Gwmayhem ... the postage will cost more lol.

On a more serious note, here are some realistic Michigan candidates according to the grapevines I am in ...

Dusty May, FAU
TJ Otzelberger, Iowa State
Jamie Dixon, TCU
Mitch Henderson, Princeton
Shaka Smart, Marquette

DC Native wrote:

Is Michigan really that much better of a job than Marquette? I mean, both have one championship, and Marquette has been in the Tourney more often than Michigan (36 vs. 31), although Michigan does have more Final Fours (3 vs. 8, although 2 of them are vacated). When is Shaka Smart going to just stay somewhere and coach? Or will he keep "moving up" until he is at Duke, UNC, Kentucky, or UCLA?

This is a really curious post.  Shaka has been a head coach for 15 seasons.  He spent the first 6 at VCU (after serving there as an assistant) and then left for Texas where he more than doubled his pay.  He was in Austin for the next 6 seasons but it was clear the handwriting was on the wall and he agreed to leave for Marquette before he was fired.  At Marquette, he is radically underpaid but the tradeoff is that he has no buyout whatsoever.  Not that Michigan has even talked to him let alone offered, or that Shaka would have interest in Michigan.  That said, Juwan made $1.5 million more this season than Shaka did, so if he did leave to try to rebuild Michigan, it would be hard not to understand this.

Gwmayhem wrote:

That said, Juwan made $1.5 million more this season than Shaka did, so if he did leave to try to rebuild Michigan, it would be hard not to understand this.

How much does Shaka make? If he's making say $1.5 million (I doubt it's that low), then yes, going to UM would make sense for an extra $1.5 million. But if he's making $5 million or more, is the extra buck and a half really worth it to take the UM job where he'll always be second fiddle and potentially get his rear kicked in the expanded Big Ten? He can take other jobs. He's got it pretty good at Marquette right now.

But yes, to your point, money talks. We'll see what happens.

Gwmayhem wrote:

DC Native wrote:

Is Michigan really that much better of a job than Marquette? I mean, both have one championship, and Marquette has been in the Tourney more often than Michigan (36 vs. 31), although Michigan does have more Final Fours (3 vs. 8, although 2 of them are vacated). When is Shaka Smart going to just stay somewhere and coach? Or will he keep "moving up" until he is at Duke, UNC, Kentucky, or UCLA?

This is a really curious post.  Shaka has been a head coach for 15 seasons.  He spent the first 6 at VCU (after serving there as an assistant) and then left for Texas where he more than doubled his pay.  He was in Austin for the next 6 seasons but it was clear the handwriting was on the wall and he agreed to leave for Marquette before he was fired.  At Marquette, he is radically underpaid but the tradeoff is that he has no buyout whatsoever.  Not that Michigan has even talked to him let alone offered, or that Shaka would have interest in Michigan.  That said, Juwan made $1.5 million more this season than Shaka did, so if he did leave to try to rebuild Michigan, it would be hard not to understand this.

It was an honest question. Maybe Michigan can pay significantly more and is a better job. I remember when Michigan was a top program, but the Fab 5 was 30 years ago. Michigan State seems to have been the better program for a couple decades now. I like Shaka, and it just seems like he’s built a good program and could win a championship there. The grass is not always greener elsewhere…

Last edited by DC Native (3/20/2024 8:53 am)

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting Shaka will either be offered or take the Michigan job. Sometimes the chatter relating to jobs is initiated by agents who use the leverage to perhaps sweeten the pot for the coach at the existing job. It is often hard to decipher that tactic until the dust settles. But the chatter is out there among coaches for whatever it is worth.

DC Native wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

DC Native wrote:

Is Michigan really that much better of a job than Marquette? I mean, both have one championship, and Marquette has been in the Tourney more often than Michigan (36 vs. 31), although Michigan does have more Final Fours (3 vs. 8, although 2 of them are vacated). When is Shaka Smart going to just stay somewhere and coach? Or will he keep "moving up" until he is at Duke, UNC, Kentucky, or UCLA?

This is a really curious post.  Shaka has been a head coach for 15 seasons.  He spent the first 6 at VCU (after serving there as an assistant) and then left for Texas where he more than doubled his pay.  He was in Austin for the next 6 seasons but it was clear the handwriting was on the wall and he agreed to leave for Marquette before he was fired.  At Marquette, he is radically underpaid but the tradeoff is that he has no buyout whatsoever.  Not that Michigan has even talked to him let alone offered, or that Shaka would have interest in Michigan.  That said, Juwan made $1.5 million more this season than Shaka did, so if he did leave to try to rebuild Michigan, it would be hard not to understand this.

It was an honest question. Maybe Michigan can pay significantly more and is a better job. I remember when Michigan was a top program, but the Fab 5 was 30 years ago. Michigan State seems to have been the better program for a couple decades now. I like Shaka, and it just seems like he’s built a good program and could win a championship there. The grass is not always greener elsewhere…

Am sure it was an honest question.  What I'm questioning is why you would ask "when is he's going to just stay somewhere" when he left one job after 6 years to about double his income, left another job after 6 years because he was otherwise likely to be fired, and hasn't said or done anything at this point about the Michigan job?  And, why he could conceivably leave Marquette after just 3 seasons is because the school is knowingly underpaying him (hence, the absence of a buyout).

To plug in some answers, in round numbers, Shaka is earning just over $2.2 million this season.  He was earning about $3.6 million during his final season at Texas, and Michigan paid Juwan about $3.7 million this past season.    Given his success, Marquette will either need to come up with some money to retain him or run the risk of losing him to a higher paying school.
 

Joel Joseph wrote:

No surprise with Carm firing - other than what took them so long after a 4 win season. It wasn't long ago that poster dude was touting him as the "boy wonder" of coaching.

Whenever Dude hypes someone you can be sure disaster is around the corner lol. "America's Greatest Coach" can't even win the WCC anymore.

Mark Byington, some big program is going to hire Byington away.  

Maybe Michigan.   Bryce Drew will be a hot commodity too

 

Free Quebec wrote:

Dusty May to Michigan.

Last year he decided to come back because he had a great team coming off a final 4 run, but now he’s gone.

I’m sure Byington will chase the money, especially in the portal era where he can’t be sure his players will stay if he does.

Sad but understandable.  Dusty made less than $500,000 during his Final 4 season.  The school's boosters made a concerted effort to keep him at FAU.  They were able to about double his income this past season.  And from there, Michigan can at least triple this.  (Sad because no matter what the backers of a small school can do to keep a beloved coach, there's only so much that can realistically be done.) 

A native Indianan, May had one eye on the Hoosiers this season which would have been a dream job for him.  Indiana decided to stick with Mike Woodson which was neither an obvious or dreadful decision.  A good friend of mine became close with Dusty and claims he's a great guy.  Am rooting for him for that reason, along with not having to hear from a certain poster as to why he just couldn't stay at FAU earning substantially less pay.
 

The Dude wrote:

Can anyone win at Vandy?

They can if they draw GW in the first round. 

Too soon?