I just saw that Dann O'Neil commited to Meechigan. Good start for the OL class.
GREAT roasting of Foster and Sharp. I would say it's obvious that Foster shares his sources with Sharp, but can you share what doesn't exist?
I find Foster's lack of humility to be infuriating. He had his pants pulled down and everyone should know it.
The base salary of 165k is pretty close to accurate in regards to Amaker's salary:
http://www.d-struct.org/projects.../?fn=&
ln=amaker
Obviously the money he makes through other means brings it up to around 700k, but Foster was technically correct.
This was a great blog entry and I was disappointed to see the comments begin with news about a freaking O-Line committment.
I'm sure the time will come to talk about such a thing, but I hope the football slappies stay away from that stuff on a weekend where the basektball coach was fired.
Yes, it is technically correct, but it is a gross misrepresentation of his compensation. It's like saying Tedford gets 200k per year -- his "base salary". Just because here's a number behind it doesn't mean it's at all honest.
Man, I didn't realize Robert Parish was writing for CBSSportsline.
Oh right, he isn't. His name's Gary, FYI.
I was bored at work last week so I read Billy Gillespie's contract (Texas A&M). The $165K is right in line with his salary. (Then he gets a yearly payment that is significantly more). I'm not sure why they structure the contracts this way, but I assume that there is a good reason because everybody seems to do it.
I think you are correct that the Michigan job has significant sex appeal, but money is going to play a role in the decision of who to hire next. The next coach is either going to want the necessary administration support (read facilities and Crisler renovation) to succeed or a lucrative contract. We won't get a top caliber coach by just hoping that the sex appeal of the job will lure somebody.
I HATE to defend Foster, but he threw out a figure for his total compensation when he mentioned his base salary in the article that went to print. A lot of people know the difference between base compensation and total compensation when it comes to basketball salaries. I'm not sure if he was necessarily just trying to mislead the reader in his blog, and since he clarified his statement in the actual article, I don't really see a problem (although I don't really agree with his line of thinking, but that's another issue).
Outstanding work, Funky. I especially liked the part about Amaker's salary (when you do nothing to merit a raise for six years, your salary is going to be overpassed by other coaches') and the Amaker/Bobby Williams stuff is classic.
I HATE to defend Foster, but he threw out a figure for his total compensation when he mentioned his base salary in the article that went to print.
...which was still 200k low. And he implied that 1.5 million was the benchmark for a reasonably compensated coach. It's not. He's manipulating data.
ALL HAIL THE REBIRTH OF MICHIGAN BASKETBALL
Is there any documented evidence of a recruit publicly stating that he wouldn't play for Michigan because Crisler was too dark and lacked luxury boxes, or because the team practiced at the IM?
Crean would be as succesful as Amaker.
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/
..._03.html#244706
Amaker oozes class.
It hasn't been recruits specifically criticizing Michigan's facilities, it's that they point out OTHER schools facilities, kind of implying that it was a factor in their school choice.
I'm pretty sure Malik Hairston was one (Oregon has all kinds of glitzy stuff paid for by Phil Knight) and I think Beverly was another (when he ditched us for Arkansas).
Well, I guess I won't be posting here again.
From the Department of Terry-Foster-Isn't-Even-Pretending-to-Tell-the-
Truth:
"... I'd heard that some boosters threatened to withdraw their football money if the school spent money on Amaker and his program."
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../703170444/
1004
C'mon, man. If we alums are so preoccupied with the football program, why are we supposedly devoting time and energy into deliberately sabotaging the basketball program?
If you're going to make shit up, at least think it through to confirm it makes even a modicum of sense.
"Is there any documented evidence of a recruit publicly stating that he wouldn't play for Michigan because Crisler was too dark and lacked luxury boxes, or because the team practiced at the IM?"
Not to my knowledge. The facilities thing has been trotted out way, way too often. You'd think the team literally had no place to practice, the way people have gone on and on about it.
facilities is a major issue. crawford, beverly, Hairston, have all indicated that facilities at other schools were 2nd to none. i'm not saying that a 100% upgrade in this area would be the magic bullet that leads to final fours (niether has anyone else)...but to dismiss it (ie, to call it an excuse) is ignorance, imo. it is very much one (just one) piece of the puzzle.
last I checked, SIU is on the way to the sweet16. is this good or bad?
It seems that everyone has an agenda on this, especially certain "insiders." If you think about it, firing Amaker means that these insiders are no longer...insiders. They have to start over with a new coach who may or may not have a need for their services, such as they are.
