Maybe just skip talk radio, ya’ll.
Velinti is a buffoon who hangs up on listeners who speak up or does not agree with his dialogue or points out how he waffled his position. His program is shock radio where he calls everyone else with an opinion including his sidekicks idiots.
Warde is a smart guy and knew that it was important to pair Howard with the right kind of staff. Hiring Martelli and keeping Saddi were both important moves that mitigated a lot of risk.
Those hirings were made by Juwan, not Warde
Sure they were hired by Juwan. No AD is going to make the actual hires for a new coach. You don’t think Warde played a big part in discussing what Howard’s staff would look like before hiring him? And that he specifically budgeted for someone like Martelli who’s making a lot more than any of Beilein’s assistants?
Well, none of us have to feel defensive about the Howard hire anymore, I’ll say that. But–can’t speak for kturnup–but all the subtext about Howard needing training wheels or some guys with real talent to set him on his own two feet. . . pfft. Phil Martelli didn’t bring those NBA sets to Crisler Arena, I can tell you that.
Y’all
Maybe? I don’t know. I think Juwan seems smart enough to have figured that out himself (with a tip from John Calipari). Definitely have to give credit to Warde for shelling out the cash for Martelli though.
Which is by far the funniest thing about the “Phil Martelli: shadow coach” theories running around RCMB and twitter. Like Phil Martelli was some genius coach that everyone could have foreseen would do great things.
Howard needed help administratively, recruiting-wise, program-wise, all of that stuff. Not because he couldn’t do it but because he never had and never really thought about coaching in college.
Martelli is the perfect guy to help with all of that because he’s been doing it so long.
If you think Martelli is shaping the offense or any of that, I encourage you to go back and watch some St. Joes games while he was there (which I, unfortunately, had to do at many bars with Brendan on the road whenever Michigan was playing the next day or whatnot )
Also… college hoops head coaches are basically entirely responsible for hiring their staffs. I don’t think Warde had anything to do with hiring Martelli, Saddi or Howard Eisley.
Very true. I think the concern at the time was he would need help with the administrative side of things. Juwan had experience with Xs and Os in Miami, but he’s been better at that than I imagined.
That was gross and I wish I could say I didn’t hate listen to the whole thing
Just watch Martelli during the actual games. He’s either sitting on his hands during game play or chatting with the refs during time outs. I know Phil is helping in numerous ways, but that’s Juwan’s sideline and huddle.
If you put out more podcasts then we wouldnt have to resort to local sports radio on our drives
I was wrong. I admitted it elsewhere, and I admit it here. I thought Hunter Dickinson would be good, but not this good. I thought Mike Smith could be a competent Big Ten point guard, but I didn’t think he’d play at the level he’s currently playing. I thought Franz Wagner would be an excellent defender, but not an other worldly one. I could not be happier that my prediction of 20-30 as ceiling and floor was incorrect. It is much more important to me that the team do well than that I am proven prescient. Go Blue!
All in good fun-- we all hope to be wrong in that way and clearly no one expected what we’ve seen so far this year. Hopefully I’m very wrong about the future of Michigan football
Pretty ridiculous how quite a few players on the roster are meeting or even exceeding their reasonable best-case scenarios.
Coaching. You’ve got to credit a lot of that to coaching.
Yeah, what else would it be when it’s a handful of them and not just one guy?
All the talk there may be about HD or Smith, but Brooks in that category as well. Two-year starter, does something (defend) on an elite level and a brings whole bunch of other stuff too, and finally looks comfortable and aggressive with the ball in his hands in halfcourt.
When you look back at the end of his sophomore year, when he had still failed to secure a rotation spot, that’s also a player at or exceeding his absolute best-case scenario.