Wow at their record. Team must have imploded. I noticed also that blue blood UCLA went 16-17 this year. Goes to show that some perennial hoops programs take a step back now and then. Any other big timers visit suckland this year?
Didn't former UF basketball player Colin Castleton transfer from the Michigan basketball team when the Wolerines' Hunter Dickson played there? In his three years at Florida, Castleton ended up being a Gator great and gave the team its identity for a number of years. Also, one of Mike White's Florida team had previously lost to Michigan (RD32) in the NCAA Tournament - I'm not sure who was the Michigan coach at that time (Beilin or J.Howard). When Michigan under Howard again made the Finals of the NCAA Championship game under Howard it looked like that their program would eventually win their next championship. So, it's a little surprising that Michigan woul fire their coach despite some great success - a conference championship and a Final4 (Correction: an ELite8). Howard's behavioral issues must have played some part as well as Michigan's decline in basketball.
Michigan's 8-win season kind of reminds me of Florida's 1990 season that just imploded. Florida was the defending SEC Champion (1989), coming off 3-straight NCAA Tourney appearances and was in prime position to win another SEC title with the return of their dominating front-court (Dwayne Schintzius, Dwayne Davis & Livingston Chatman). After Sloan's tenure ended so abruptly, that Florida team was coached by a former Tennessee coach, "the one who will not be named", that just drove that team into the ground and ran off their best player from the team.... I never imagined that season becoming so derailed from our lofty pre-season expectations.
I was in basketball band that season. Didn't miss a game. But I think you might mean 1989, which was the 7-21 season. Lon Kruger came in '90. He had some real talent with DD, Poole, Chatman, and Craig Brown. They weren't ready for a real coach, though, so it took a little while to right the ship.
It’s never surprising when a coach that goes 8-24 gets fired. You basically need a “coaching legend” or “program legend” chip to cash in to survive that. Howard seemed to have had a couple years of regression. So I guess they didn’t have patience for 8-24, even for one of their “fab five”. The off court stuff probably didn’t help. Stackhouse on the surface seems crazier with him being SEC COTY literally last year, but when you look at his overall record for 5 years it’s not so crazy. This is the 2nd time he’s had single digit wins.
Actually it was the "1989(Fall)-1990(Spring)" basketball season. In the previous season (1988-89), recall Florida had won their 1st ever SEC basketball title (Good times! lol!). Florida is considered the 1989 SEC Regular season Champs. 1988-89 Men's Southeastern Conference Season Summary | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Unbelievably, Georgia had won their one and only SEC regular season SEC basketball title one year after the Gators had done it. Georgia was the 1990 SEC Champion. 1989-90 Men's Southeastern Conference Season Summary | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com It was the 1990-91 season in which Lon Kruger began at the Florida program.1990-91 Florida Gators Men 's Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Whenever a basketball team wins some kind of championship, the spring-calender year is used to denote that season's champion. For instance, in the 2005-06 basketball season, Florida is considered the 2006 NCAA Champions, not the 2005 champion. I guess in football, the fall calendar year is used to denote that season- UF was the 2006-07 champion (or 2006 champion in football) and LSU was the 2007 champion in the following year. Ah such is the delima of being a fan of a team that had won both football & basketball in both the Calendar year and Academic year. One has to keep those things straight...
