Potential Assistant Coaches

Some interesting names. I am fine with promoting from within. But only for one spot. Hunter is probably as ready as he’ll ever be. He’s been with JB and Michigan for a while now. I would be fine with him. He’s from Indiana, got experience recruiting last summer. I don’t think we’d really suffer if we hired him. But if he’s promoted, I’d want the other coach to be a veteran that comes from a program known for defense (whether low major, mid major or high major) or he himself is known for it. I think going with two guys from within the JB tree (Hunter and Pat Beilein, Hunter and Lee, Beilein and Lee etc) would probably be a mistake. But in JB we trust.

My same thought process with the one more veteran and one young guy. Wouldnt be mad with Hunter but if only one guy is getting a spot would favor Nichols who has been doing it for 6 years. Downfall is he isn’t from the Midwest which JB mentioned last year after the hires. Although I believe Mike White who Nichols works for is know for his defence.

as a rochester guy who played against CJ i am rooting for him to get the job. Really nice kid even back in the day. Smart too. I bet he’d be good and could relate well to players. Then after we hire him he can bring the Rochester connection and we can go land Jeenathan Williams late as our slashing wing as I’ve been pining fo,r plus Isaiah Stewart in 19. Ha. one could dream right.

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They aren’t recruiting your hometown kids, so it is all just a dream for you.

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Wait, you like Jeenathan Williams?!

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Sly with BREAKING NEWS!!

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I like the name Preston Murphy as well, seems like he would be a good fit. Midwest ties, Michigan ties, Creighton recruits a lot of skilled players in a similar vein to Michigan IMO as well.

One interesting trend going back to WVU is Beilein has always had a former d1 head coach (Jerry Dunn, Meyer, Donlon) on his staff. Its clearly something he likes, likely because he believes they are the best kind of sounding board. I would be semi surprised if one of these hires was not someone with HC experience. I really doubt that beilein will hire two of the young potential candidates (nichols, lee, hunter, patrick beilein). I am guessing it will be one young guys and one “grizzled vet” type.

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We might as well just hire Dan Dakich. That guy f’n loves Beilein.

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and head butted Juwan in that game. That drew a personal and a ridiculous double technical with a worse Billy Packer commentary.

I like Greg Paulus better than an OSU lifer.

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Just watched the replay of that game. Yeah, you’re right, he’s way too much of a lifer. I think he could be a good fit, otherwise, but that makes it a non-match. Paulus, I don’t see the allure - he’s been there only for the terrible player development years.

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Great point about Creighton and the type of player, give me Murphy and I’m happy with whatever JB does with the second spot. Do you think it gets done before the July period starts?

See Brendan added Murphy to the above article, also added Bob Simon who has an interesting resume.

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Is anyone hearing anything re: the assistant coaching search? I would think that JB would want to fill at least one of the two openings ASAP with the July eval period about to start

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I think we learned from the last hiring process Beilein moves methodically and is not worried about the live periods. Plus I would imagine all contract paperwork needs to be finalized before the coach can start recruiting.

I was wondering the same thing today as hoping JB would have guys in place but the live period or at least hear who he is potentially looking at/interviewed.

In a perfect world I agree with you, would be ideal to have one or both spots filled before this month’s summer ball. However, with 3 solid verbal commits for '18 already in tow, I’m not sure the July live period has as much importance this year as it has in others. Not trying to downplay it, but it seems like UM has its targets pretty well identified for this class — and those targets seem to know they’re UM priorities.

Bigger item would be identifying a secondary group to target for '19 — although that may be a fairly small class for UM. But get the correct assistant coach in the program and he could help clear up the picture for '19.

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Yeah, better to get the right guys than worry about one live period. Hunter and someone else can go on the road.

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Agreed that I would rather he take his time to get it right. I just assumed we would have heard more rumors about who the top candidates are. Pretty much every article I’ve seen has been based on pure speculation and prior ties. Haven’t heard any real noise.

Plus I would hope that we can have at least one coach at almost all of our four main targets games. Not sure how the tournament schedules work out. Maybe it will be possible with just JB, Saddi and Hunter.

You’d think we would have heard about 1 of them by now. I wonder if that means he’s exploring ALL options for both positions - which is a good sign - rather than jumping on an “easy tie” type guy (his son, former player, etc)

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Read on Victors board that Preston Murphy turned down the job due to pay, would have been a great addition and still hope they could work something out with him.

Also sounds like Charles Thomas who was at Akron for awhile now at Duquense interviewed as well. From Lansing and played at EMU.

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