Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. The upcoming NBA Finals and the NBA Draft have taken center stage in the world of basketball, but it’s another NBA-related move that we spend a lot of time talking about.
John Beilein has flirted with the NBA before. A year ago, he was in the mix to become the Detroit Pistons head coach, perhaps the most noteworthy of his prior attempts to get there, but he stayed in Ann Arbor. But he found an opportunity he felt he couldn’t pass up and is now the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, which will complete a pretty amazing journey. He will have been a head coach at every level of basketball in the United States from high school all the way up to the NBA, has always been a head coach and he has also never been fired. That last note might one day be challenged given the rebuilding job in Cleveland, but given where he has won and how big he has won, do you really want to bet against him?
Beilein’s move had the potential to cause a series of dominoes to fall in the college coaching ranks, given that the feeling was Michigan planned to hire a current head coach to succeed Beilein. Indeed, Providence head coach Ed Cooley was among those who interviewed, but he pulled out to stay at his hometown school with more years on his contract. The school ultimately hired Juwan Howard, who had been an NBA assistant coach and was in the mix for head coaching jobs there before landing at his alma mater.
Howard’s hire has brought new life to some in the Michigan community, including others among the Fab Five that Howard was a part of. There were NBA players who played with or for him who were vocal about him being the best candidate, and then ecstatic that he got the job. But can he also buck a historical trend with former NBA stars who have gone back to their alma mater or NBA coaches who have come to the college ranks? A few have written about this; friend and colleague Jeff Goodman had one in particular that runs down a lot of the recent history and also expresses a few reasons to hope he does succeed. An interesting omission in Jeff’s story is Sidney Lowe, whose only college coaching experience was a fairly non-descript tenure at his alma mater, NC State.
From there, we go on to talk about a big development with Kansas, whose roster for next season has been an open question given the off-season transactions. They got a big boost on Friday when Silvio De Sousa won his appeal with the NCAA and will be eligible next season. Now, with him joining Udoka Azubuike and others up front, the Jayhawks could be a top ten team again depending on their recruiting of available players and whether or not Devon Dotson and/or Quentin Grimes remain in the NBA Draft.
After that, we wind down first by talking about a story at Saint Joseph’s, where even media relations has not been immune to the head-scratching moves by athletic directors this off-season. The school has parted with long-time media relations director Marie Wozniak, who both of us have a good deal of experience with and always found her to be excellent at what she does. Before her time at Hawk Hill, she was at Seton Hall, and after news of this got out, many in the media as well as fellow media relations colleagues rallied behind her. Perhaps most notably, her counterpart at the school’s arch-rival, who is also one of the best in the business, talked about the rivalry and how she shined there as much as any other time during her normal course of work:
For an SID, a “rivalry” game can be a daunting challenge of endless requests. To know that your counterpart is a wise, calm, and thoughtful pro is of immense comfort.
No one I enjoyed working “across the aisle” with more than Marie Wozniak.
All the best my friend!— Mike Sheridan (@sheridanmj4) May 23, 2019
We also touch quickly on a couple of other news items that have come up, including Washington State getting a commitment from D.J. Rodman, the son of legendary NBA rebounder Dennis Rodman. He’s just the kind of player that school, with new head coach Kyle Smith, has to take a chance on to see if he blossoms into a Pac-12 star.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to check in again soon as we continue to bring you the off-season developments that will impact the game next season and beyond.
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