Amaker Fired...Michigan did the Right Thing

Well, it finally happened. Michigan fired Tommy Amaker after a very disappointing season this year, capped off with a 20 point shallacking by FSU in the second round of the NIT.

http://sports.espn.go....



Some highlights of his career include:

1. No NCAA Tournament appearances with Seton Hall or Michigan over almost 10 seasons.

2. The ability to take solid (maybe not great) players and never develop them. He has had lots of very good freshman that didn't improve at all over the courses of their Michigan careers, including Daniel Horton, Dion Harris, Courtney Sims, and Lester Abraham.

3. Never showed any passion or fire from the bench. This approach transferred directly to his players, who never played without any passion or conviction.

4. Chose not to do a radio/tv show to support the program...he let his assistants do that

5. Refused to pay players to get them to come to the school...how the heck are we going to see another Fab Five at Michigan with that approach??

6. Wore that sport coat / turtle neck combo to every game. Terrible look...he needed an update.

So I'll take a shot at hypothesizing the only possible reason Michigan could regret firing him. Now Amaker is headed to Harvard, where he will build a tradition of Ivy League championships that will be the envy of D1 basketball.

This is a school whose sole athletic highlight outside of hockey and the major prep school sports (fencing, crew, etc.) has been the year its women's hoops team became the only 16 seed ever to beat a 1 (Stanford). The bar for athletic excellence is set very low, right in Amaker's sweet spot.

Plus, with the sportcoat and jacket he'll fit right in at the Faculty Club.

Meanwhile, the new regime at Michigan won't much improve on where Amaker took them.