Defend the Block 69 - Howard Eisley
MGoBlue Podcasts with Jon Jansen
The Varsity Podcast Network
4.8 • 754 Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian catches up with men's basketball assistant coach Howard Eisley about his journey to Ann Arbor (5:30), the camaraderie of the program's coaching and support staff (9:45), and his early impressions of this year's team (15:00).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've mentioned this before, but the first moment where I said, yeah, this program is really in good hands of the Joanne Howard era, for me, was the announcement of his finalized staff. |
| 0:10.3 | Now, there is no set standard, no firm parameters on what exactly a college basketball staff should look like, how it is comprised, how it's developed. |
| 0:18.4 | It's depended on so many factors, program to program. |
| 0:21.4 | But on paper, when that announcement came out, you saw the potential, the upside, and the high-level |
| 0:27.2 | thinking of this coach Howard era. Now, fair warning, what I'm about to say is a grave |
| 0:32.6 | oversimplification of this staff. But at its core, to me, Michigan's three assistants all accomplished |
| 0:39.1 | something very important at a broad level. Phil Martelli was brought in after a long run at St. |
| 0:45.0 | Joe's as the head coach, giving the program an associate head coach who knew everything about |
| 0:49.3 | college basketball and being a head coach in it, or at least as close as you can to knowing everything. |
| 0:54.7 | I don't think he anticipated what happened in the 2020, 2021 season with the pandemic. |
| 1:00.7 | Then you have Saudi Washington being retained. |
| 1:02.5 | He gave the program an assistant who knew everything there is to know about the current |
| 1:07.9 | at the time and the recent past of Michigan basketball. |
| 1:12.3 | And then Howard Isley was brought in, giving the program an assistant who knew as much about |
| 1:16.5 | Coach Howard, his path, his hopes for the future, his experiences, really anyone could. |
| 1:22.2 | Combine that well-balanced staff with a retaining of so many key pieces behind the scenes, |
| 1:26.5 | like a Chris Hunter, |
| 1:33.0 | a John Sanderson, et cetera, et cetera, sprinkle in a guy like a Jay Smith, and you really had something. Now, Howard Isley has been the quietest of the three assistants. Brendan Quinn of |
| 1:37.7 | The Athletic did a great piece on Coach Isley during the NCAA tournament last year that |
| 1:41.3 | summed his role up well and summed his personality up well. |
| 1:45.9 | At the very end of that piece, Isley had a quote that really encapsulates his job and |
| 1:52.8 | how he approaches his job tremendously. Quote, when I see something and I need to say something, |
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