Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel continues to work on finding a new basketball coach, and as we wrote this morning, Miami Heat assistant Juwan Howard has been gaining momentum. His Fab Five teammates, Mark Hughes, Charles Woodson and many others have come out in support of him, and he will definitely interview this week (as will Butler's LaVall Jordan).
There's been a concerted effort to reduce the number of leaks, because — and this is interesting — all the Juwan Howard "done deal" talk is hurting the search, according to some closest to it. That disproves the theory that this is a one-man list.
Earlier this week, we heard from excellent sources (plural) that Texas head coach Shaka Smart was on the list. Then — just like that — the Athletic's Brendan Quinn, whose opinion we respect, tweeted Smart was not a candidate. We were just preparing to put an opinion piece out when that happened, an "Occam's Razor" on why Smart made the most sense ... not advocating for him, to be clear, but why it seemed it could be trending that way.
In our Saturday chat, @Lummy78 summed up a lot of what we were thinking. He wrote:
I feel like there is some gamesmanship going on with Shaka right now in a lot of directions.
Just go with me here.....
First, Donovan says no but recommends his buddy Shaka. I doubt that happens if Shaka wasn't interested. Then Shaka interviews Yaklich & lets it be known that he may be able to bring Jalen Wilson to either Ann Arbor or Austin. Shaka building his leverage.
Meanwhile, Texas would really like Shaka to walk away and take this job, so they can hire their Harbaugh: Chris Beard. But, Texas likes to eat their cake and have it too. They probably want Michigan to pay Shaka's buyout.
Michigan doesn't want to pay the buyout to Texas or pay Shaka any outrageous contract demands, so they stay quiet on Shaka giving good insiders like Brendan Quinn or Chris Balas the impression that Shaka isn't happening. (editor's note: nobody did that to us until late Friday night. We had already confirmed with much better sources earlier in the day that Smart was still a candidate, but we could see why there would be damage control. Smart is still recruiting at Texas, and if he doesn't take the Michigan job he doesn't want it to look like he's flirting with others and damaging his current program).
Texas starts to worry about losing out on Chris Beard, so they tell everyone through their back channels that they'd be willing to let Shaka go. Shaka knows Ann Arbor is a better destination than the hot seat in Austin, so he lowers his contract demands.
Final Result:
Shaka to Michigan
Yaklich stays at Michigan
Jalen Wilson back to Michigan
Chris Beard to Texas
****
A lot of this makes perfect sense. We're not sure about the "contract demands" part or the leverage with Wilson, but if there's a buyout — and we know Michigan is leery about paying those — there could even be negotiation with Texas to get it lowered (whatever it is ... we still don't really know. All we know is Smart is owed $12.9 million if he's fired).
Smart checks every one of Warde Manuel's boxes — every single one — a big one being head coaching experience. That's something Howard doesn't have, and Manuel said from Chicago early in the week that one of his preferences was to find someone who had had success running a program.
Yes, Smart has struggled lately at Texas (and again, we're not pining for the guy — just stating the facts), but he did have success at VCU and was once considered an up and comer in the profession.
Manuel would have a hell of a task selling Smart over Howard to a good portion of the fan base, and maybe he won't. He has relationships with a lot of guys pushing for Howard, and he was in school with him in the early 1990s. In addition, personal seat license money for ticket holders due in less than two weeks. Howard would probably put more butts in the seats, at least initially.
But given what we heard tonight and dug up over the last week — and these are facts, not guesses — we believe this could still go a few different ways. Once again, we are absolutely certain Smart is on U-M's list, and they would even entertain others if more candidates emerged.
We'll do some more digging tomorrow.
There's been a concerted effort to reduce the number of leaks, because — and this is interesting — all the Juwan Howard "done deal" talk is hurting the search, according to some closest to it. That disproves the theory that this is a one-man list.
Earlier this week, we heard from excellent sources (plural) that Texas head coach Shaka Smart was on the list. Then — just like that — the Athletic's Brendan Quinn, whose opinion we respect, tweeted Smart was not a candidate. We were just preparing to put an opinion piece out when that happened, an "Occam's Razor" on why Smart made the most sense ... not advocating for him, to be clear, but why it seemed it could be trending that way.
In our Saturday chat, @Lummy78 summed up a lot of what we were thinking. He wrote:
I feel like there is some gamesmanship going on with Shaka right now in a lot of directions.
Just go with me here.....
First, Donovan says no but recommends his buddy Shaka. I doubt that happens if Shaka wasn't interested. Then Shaka interviews Yaklich & lets it be known that he may be able to bring Jalen Wilson to either Ann Arbor or Austin. Shaka building his leverage.
Meanwhile, Texas would really like Shaka to walk away and take this job, so they can hire their Harbaugh: Chris Beard. But, Texas likes to eat their cake and have it too. They probably want Michigan to pay Shaka's buyout.
Michigan doesn't want to pay the buyout to Texas or pay Shaka any outrageous contract demands, so they stay quiet on Shaka giving good insiders like Brendan Quinn or Chris Balas the impression that Shaka isn't happening. (editor's note: nobody did that to us until late Friday night. We had already confirmed with much better sources earlier in the day that Smart was still a candidate, but we could see why there would be damage control. Smart is still recruiting at Texas, and if he doesn't take the Michigan job he doesn't want it to look like he's flirting with others and damaging his current program).
Texas starts to worry about losing out on Chris Beard, so they tell everyone through their back channels that they'd be willing to let Shaka go. Shaka knows Ann Arbor is a better destination than the hot seat in Austin, so he lowers his contract demands.
Final Result:
Shaka to Michigan
Yaklich stays at Michigan
Jalen Wilson back to Michigan
Chris Beard to Texas
****
A lot of this makes perfect sense. We're not sure about the "contract demands" part or the leverage with Wilson, but if there's a buyout — and we know Michigan is leery about paying those — there could even be negotiation with Texas to get it lowered (whatever it is ... we still don't really know. All we know is Smart is owed $12.9 million if he's fired).
Smart checks every one of Warde Manuel's boxes — every single one — a big one being head coaching experience. That's something Howard doesn't have, and Manuel said from Chicago early in the week that one of his preferences was to find someone who had had success running a program.
Yes, Smart has struggled lately at Texas (and again, we're not pining for the guy — just stating the facts), but he did have success at VCU and was once considered an up and comer in the profession.
Manuel would have a hell of a task selling Smart over Howard to a good portion of the fan base, and maybe he won't. He has relationships with a lot of guys pushing for Howard, and he was in school with him in the early 1990s. In addition, personal seat license money for ticket holders due in less than two weeks. Howard would probably put more butts in the seats, at least initially.
But given what we heard tonight and dug up over the last week — and these are facts, not guesses — we believe this could still go a few different ways. Once again, we are absolutely certain Smart is on U-M's list, and they would even entertain others if more candidates emerged.
We'll do some more digging tomorrow.
Last edited:
