2B — December 10, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday

Another round of Harbaugh rumors
M

y grandfather called 
me last week.
I’ll preface this by 
saying that my grandpa is not 
your typi-
cal hot-take 
sports fan. 
I respect 
his opinions 
on sports 
as much as 
anybody I 
know. So in 
this case, I 
think he was 
probably just 
checking 
in and had a topic in mind he 
thought would make me laugh 
or at least give us something to 
talk about.
He asked me if Jim Harbaugh 
was leaving Michigan.
We had both seen the head-
lines by that time, on ESPN and 
other platforms, that certain 
pundits were reporting that 
certain NFL teams were in talks 
with Harbaugh to pull him from 
the Wolverines and back into the 
ranks of professional football.
I laughed and brushed it off, 
because the reporters I know on 
the Michigan beat, who would 
definitely know if Harbaugh was 
considering leaving Ann Arbor, 
had all but called the reports 
stupid.
Apparently, the rumors, per-
haps aided by the de-commit-
ment of five-star safety Daxton 
Hill, were enough to make Har-
baugh give a response.
“This is a choreographed 
message that comes up at this 
time every year before signing 
day,” Harbaugh told ESPN this 
weekend. “It’s people spreading 
messages to further their own 
personal agenda.
“But I’m on record right here, 
right now: I’m not going any-
where. I’m staying at Michigan. 
We have big plans here, and 
there’s a lot we want to accom-
plish.”

On Sunday, he elaborated 
further when asked why he com-
mented on the story at all.
“To make a 
statement of it,” 
he said. “To go 
on record, and to 
not be asked any 
more after that 
by people who 
like to yap and 
ask questions.”
Thinking back, 
though, the call 
from my grandpa 
wasn’t the first 
time I had gotten the question.
A couple months ago, an edi-
tor from a well-renowned news-
paper called The Daily newsdesk 
asking for me. He was doing a 

story about Harbaugh, and he 
wanted the perspective of some-
one on campus.
Among the 
questions he 
asked was one 
about Harbaugh 
and whether or 
not students and 
fans were losing 
patience with 
him.
I laughed 
then, too. If I 
remember cor-
rectly, it was just 
after Michigan had lost to Notre 
Dame, so I understood that there 
were some questions about the 
state of the program and its lead-
ership.

Now, with the benefit of hind-
sight, it seems ridiculous that 
there are and have been ques-
tions if the Wol-
verines want to 
keep Harbaugh.
Michigan is 
in a far better 
place than it was 
when Harbaugh 
took over. The 
program was 
competing for 
a conference 
championship all 
season, until its 
hopes were snuffed out by Ohio 
State yet again.
Michigan athletic director 
Warde Manuel addressed that 
side of things Sunday. His sup-

port has always been steadfast, 
so his statement should come as 
no surprise.
“Jim is one 
of the greatest 
coaches (in foot-
ball), college or 
pro, so I think it’s 
to his credit his 
name continually 
pops up,” Manuel 
said. “As I said 
before, when 
we think about 
bringing student-
athletes here, we 
want the best, and we have the 
best coach. I just hope people 
understand, and particularly 
our recruits don’t get dissuaded 
because people put out these 

rumors which this man deserves 
because of his ability to coach.
“... Every year as soon as 
there’s an opening, all of a sud-
den his name’s mentioned that 
he’s not going to be here. He and 
I have a great relationship. We 
talked about this from the first 
year on. I have full faith in Jim, 
in the person he is and the leader 
he is of this team. I’m so happy 
he’s our coach. I look forward to 
him coaching, as I said before, 
until he retires from Michigan 
and ends his career here.”
And, listen, I get impatience. 
But wanting better from the 
coach you have is much different 
than wanting a different coach 
altogether.
It is okay to both expect the 
Wolverines to actually win a 
conference championship — or 
better — and want Harbaugh to 
stay on as head coach. Believe it 
or not, those two things are not 
mutually exclusive.
Harbaugh does need to 
improve, and he is the first to 
admit it. Hence, the “there’s a lot 
we want to accomplish,” part of 
his quote to ESPN.
But it seems like if you are 
going to bring up this neverend-
ing question about Harbaugh’s 
permanence at Michigan, you 
have to answer two other ques-
tions first.
First: What gives anybody any 
indication that Harbaugh actu-
ally wants to leave?
Second: If the Wolverines did 
want him gone, who could they 
possibly get that would be bet-
ter?
If you can’t answer the first, 
spare me the waste of time it 
takes to prove any rumors false.
And if you can’t answer the 
second, don’t bother pining for 
greener pastures.

