An Open Letter To Larry, The Dude Scheduling Michigan Basketball
never again please
Dude. Larry. We have to talk:
Coming off a 2-27 season, the Bulldogs will play at Michigan at Crisler Center on Thursday, Dec. 21, according to a contract for the game obtained by MLive. U-M will pay Alabama A&M a guarantee of $95,000 for making the trip.
Coach Willie Hayes' team finished No. 351 out of 351 teams in both the RPI and Kenpom's efficiency ranking in 2016-17.
Its lone wins came over Mississippi Valley State (344) and Prairie View A&M (313). The Bulldogs finished last in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
This is literally the worst possible game Michigan can schedule. Not only is it an offensive blowout in the making the likes of the Delaware State football game, it is poison to Michigan's RPI. Any SWAC team is an anchor; the worst SWAC team is even more so. A win against a team like Alabama A&M hurts your RPI. It would be better to simply not play that game.
Compounding matters:
John Beilein has previously indicated that there's a chance Michigan will not play a 31-game slate. He told reporters at the NBA Draft Combine that due to a condensed schedule -- the result of two Big Ten games being moved to early December and the conference tournament being moved a week earlier to Feb. 28-March 4 -- he will not shoehorn in an ill-advised game simply to get to 31.
You're not even going to play a full schedule because of Jim Delany! If you've opened the door to not playing games, this is the game you do not play. Nobody buying a season ticket is going to miss it. You are actively harming your RPI by playing it. An intrasquad scrimmage would be better preparation for the rest of the season. There is literally no reason to do this. And yet. Here we are.
I wrote about how to make your schedule pretty five years ago. (Not coincidentally, Alabama A&M was on the schedule that year as well.) Find high-win teams from lower leagues who you have a 98% chance of beating instead of a 99% chance. This has a material impact on your NCAA seedings, as this year's tournament amply demonstrated. A patently undeserving Minnesota got a five-seed this year because they paid attention to the RPI's flaws:
MN is a 5 because their NCSOS is 27. It is 27 because MN played the following 20 win luminaries.
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) March 12, 2017
They don't have boat anchors like Maryland-ES, Kenesaw State, Howard, and Central Arkansas.
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) March 12, 2017
That and that alone was why Minnesota got a 5 seed and Wisconsin, which had a superior resume by any measure that was not an archaic and barely-tuned formula, got an 8. This matters, and every year Michigan plays two to four of the worst teams in the country. You're killing your father, Larry.
Good question, and I'm not sure anyone has the answer. My two cents: I think its idiotic that he waits until the summer before a prospects junior year to offer when other programs have put out offers two years in advance. Asking kids to spend money and come to campus before they get an offer is silly too. Imagine if Harbaugh did that. I just think it's archaic and sort of insulting to kids who may not have a lot of money. I also think he hates the idea of one and dones and doesn't even bother recruiting those kids. The fact that guys like Jaylen Brown and Mo Bamba had to ask to be recruited is a huge inidctment. It's part of college basketball, either embrace it or get left behind. I'm not saying we need a whole team of them, but this is Michigan and they can attract McDonalds kids but Beilein doesn't want them for the most part. He's always been most comfortbale recruiting against mid major schools and lower profile power 5 teams. I also think it may be as simple as he's just not a good recruiter. He doesn't play the game on the AAU circuit like other guys do and it hurts him. Compare that to Harbaugh who is looking for every loophole in the rulebook to get an advantage. Meanwhile JB is actively trying not to go anywhere near what would be considered a gray line. If you aren't going to pay for players then this makes no sense. It's also well known he doesn't do much recruiting during the season. When you add all this up UM is playing a continual game of catch up more often than not. I will say this though, JB has an eye for talent like few coaches in the country. He knows what he wants and that's important.
Have an upvote.
That said, the hoops scheduling doesn't appear to be nearly as much under the coach's control/influence as the football schedule. That probably has as much to do with those coaches' personalities and the attention the AD pays as the coaches themselves, and so I'm not sure who should shoulder the blame here.
Put another way, if Coach complains and it's not fixed, that's one thing. If he's not complaining, that's another.
I believe a +1 is warranted for the proper use of "chortle anyone's balls".
That's fine. I agree with that general sentiment.
At the same time, how you deliver a point and the point itself can meld together. Saying "I disagree with Beilein scheduling a bad OOC team" is one way, but "Beilein is killing Michigan's RPI again" and then using inflamatory statements is another. How the medicine is given does matter to an extent.
Aren't you the same Maizen who inspired me to go through your posting history and list all of the negative things you said about other users?
No idea, sounds like you have a lot of time on your hands though. But this is like calling out Jim Harbaugh out for picking a fight with Saban, Kirby Smart, Paul Finebaum, etc when they are the ones who threw the first punch. No different here. I'm not going to say anything disrespectful unprompted.
Did you really just compare yourself getting flak here to Harbaugh getting the same? Seriously?
I mean, your original post was all about "As Brian said...", so it's not a shock that Brian would still agree with you.
You put forth a post that basically said Beilein screwed over Michigan again, continuing your general distaste for him and his coaching, and then upvoted yourself throughout. So no, there is a world in which you could be right and not be a dick about it.
I upvoted a lot of his posts.
I've been negged a few times for mildly criticising Beilein. It's weird.
Even curiouser: don't say anything negative about Grant Hill.
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