the UCLA search. that would have been fun.
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The only other guy that everyone has talked extensively about is the other interviewee.
Dot made a point to not mention his name on the 247 board because he currently has another job and does not want to be tied up in drama. Dot says we’ve been in contact with him and implies he will be interviewing from afar as a result.
It’s also the reason we’re not hearing much about him the past 2 days, not because he isn’t a serious candidate anymore.
Doing some deep research on Juwan. This could be a potential guy for his staff
Juwan knows him from high school and one of Juwans best friends, donnie kirskey, was an assistant under him.
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Huh. Not following
Shaka smart?
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Oats was hired at Bama on March 27 and the NBA season didn’t even end until April 10, so no matter what, the timing would have been off if Beilein was leaving for the NBA.
The timing being so late isn’t great but I don’t think any of the homerun candidates like Wright, Bennett, Beard, Few, Stevens or Donovan were ever realistic. I think those guys are all pipe dreams.
So, I’m not sure the pool of candidates would be that much different if this happened 2-4 weeks ago. I respect Brendan Quinn a lot but I saw him tweet that the timing of this was so brutal that you could make a case to hire Saddi or Yak as an interim coach and let them test run it for a year.
That seems nuts to me and would seriously set the program back. No matter who is hired, they need to come through with a killer 2020 class and who’s going to commit to an interim coach. It’s going to be a large class and could determine how the program fares post Beilein.
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Guy is getting smashed at home almost to the point of pulling out. Lot at risk if not being seriously considered.
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OSU fan here. I come in peace.
Holtmann was OSU’s first choice. They approached him first, he initially rebuffed, OSU then approached McDermott, and OSU finally rounded back toward Holtmann. Even when Gene Smith had discussions with McDermott, the goal was still Holtmann.
Also, there were back-channel discussions between OSU and Jason Belzer (Holtmann’s agent) during the prior winter. By no means was Matta’s firing a hasty, unplanned decision. Same as Meyer-Tressel. I’ve had a number of discussions with members of the Schottenstein family. They approached Meyer much, MUCH earlier than the public had known about. I’m talking about discussions as soon as Tressel’s problematic email was discovered.
In regards to Holtmann being considered a so-called home run hire, I would say that the fanbase pinned him as more of a solid triple where the runner doesn’t round the base. McDermott would have been a single. Nobody was excited about him.
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Smashed at home? Like by his family or the school?