Bye, Bye Tommy!

Well, the other shoe has dropped. Michigan announced on Saturday that they were parting ways with Tommy Amaker, who led the Wolverine basketball team for the last 6 years. There were a lot of excuses for why he might have gotten fired, but the bottom line was that his in-game coaching costed U-M numerous games, and AD Bill Martin didn't think that it was going to get any better (which I agree with). Now, the question becomes 'who will be the next basketball coach at U-M?' I would've liked to see us go after Tubby Smith, but apparently he will be in Minnesota next year, which sucks. So, who else is left? Well, if you look through all the rubbish, it appears that Michigan will go after a mid-major coach, one who has had some success the past couple of years. Names escape me right now, but here are a couple of mid-major schools that have had some success the past couple years, and that I would like to see us talk to. Butler has been doing well recently, as well as Creighton, Mark Few from Gonzaga, Nevada, and Southern Illinois all have coaches that I feel we should be talking to. It would be hard to hire a big-name coach, due to our lack of Basketball facilities, and the general consensus that we don't give a crap about basketball, and we need someone with a good record to make sure our recruits do not change their mind and head to a different school. So we shall see awfully soon if we will get a quality coach, or turn our program back 5 more years...hopefully, the boosters will open their wallet for the b-ball team, and get some new facilities asap. But probably not till after the football stadium renovation....damn...

*Whispering* Millen might actually be having a good offseason (so far)

Shhhhh......

As of right now, Matt Millen is having the best off-season of his tenure. Why might I say such blasphemy? Well, for starters, he has been able to sign some free agents, without horrendously overpaying them. The deals I've seen for RB TJ Duckett, WR Shaun McDonald, DE Dewayne White, and newly signed CB Travis Fisher all look like reasonable deals. Not to mention trading parts that do not fit the Lions' defensive scheme for personnel/picks of value. The Dre' Bly trade for OT George Foster and RB Tatum Bell plus a draft pick was great, and getting another draft pick for DE James Hall was also good. We now have 10 draft picks, which we can use to trade up/down, or just try to get 10 good players for the picks. Now if Millen's scouting is as good as his wheeling and dealing has been thus far this off-season, maybe Lions fans can step away from the ledge, or at the very least, stop wearing paper bags as hats to the Lions games. One can only hope...

Singing the U-M go Blues

Well, U-M wanted to go to the Big Dance, but once again, looks like they will not be invited. After winning their first round matchup against Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament (albeit in sloppy fashion), Michigan fell in the second round to Ohio St., for the 3rd time this year. And it seems that we are destined for another trip to the NIT. Blah. Which all leads to the big question: Will Tommy Amaker be around next year? He's a really 'nice' guy, he cleaned the program up while we were on probation, he's an ok recruiter (2 big names coming in for next year, Alex Legion and 'Manny' Harris). However, all of his teams have underachieved in his 6 years at Michigan, and there is a distinct lack of finishing from his teams. There is no way we should blow big leads against NC State and Iowa, we should've finished off Ohio St. at home, and we needed to make closer games out of UCLA and Georgetown (getting blown out by 40+, reguardless of location, is unacceptable). The problem with firing Amaker is finding someone better to replace him. I'm not sure even where to start. Maybe if Tubby Smith was let go at Kentucky, but other than that, I'm not sure. But one thing is certain - we need to change the culture at Michigan, before it starts getting labeled as a 'football school', and all the best basketball recruits avoid it like the plague, and pull a Greg Oden and go to OSU...we can't let that happen. We demand excellence in our students, we should also demand excellence in our athletic programs. And if Tommy Amaker cannot deliver that excellence, then a change has to be made.