basketball

As a recent Minneapolis transplant, I have made a point to attend as many Michigan related events as possible, including watching the last play stand against the Gophers at TCF Bank on Halloween.  Recently, I procured tickets to tomorrows game at the Barn, but those tickets are directly behind the Gophers bench and those tickets were given to me with one stipulation: No Michigan attire.

Usually, I am the guy who is in the middle of the opposing teams section generally making an ass of myself, but as a favor to the friend I agreed to knock off the buffoonery and keep my behavior appropriately professional.

I'm curious as to if anyone else has been in a similar situation, and how that situation was handled.

Thanks in advance.

I was looking to see if there has been any movement in the rankings of next years basketabll recruits and I stumbled upon this article about Ibi Watson. I searched but did not see it on the site anywhere but SIAP anyway. 

http://247sports.com/Article/Ibi-Watson-Michigan-Wolverines-43224599

I have watched a lot of Watson's highlights and I cannot understand why he has not been climbing in the rankings (ranked 216 in 247 composite). I am a high school basketball coach so I am not a completely untrained eye but I definitely could be missing something. Does anyone have any insights as to why none of the recruiting sites have bumped him up at all?

yes, here again

with daily reminder

the lead is growing!

33% to Ohio %10

Nice little fluff piece on one of our own. 

It is a Lima News article.

Basically gives a run down on some of the history of Ohio's Mr. Basketball, and how he has a shot at receiving the award.

Part 1: Introduction

In the aftermath of two consecutive, embarassing losses at home and a season that has been satisfactory at best (and by satisfactory, I mean, that outside of a win against Maryland, Michigan has handled the teams they should beat and lost to the teams they should lose to), there has been an ongoing debate on whether John Beilein should be on the hot seat or even fired. This is an objective look at John Beilein's success in the context of Michigan basketball history and Beilein's modern contemporaries.

Part 2: Michigan's Place in the Pecking Order

A week or so ago there was a debate about "blue bloods" as it pertained to college football programs. The consensus was that some programs (Michigan among them) have an inherent advantage and sustained legacy of success. The program draws the best coaches and the best players. Jim Harbaugh isn't leaving the NFL to go coach Purdue. John Calipari isn't leaving Memphis for Auburn. I used a fairly simple system to rank every program in a Power 5 + AAC + Big East conference. A NCAA Tournament appearance is worth 1 point. A Final Four is worth 5 points. A National Championship is worth 10 points.

In the interest of time and space I won't list every level and program. The system came up with 7 "Blue Bloods". UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Indiana, Louisville, and Kansas. On the second level, there were 12 programs. They are:

Ohio State, Michigan State, Connecticut, Arizona, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, Arkansas, Michigan, Villanova, Georgetown, and Florida.

These are the programs that historically have matched Michigan's success. You could argue against Oklahoma State's inclusion (made it based on two titles in the 1940s) or that State or UConn deserves to be bumped up a level. So, how is John Beilein doing compared to the coaches of these 11 programs (Ohio State and Michigan State will be saved for the B1G section)? Let's take a look:

Throw out Boeheim. It's impossible to compare Beilein to a guy who has been at Syracuse for 40 years. Beilein's resume at this point is most comparable to Mick Cronin at Cincinnati which makes sense. Cronin relies on fielding a strong defense that creates rock fights, but his teams routinely hae trouble scoring. Cincinnati was in a strong Big East minus the last 2+ years so it's not like the American offered an easy way into the tournament. Every other coach outside of Mike Anderson (who has a higher winning %) has been more successful.

Part 3: Beilein's Place in Michigan History

Okay, so Beilein hasn't been as successful as the coaches of other programs on Michigan's level, but he turned what had been a pretty big disaster and resurrected it. How does Beilein compare to the other coaches in Michigan's long history? Because the NCAA Tournament didn't expand until 1985, I gave coaches a tournament berth if their team had a winning % over .667 (a 20-10 record today).

This looks a little better for Beilein. He's already led Michigan to the 3rd most NCAA Tournaments under one coach (counting an extra one for Freider). He brought respectability back to Michigan basketball. His % of NCAA Tournaments to seasons is better than everybody but Fisher. Is he the 2nd best coach in Michigan history? I think he is.

Part 4: Beilein vs B1G Contemporaries

Last part of the analysis is how is Beilein doing compared to the other coaches who have been in the B1G while Beilein has been at Michigan.

Wow, that's a lot of data and one joke, so let's try to break it down. Matta, Ryan, and Izzo have been the gold standard for the past decade plus in the B1G. Beilein's closest comparison is probably Bruce Weber. You know who got fired after missing the tournament 3 times in 5 years? Bruce Weber. Still, during Beilein's tenure Michigan has been the 4th best program in the conference. That's basically in line with history.

Part 5: So, Should He Be Fired?

No. We don't know what the hell is going to happen the rest of the year. Michigan needs to take care of business against Minnesota and Northwestern, go 1-2 in their road games against Ohio St., Wisky and Maryland, and split their homes games against Iowa and Purdue. That'll give them 2 solid wins and no bad losses at 21-10 and a winning record in the B1G which should put them in the tournament. If that happens, Beilein is safe. If they make a run to the Elite 8 or Sweet 16, then it's even more of a no brainer. However, if Michigan collapses and loses 5 of their last 7 and miss the tournament, he goes into next year on the hot seat. If they miss the tournament against next year, that puts him well below the level set by let's say Matt Painter at Purdue, traditionally a worse program than Michigan's.

Increasing the lead!

%33 to %10 for Motta