Persak can be reached 

at mdpers@umich.edu, on 

Twitter at @MikeDPersak or 

on Venmo at @Mike-Persak.

EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh dispelled rumors this weekend that he woud be leaving Michigan for the NFL after five-star safety Daxton Hill decommitted.

MIKE 
PERSAK

Poole finding consistency

Last February, Crisler Center 
filled with bathing suits and pool 
noodles — a strange sight on a 
snowy mid-winter afternoon in 
Ann Arbor. The ‘Poole Party’ 
theme had been organized by 
the Maize Rage — Michigan’s 
courtside student section — to 
celebrate 
Jordan 
Poole, 
the 
team’s 
swaggering 
freshman 
guard.
The freshman Poole wanted to 
give the crowd what they came 
to see. He came off the bench 
midway through the first half 
and immediately fired off two 
3-point attempts. Both clanged 
iron. The rest of the game was no 
different. Poole attempted four 
threes, made none of them, and 
finished with zero points in 12 
minutes.
Saturday 
against 
South 
Carolina, 
the 
Maize 
Rage 
brought the ‘Poole Party’ theme 
back. With a year of experience 
under his belt, the sophomore 
Poole hit 8-of-12 field goal 
attempts en route to a career-
high 26 points, as the Wolverines 
won 89-78.
“I 
wasn’t 
really 
thinking 
about it,” Poole said of this year’s 
‘Poole Party.’ “I think last year, 
I was thinking about it. … Being 
a freshman, I only played 11 
minutes, I kinda wanted to go 
out there, because it was a Poole 
Party, and play 
excited.”
Games 
like 
the 
Minnesota 
one 
weren’t 
unusual for Poole 
last 
year. 
He 
quickly 
became 
a 
fan 
favorite, 
often 
providing 
a spark off the 
bench, 
like 
he 
did in a 19-point 
game against Indiana or a 4-of-5 
showing from the three against 
Ohio State. But other times, he 
was invisible, scoring less than 
six points in half of Michigan’s 
games.
“Last year as a freshman, he’d 
have moments in which he didn’t 
look as good as he really was,” 

said South Carolina coach Frank 
Martin. “Cause he’d get wrapped 
up in the emotion of the game.”
Earlier this season, it seemed 
as if Poole hadn’t changed. He 
totaled just 13 points over the 
Wolverines’ first three games. 
When it looked as if he busted 
his 
slump 
in 
a 
22-point 
performance 
against 
George 
Washington, 
he followed up 
with four against 
Providence 
the 
next day.
Since 
then, 
Poole 
has 
been 
the 
star 
that 
Michigan 
expected him to be coming 
into the season, hitting 17-of-
28 threes and scoring at least 14 
points in five straight games.
“I just feel like I’m letting the 
game come to me,” Poole said. 
“Taking the right shots but also 
being aggressive.”
“… 
I 
feel 
like 
I 
was 

overthinking, ‘What’s a good 
shot, what’s a bad shot?’ So 
focused about assists to where I 
was passing up a lot of stuff. But 
now coach is giving me the green 
light to be aggressive. They feel 
like I’m one of the best shooters 
in the country.”
That 
green 
light 
paid 
dividends early in the second 
half when the Gamecocks cut 
Michigan’s deficit to six.
Poole pulled up and hit a three 
with a defender draped all over 
him. Then another one, followed 
by a fast-break dunk. He had 
effectively shut the door on South 
Carolina’s comeback hopes and 
rewarded his coach’s green light 
all in a two-minute stretch that 
exemplified everything he was 
anointed to be last season.
As he jogged to Michigan’s 
huddle after his dunk forced 
Martin into a timeout, students 
hurled snorkels and beach towels 
into the air in jubilation.
Somehow — on a freezing 
December day — that now 
seems normal.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore guard Jordan Poole hit 8-of-12 field goal attempts Saturday night.

“They feel like 
I’m one of the 
best shooters in 
the country.”

“I’m not going 
anywhere. 
I’m staying at 
Michigan.”

“We talked 
about this from 
the first year 
on.”

