Warde Manuel's track record with good coaches is all the proof Michigan needs to move on

Michigan Athletics have been quite successful in the last couple of years, at least when it comes to the high-revenue sports. The Wolverines brought home a football title in 2023 and most recently added a men's basketball national title in April. So, surely, athletic director Warde Manuel was able to retain both of those coaches, right?

Wrong.

After both championships, Manuel was not able to sign either coach to an extension. Football coach Jim Harbaugh left for the Los Angeles Chargers job, and men's basketball coach Dusty May just left for the Dallas Mavericks job. May isn't the only elite Michigan men's basketball coach to leave for the NBA either, as the last college basketball coach to head straight to the pros as a head coach was John Beilein in 2019.

Now, Beilein didn't win a natty with the Wolverines, but he at least had Michigan playing at a competitive level before Juwan Howard came along and ran the program into the ground. May was able to pick up the pieces really fast, but now he is out the door as well. So, either Michigan is just really good at finding great coaches on an upward trajectory, or Manuel just is horrible at keeping them in Ann Arbor.

It feels like the latter is the real answer, as Manuel had announced extensions for both Harbaugh and May shortly after bringing home championships, but neither one officially got done. The last two college coaches to go on and take head coaching positions in the NBA both came from Michigan, and that really doesn't seem like a coincidence.

Warde Manuel is both really good and really bad at his job at Michigan

Sure, there is the argument here that Manuel is actually really good at his job because Michigan has two National Championships in the two major sports for college athletics, but could it have been more if Manuel had been able to retain those coaches? Granted, the Harbaugh issue with the Connor Stallions scandal played a big role in his departure, but Manuel still had an extension ready.

There is no excuse for May, however. The extension for May was announced back in April, and the fact that it is June and it never got signed is downright unacceptable. May was only at Michigan for two seasons and led the Wolverines to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, winning the entire thing this past season.

It's not like it is impossible to keep good coaches around. Look at Kansas with Bill Self; they have kept him in the building for over 20 years, and his success rate is through the roof. On the football field, Alabama kept Nick Saban around for a long time, collecting National Championships like Thanos with the infinity stones.

Manuel is great at finding coaching talent, but what good is that if he can't even keep them around once they begin to build what could be a great dynasty?

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