Thank God Brian is here to separate fact from myth. Amaker was stunningly terrible as a head coach at Michigan and deserved to meet his end. Those who would paint Bill Martin as the villian here are doing so because they have something at stake or, in Foster's case, perhaps an axe to grind. The bit about football donors pulling money if basketball is funded was LOL hilarious. I don't see how anyone could read that and actually believe it to be so. Gotta love the basketball mafia.
I am not an "insider" nor do I have a a specific agenda, other than to return Michigan to a basketball powerhouse. What I will say is that it is not a coincidence that the top programs in the conference are MSU, OSU and Wisc. and each of those schools have impressive arenas and practice faciliites. The truth is, there ARE times when the basketball team has to practice at the IM building because the woman's team is using Crisler. To me, that is unacceptable. Facilities aren't the whole equation, but they certainly are a significant factor.
MSU built its practice facility in 2001 - a year AFTER winning the national title.
OSU and Wisc built their arenas in the mid-90s. Their programs did not see an immediate improvement. OSU did not recruit particularly well until it hired Matta in 2004. Wisc still doesn't recruit all that well - they just have a fantastic coach.
I agree that glitzy facilities wouldn't hurt, but they absolutely, positively, are not the main reason we've failed to make the tourney nine years running.
MSU is hard to gauge. They didn't start picking up big time recruits until after our demise and as they started their Final Four run. Surely part of their recruiting was due to on-court success. Their practice facility coincided with that time frame, so it makes it hard to judge. That being said, the Breslin Center was and is far more impressive than Crisler. And with all of their new facilities, it is just another thing we have to compete against when recruting against them.
To be accurate, Value City Arena opened in 1998.
I guess my point is that while I agree facilities will not get us to the top, we are doing ourselves a disservice by not making them a priority. When everyone else has top notch facilities, and we don't, its going to make that much harder to convice a kid to commit to Michigan.
The Civil War reference was incredible!! Lee commenting on McClellan...priceless!
Hey, Mr. Flood...screw what anybody says. You post and comment what you want. I'm happy to know about the new OL recruit and I didn't know about it until I read your comment. Keep on commenting as you see fit and if what you say doesn't interest someone, they can just skip over it. enjoy yourself
So long, NITommy.
Interesting...
Where would a new practice facility be located? What's that building near the Hill Street parking lot, across from Elbel field? Could that be renovated into a decent practice facility, or is somebody (other than Intra-mural basketball) using it? Or is that too far away from everything to be feasible?
Brian, awesome post! One nitpick - the author of that CBS Sportsline piece is Gary Parrish, not Robert Parrish. (It would have been awesome if the Chief himself had written it.)
A new practice facility would essentially be an annex to Crisler Arena. There is space on the east side (?) of the building to add it.
The building on Hill Street across from Elebl field is the Coliseum.
www.recsports.umich.edu/facilities/coliseum.htm
Its something like 80 years old, and is home to many IM and club sports, not to mention the mens gymnastics team. I think the basketball team would be better off playing at the IM. Imo, have them build a practice facility in the far corner of the parking lot just east of Crisler.
"because he was very nice and his wife was very good at _his_ job" (emphasis mine) ... that had to be unintentional, right?
A good post summarizing the views from around the web and print media. It's certainly interesting how you can get a wide variety of values for compensation depending on what is included or excluded. For the record, the most recent year available (04-05), ND's Brey made between 400K and 500K.
I cringe when I see ideas that involve cutting into the parking lot. But despite my initial reaction, I guess there's some room to give in the stadium lot.
Still. Parking+University of Michigan=Tear hair from scalp. I may no longer have a job, but I'm happy not to be paying $200+/year for that yellow permit.
iirc those lots near crisler are always half empty....even on football days. i mean the one area of the lot to the east (near the tunnel to the golf course). it's a season parking pass for football i think, and there are empty spots there often. it's not like tearing down a structure on central campus.
From what i've heard, the plans for a potentail practice gym would be enacted adjacent to Crisler in this area. it would allow for M&W Gynastics, M&W hoops, and volleyball & wrestling too, i think, to move into crisler full time. i'm not sure what they would do with wadenback (where volleyball & wrestling are now) if this is the case.
I think you're right on the usage of the lot by the golf tunnel, but the rest of the lot seemed to be fairly well-populated. Not full, but populated enough that half-empty would be overstating it. At least from what I saw. But losing that east orange lot would be tolerable. Assuming they don't take it as an excuse to raise parking rates...
I believe that there has been some talk of putting a facility next to Crisler, as people have mentioned. As for parking, I think more parking will open up when the new softball/baseball fields are built just off of campus. I am not sure what they plan on doing with the 'old' fields but I would guess more parking would be warranted.
The land that they thought that they would build the new baseball/softball could not support athletic fields so they are doing massive renovations to the present fields. It'll look pretty impressive, but they are locked into that location
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