dave strack

Beilein by Fuller, Orr and Ooster via Bentley.

I got this question from PeteM on the board: Where does John Beilein rank among Michigan's all-time basketball coaches?

The question is subjective since everyone has their own criteria. Mine: wins (total), winning percentage, Big Ten regular season titles, tournament success, All-Americans/NBA prospects, and general good guy-itude.

The Candidates:

Coach	Seasons	Wins	Avg 30*	B10	NCAA**	AAs	NBA
John Beilein	2008-'14	150	18-12	2	2.14	2	3†
Steve Fisher	1989-'97	185	21-9	-	3.00	3	7
Bill Frieder	1981-'89	189	20-10	2	1.13	2	10
Johnny Orr	1969-'80	209	19-11	2	1.25	4	7
Dave Strack	1961-'68	113	17-13	3	1.88	4	7
Bennie Oosterbaan	1939-'46	81	16-14	-	-	-	2
E.J. Mather	1920-'28	108	20-10	3	-	4	-

Non-candidates for completeness:

Coach	Seasons	Wins	Avg 30*	B10	NCAA**	AAs	NBA
Tommy Amaker	2002-'07	108	17-13	-	-	-	4
Brian Ellerbe	1998-'01	62	15-15	-	0.50	-	2
Bill Perigo	1953-'60	78	13-17	-	-	-	1
Ernie McCoy	1949-'52	40	14-16	-	-	-	-
Ozzie Cowles	1947-'48	28	20-10	1	1.50	-	-
Cappy Cappon	1932-'38	78	17-13	-	-	-	-
George Veenker	1929-'31	35	22-8	1	-	-	-
Elmer Mitchell	1918-'19	24	17-13	-	-	-	-

I kept Cowles out of it since this was getting long and he only coached for a few (wild) seasons, wherein he dragooned football stars and developed the pick and roll.

Chartnotes:

For ease, I call the 2013-'14 season "2014" etc.

* Rather than winning % I showed their average record over a 30-game season.

** NCAA tournament factor, equivalent to average number of tournament games his teams would play in. A 1.00 means his average team will make the tourney and go out in the 1st round. I took out the play-in rounds.

† This could as well be 7 or 8: Manny Harris was recruited by Amaker but played his entire career for Beilein. Stauskas, GRIII, LeVert, and McGary at least can be counted as future NBA players. It's too early to say the same for Walton/Irvin but it's not a bad bet either.

I ended up breaking this up into two posts because it was getting long, so here's the candidates chronologically through Johnny Orr:

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Mather [via Wikipedia]

E.J. Mather (1920-'28)

Career at M: 9 seasons, 108 wins (67%), 3 Big Ten titles (1 outright)

All-Americans: Bennie Oosterbaan (1927 & '28), Richard Doyle (1926), Harry Kipke (1924)

Pros: Kind of pre-dates that.

Story: Took over a young program and went 3-9 his first year, then tied for the Big Ten championship his second, winning his last 8 games of the season to tie Purdue and Wisconsin at the end. The 1926-'27 season, when Bennie Oosterbaan lent his talents, was the best; Michigan went 10-2 in-conference and 14-3 overall. Soon after that season Mather had major surgery for cancer, and wasn't the same after that. Yost coached the 1927-'28 team in Mather's name; the cancer claimed his life that August.

Thing: Mather was also a Yost football assistant, and two of his players later became football coaches.

Better than a Beilein: It's tough to judge that far back or guess what the future might have held, but he didn't have a nationally competitive team until his 8th year so I'm comfortable putting him behind.

[After the jump it gets tougher]