That thought occurred to me as well. Delightful.
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
- Status
Are the buy-outs in the NBA fully guaranteed? Crazy to think he could take a job at $15 mil a year with a good buy-out, fail, take the buy-out, and then fall back to what, $8-10 mil at another college?
College coaches are definitely making a ton of money but NBA money can be a different level if the owners want to spend it on a coach. May was on 5 for 25 million before the championship and likely got a raise(or would have).
I think Self is still the highest paid college coach at like 9 million. Steve Kerr is making nearly double that. The Mavs could have pretty easily doubled or tripled what he was making at Michigan(they could afford to pay him 30 mil a season if they wanted to) and I would guess that he has 4-5 years of runway at a minimum.
Also, college sports are in a weird spot and you have to recruit year round including rerecruit your own roster to stay. High school commits also mean less than ever since they can jump ship at the last minute if they their assumed role shrink from portal adds or retention. It's a very weird juggling act of trying to build as talented of a roster as possible while keeping everyone happy.
On a different note, I just think that this is a different generation of coaches and with how big the money has gotten that we will see a lot of guys retire earlier and not see as many guys coaching into their late 60s or even 70s. I expect to see a lot more guys follow the Jay Wright path and retire around 60(it's the NBA but I expect Kerr to retire soon).
May is 49(about to be 50). A lifetime contract is not much different from a 5 year one from Dallas if youre planning to retire at 60 and he is probably making the same amount in 5 years that he would in 10 at Michigan. I think this applies to a lot of sports but I genuinely don't see a guy like Scheyer coaching until he's in his 70s.
mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
Also, I get that we're on a college sports board, but the constant state of shock that a basketball professional would eagerly pursue the chance to work at the highest level of basketball in the world is kind of silly.
Nothing seems to stick to Michigan State. Scandal after scandal and it all washes away rather quickly.
CrazedUIFan
UI Fan in QC Land
What teams are in the position to benefit from MI transfers, if there are any?
I suppose. But don't you suppose that IU fans are thinking that May would have left them so he was only a short term solution? Of course, if that's their first title in 40 years, well worth it. But that's not likely.
The question is whether a top 10 finish with an elite 8 or FF finish by IU, with May at the helm, would have been enough to send May to the NBA.
Kentucky would be high on the list I assume. Honestly I think the interim hire saves the big players. I would set the line for total transfers out at 1.5 and bet the under.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Well, we've got to be the odds on favorites to win the B1G for sure now, right?
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The connection between those two things is an excellent point.
True, but there's just something kind of irrelevant about NBA coaches these days. It's such a same-y, player-directed style of play now.
Mike Malone, Joe Mazzula, Mark Daigneault and Mike Brown are your last four NBA Champion coaches. None of those guys are meaningful figures in the game the way, say, Dan Hurley is.
I’m gonna push back on this thought.. I don’t think conference affiliation has anything to do with coach poaching. It doesn’t matter that there is no Duke in the Big Ten. Duke still exists and they can come take our coach if they wanted. It happened with Self and Kansas.
Man, I almost come close to feeling a little bit bad for Michigan fans. It must be a crazy feeling to have the Petyr Baelish of college basketball (for you Game of Thrones fans) come in, recruit a team of mercenaries, win a National Championship, and disappear into the night all in the span of 2 seasons. It's like marrying the most beautiful woman in the world, just to come home from a work trip and find out she left you for some millionaire after 6 months. At least she left the house and the dog (for now).
I'm not sure how exactly people are defending him considering this, I don't know how you would trust anyone anymore as a fan. Their entire fandom has to feel like they're living through the curse of the monkey paw, especially after the Sherrone Moore fiasco shortly after a National Championship.
All I can say is that my faith in the universe would be restored if the last B1G team to win a National Championship was Illinois and Brad Underwood after 10 seasons rebuilding the program to national prominence and returning a bunch of vets, instead of a band of fickle (but also very, very good) mercenaries.
I'm not sure how exactly people are defending him considering this, I don't know how you would trust anyone anymore as a fan. Their entire fandom has to feel like they're living through the curse of the monkey paw, especially after the Sherrone Moore fiasco shortly after a National Championship.
All I can say is that my faith in the universe would be restored if the last B1G team to win a National Championship was Illinois and Brad Underwood after 10 seasons rebuilding the program to national prominence and returning a bunch of vets, instead of a band of fickle (but also very, very good) mercenaries.
I think that's just the nature of the pro game.
College sports gave always had revolving rosters so the consistent top tier programs were always led by a coach that is kind of the figurehead of the program.
Phil Jackson won 11 championships and he is not nearly as revered as long time successful college coaches. When you think of those teams it's Michael and Scottie, or Kobe and Shaq/Pau. Honestly I feel like you hear more about guys like Rodman, Grant, Kukoc, Fisher, and Horry than Phil.
Kind of the same thing with Popovic. Duncan, Robinson, Manu, and Parker are the first thing that comes up.
Mike malone won a title and was out of a job 2 years later. The NBA is just a much more player/star driven game.
I don't think you understood his point.
I’d also say in this climate the amount of can’t say no jobs is shrinking across the board.
I know I’ve beat a dead horse on this point mostly in relation to prior instances of fans wanting to move on from Brad for greener pastures. But…
Lville getting Pat Kelsey
Unc getting Mike malone
Indiana getting Darren Devries
Ohio State getting Diebler
Kentucky getting mark pope.
I think we’re past the days of even all blue bloods picking whoever they want.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Phil and Pop are giants of the game.
The NBA hasn't created a new figure like that since Steve Kerr.
Agree it could impact team chemistry, also depends on NIL$ to throw around.Probably talent wise, but they would ruin team chemistry. They are all horse's
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I mean putting aside the fact that I don’t agree that Duke could just poach a coach from us NO MATTER WHAT (UNC just failed to poach Lloyd from a similar status program in Arizona), I wasn’t trying to say conference affiliation was a factor by itself. What I meant is that it would probably sting more to lose a coach to a conference rival than it would somewhere like Duke, so it’s good for us no such jobs exist in our conference.
I expect this two year contract is Kerr's last. I only expect him to do the second year if they get to at least the conference finals this year and decide to try one more year with Curry and Green (who are on expiring contracts this year). Watch out for a do or die trade moving Butler for someone who fits better in the next few weeks.
Fair enough. Just using Duke as an example since that’s who you used in your example. I also don’t think they could poach from us no matter what, just that it’s possible if they wanted to.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I certainly would agree they seem unique in their job appeal. We’ve see UNC and Kentucky get denied lately, and something tells me Duke would have had a better shot, but I guess we can’t be sure!
- Status