only reason i mention it is five reasons sports was mentioned in dylan’s article earlier today breaking down juwan as a coach
I agree with you. I’m on board with hiring Juwan and I don’t think the worst case scenario I described is at all likely. But it is up to Warde to make that judgment now, not just make the most popular move. If it backfires badly, he’ll get a lot of blame, including from quite rational folks.
Hiring Howard has home run potential and not just on the court. There’s still a lot of hard feelings on both sides over the Fab Five and the era that followed them. A class act like Juwan could bring almost everyone together. He’d be much better for Michigan than any other coach that puts up the same record.
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If Warde and Cooley are buddies who’s to say Warde didn’t say “sure, I’ll help you get a raise by interviewing you”?
Hardly a win win situation. Tons and tons of risk
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I think sometimes Occams Razor needs to be used. Cooley was interested in Michigan, Providence made it worth his while to stay. Not every transaction has both a winner or a loser. Cooley gets a raise, Providence keeps a coach they like. It doesn’t mean there is a negative for us.
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I don’t think they’re really buddies. From the descriptions it sounds like Warde has just respected him as a coach, no one has really said much about a personal relationship
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Friend of mine who has some connections. I’m taking it with a grain of salt but he claims there is mutual interest with Donovan but there’s some resistance from big donors. I’m not claiming this as fact by any stretch just what I’ve heard through him and was wondering if it could be substantiated at all by others.
Oh right, not Warde, the main search committee guy or whatever running the thing had the friendship with him.
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Not that I’ve seen. Word from everywhere is that the door is shut. But that would be a heck of a surprise. Warde better hurry, though, before the Juwan train gets out of the station. It’s one thing to reneg on a random candidate, but you can’t play Juwan in this situation.
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Hard to believe but I have not heard any other reasons.
I don’t think he’ll get near as much blame as he would’ve by hiring Cooley and him not succeeding. Or even if he just sustained the same mid-tier success he had at Providence, Warde looks bad.
I just think an interview may not uncover worst-case scenario type possibilities. You/We will only know if it gets to that point and he isn’t able to handle it. I personally wouldn’t blame Warde if that did occur. Based on everything at hand that is known, I still believe it’s win-win at this point.
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Cool. I disagree and can say that in one-liners too.
There’s little to indicate Warde and Cooley are “buddies” though. When Cooley’s name was first mentioned in connection with the UM job, people mentioned that they would have known each other from the old Big East UConn/Providence ties. From there it’s been speculation & conjecture as to any relationship between the two.
Yeah, this has already been clarified. The Cooley buddy was the head search firm guy.
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Hardly explains the 3 days of doing nothing …
Is no fun to hear that about Donovan, but I agree about that grain of salt.
And even that connection is unclear. Yes, the person who usually heads the collegiate searches for Turnkey Sports — and likely, though not confirmed, is leading the vetting process in this search — used to work with Cooley. There’s no statement on whether they got along, have a friendship, or just happened to be co-workers overlapping at a same employer.
I just think if we’re throwing out “Warde got playeddddd what a dumbass!!” type takes we should throw out everything.
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Cooley was absolutely the highest risk candidate for Warde professionally.
I’ve argued before that Juwan’s realistic floor is much higher than some others have said. I also said from the beginning that Juwan’s interview would likely end the search. I think he’ll succeed as long as he’s committed to Michigan and is willing to work hard at recruiting. That should come across in an interview.
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Where are you reaching the conclusion that Michigan spent 3 days “doing nothing” … we’re only on the 8th day Beilein made his decision to leave. Contrary to some misguided opinions on this board, 8 days is a ridiculously short time in big-time hiring decisions like this.
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