Maybe he did come in and run a practice. I’m not accusing you or your friend of making anything up–it just seems so completely out of character for Beilein that I wonder whether there was some sort of misunderstanding. I think it was Quinn, who is usually pretty plugged in, who said that Murphy had interviewed by phone and Thomas in person.
In any event, it looks like it won’t be Murphy. Time to move on.
I did read that about the phone interview, which I get what you’re saying about it not being clear how that would jibe. When I read it, I wondered if his information was a little old or incomplete (or incomplete by design/request from inside the program. I mean, it could technically be true that they did talk on the phone and then it progressed further). What I’m basically saying is that running down whether I’m right or not seems like a job for someone who does this for a living and I hope I didn’t put my foot in my mouth*. But like you say, it’s over anyway, however this went down.
*People do hear things wrong sometimes, though, agreed. This just is a guy who tends to be a pretty precise listener and speaker. The only time he’s steered me wrong is when he insists so and so is going to be great because he’s a practice superstar, lol. He’s selling me on one of those again, but… I’ve been burned too many times in the past on that count at this point!
I had to do some hunting and pecking, but here’s where I found the data…
http://interactives.indystar.com/news/standing/salarydatabase/
Now you’ve got me curious…who is the current practice superstar?
It’s… Davis.
Hearing really, really good stuff about him, but, again, I’ve been burned on this kind of account before. Not trying to down Duncan, and I would love see him be that much better this year (and he certainly has his moments), but man, the things this guy had me believing about DR…
I’ll check it out, thanks. I think your math just happened to be off on the MSU pay, as I think that’s the article I posted above…
I kind of think it’s a very Beilein thing to do, but only after most of the other t’s were crossed and i’s dotted. Beilein places such a high value on team chemistry.
At least now I know who your source isn’t… 
Some notes on various names on the front page
Hard to believe Simon is a serious candidate given his immature twitter activity.
One factor that should be considered in these comparisons is years of service. The MSU coaches, for instance, were paid about the same as UM just a few years ago but have continued to get increases. Vall and Bacari according to the article below were set to move closer to $250k, whereas Washington gets just $205k at this point.
UM may now need to revisit the total amount it takes to be competitive and Beilein may need to rethink how he distributes that money but I don’t think UM is as far off as some are suggesting.
http://www.mlive.com/articles/13375862/details_salary_figures_emerge.amp
Yes, absolutely. People who stay at jobs and do them well tend to get raises from time to time. My post about the MSU numbers was primarily pointing out that YG seemed to have a math error there. It does seem we’re a little behind, though, allowing for the time served = raises dynamic mentioned above. And you do need to be ready to adapt in today’s Big Ten. I made a post a long time ago about how high level some of the coaches are in the conference (I pegged Turgeon as a real outlier - nice guy, does not seem like a great coach). We should be wary about the fact that the coaching talent in the conference has probably taken another step up. One thing I hated about Donlon going to NW was the point made around here that he knows our stuff now, inside and out, because I would be shocked if NW isn’t a high level competitor this year.
Is there someone specific who’s anti-Davis? Interesting if there’s a counterpoint out there.
Here? There was but not any more…
The legendary MattD was very anti-Davis.
We just don’t know about Davis. But your rumor aligns with Beilein’s behavior. There’s probably a 50/50 chance that Mo leaves in a year, which leave us with just Davis and Teske at the 5. Even so, the recruiting has been all about wings, although we did just get Taylor Currie to reclassify. But even there, that may have been Currie’s idea, not JB’s. Beilein seems to think highly of the Teske/Davis duo and their ability to take over for Mo.
To be clear, I got nothing on Teske. No idea what he’ll look like (and Davis, that’s second hand, so what do I know…)
Teske has good length - he kind of reminds me of Cronin in terms of a guy who’s not just really tall but is kind of height plus with nice long arms. I just don’t know if he’ll show up more nimble and stronger with the ball, but on the defensive end - I think because of the injuries, people don’t realize how good a shot blocker Cronin could have been. College guys are used to dealing with a certain kind of tall, but Cronin was, again, tall plus, with good shot blocking instincts. When he was able to get on the court, guys had serious difficulty getting the ball over him. I was sad when he had to retire. Anyway, Teske reminds me a little of him as a shot blocker - just has to show the dexterity to be able to get on the court.
I have to give some pause to the Davis hype based on similar off season reports on Donnal after his RS year.
Don’t want to go too far down this rabbit hole, especially considering its nowhere near the thread’s topic…but I’m hopeful that Davis is at least productive enough so that the anecdotes we were told last summer (where Davis was the butt of jokes between recruiting “experts”) were completely premature.
As for the assistant search, I do have confidence that JB will find adequate replacements. Still super bummed about Donlon - but I understand the situation in both cases. I highly doubt Pat Belein comes back to the D1 assistant coach ranks this quickly…he’s doing a great job from everything I’ve read/seen, and there is a family path to success that I’m sure he wouldn’t mind following.
Donnal could never bring his practice game to an actual game. I don’t know the reason but I think it was a huge source of frustration to some staff members.
There is currently a rumor that Spike was offered to come fill the role that Chris Hunter had, and obviously that Hunter will be an assistant. Nothing from anyone official, but just something worth keeping an eye on.