The State of Michigan Basketball

Your mention of Dom Ingerson reminded me of this newspaper picture from a couple years ago...

It's been a long road.

Look-alikes?

Also, you can get tickets tonight for $5 a pop using coupon code B1G on the ticket office site.

The vision thing is part of why I love Dave Brandon. I know he occasionally puts his foot in his mouth, and some of his ideas trend toward b-school marketing voodoo. But if you look at his actual record - what he's done to improve our facilities, how he executed Under the Lights, bringing Brady Hoke here, etc. - the good far, far outweighs the bad. In fact, I would argue that (aside from Pop Evil, which actually many of the players and some recruits seem to thoroughly enjoy) the criticims of Dave Brandon are largely things that have NOT come to fruition: the idea that he's less-than-stalwart in preserving The Game at the end of the season, the mascot imbroglio, etc. Dave Brandon is head and shoulders above Bill Martin, and I think that for the first time in a very long time, we have a guy in the AD's office who understands both the business and the athletics side of the department.

Coastal Elite, I couldn't agree more.  I am a traditionalist who generally doesn't like messing with a good thing.  The problem is the application of that thinking.  If there's one constant, it's change.  I believe Brandon, more than anybody, understands this and knows he has to make changes to keep up with the changing views of those he tries to attract - both athletes AND fans.  I may not agree with everything he does, but I certainly agree with the thinking that motivates his actions.

Agree, it's been a long road.  I remember that Bowling Green game and thinking how ridiculous it was that it was a big deal to finally win a game. 

The fact that we're staring down a 7pm ESPN match up of 16-2 (5-0) MSU vs 15-3 (4-1) UM next week is pretty sweet.  That should be quite the atmosphere.

What else did Horton say (for those of us not near a PC)?



It wasn't too long ago Horton was spewing hatred of Beilein on Twitter dating things like "no one can win in this system". UofM proceeded to make their first tourney appearance in about a decade and I thought Horton had been silenced forever.

I honestly can't think of any ways in which the basketball program could make me more proud.  Beilein and the players on the team have accomplished so much, and in all the right ways.  They're so easy to root for.  

My only concern is how we let Lloyd Brady transfer to Northwestern's basketball team, and how we could possibly guard him tonight!

...weren't posting from the iPhone app. Bump to diary recommendation.

Boom!

Ed Martin did not cause us to spend a decade in the wilderness.  We did that to ourselves. 

The Amaker years were frustrating.  There was so much promise early on, but after his second year we spun our wheels, always on the outside of the bubble.  We seemed to be stuck in a vicious cycle; we didn't have the facilities to draw recruits, but we couldn't win enough to generate the revenue for the facilities.  (Northwestern seems to be struggling with this right now.)  Having said that, Amaker didn't wow me as a coach.  He was obviously better than Ellerbe, but his teams, while solid defensively, never seemed to run a coherent offense, and they also had a knack for falling apart in pressure situations.

Besides being a great coach, Beilein deserves a lot of credit for finally opening Martin's eyes to the importance of investing in the program.  I don't know what he said or did, but he finally got Martin to open the purse strings.

I've been onboard the M basketball train since before the fab five. I haven't missed some form of following a game since the internet made that possible. Finally, after a long time, the direction of the

myself. This year's players say: Hellz with next year, we're going to do some damage now! Twelfth/13th in the country and in the thick of the B1G title race is not "no program," nor would the many players who had fun being student-athletes and toiling for their school during the last decade feel that way, either. Gotta keep this sh*t in perspective--it ain't ALL about winning.

Basketball at Michigan meant nothing to me until about three years ago; I had always considered them as an NIT team playing in the shadow of the Big House.  Now they are the highlight of my sports world when football is out of season. Beilein is building an incredible program, one of the best things we've ever taken out of west virginia not named yost

I am grateful for anything and everything that has contributed to returning our basketball program to respectability.  We can't change what happened 15 years ago, but it seems we've paid our debt and have moved on.  Go Blue!

Martin did not do everything right, but our long hiatus from the basketball world was not on him.  The reason he didn't build the basketball facilities was not because he didn't think they were important.  It was because he didn't have the money to do it.   He was not allowed to go into debt to build it (like OSU did) so he needed donors, BIG donors.  There were none in the wake of Martin, Ellerbe, a roster half filled with bad apples, and a record more than half full of losses.   I have no doubt that he told TA that he would have his facility because he believed the $$ would flow in as soon as he was hired. It didn't.  Still wait and see, and we continued to flounder.   Martin was charged with cleaning up the mess that Goss created, and bringing the AD back into the black.  In that he did an excellent job.  The fact that he &^%$ the bed on the Football Coach hiring is not a good reason to fire bomb his whole tenure and everything he did.  Basketball and the rest of the Sports would be no where near where they are without him. 

Novak was really the start of something big. Between last year, McGary, and our strong start this season has led me to believe that we can make our basketball program both nationally prominent and a title contender every now/then.