Former Michigan head coach John Beilein will be tough to replace, and it’s A.D. Warde Manuel’s (tough) job to do it. Yahoo.com’s Dan Wetzel is among those who believe the Wolverines will get a home run hire …
Here’s the rub, though … in an era of play for play, campus cover-ups and gray areas, Beilein won the ‘Michigan way’ as the cleanest coach in the country (as voted by his peers in a landslide). He not only won … he captured championships, made Final Fours and graduated his players at a near 100 percent clip.
All things considered, the Wolverines might have just lost the best coach in the country. Minus a Tony Bennett, Jay Wright, Brad Stevens or Mark Few hire (and none of those are feasible, though Athletic Director Warde Manuel should make those calls and offer to make them the highest paid coaches in the country — for what he spends on football, there’s no reason not to), it’s going to be hard to find someone at Beilein’s level.
Here are some names that have surfaced on a list that should change pretty frequently over the next several days.