It's good that they finally fired his ass because he couldn't hack it and had plenty of time to get things turned around, but at the same time he didn't really have much to work with since all the penalties handed down from the booster scandal from when the fab five was there.
It would have been in the best interest to pony up the cash and grab Rick Pitino when he was available and it almost happened, but they were way off on cash settlments. Apparently during that time that they were courting Pitino, they were ready to step up and shell out the money to make hm happy enough to coach here, but Bo Schembechler stepped in and basically threw a fit about how there is no way he will sit back and watch a Michigan basketball coach get more taken care of than a Michigan football coach (Lloyd Carr).
Guess he had enough pull because once that happened, Pitino said no thanks and they went for Amaker instead.