Best Michigan Basketball Coach?

Submitted by DISCUSS Man on

Interesting thought I had today. We are spoiled with great coaches in football and have an obvious choice of two in terms of who the best football coach was. Either Yost or Bo I would think most people would say. Hockey, Baseball, Softball are all no-contests. 

But what about basketball? Michigan really hasn't had an elite coach that was the face of the program.  

The winningest is Johnny Orr. But he ditched the program. Same with Frieder. My vote would probably be Dave Strack. He had B1G titles, Final Fours, Cazzie Russell & Bill Buntin.  

Steve Fisher if you think about it wasn't that great of a coach. A great recruiter but really underachieved most of his career (save the Fab Five years). No B1G titles, no national championships that he can say were 100% his. 

1989-90, 1994-95, 1995-96 all ended in disaster in the tourney. 1990-91 and 1996-97 were debacles from the start. 1997-98 I consider his team just like 1988-89 I consider Frieder's. 

Great NCAA Tournament run in 1989, but other than that.....meh. The Fab Five were awesome but again, the most they ever won was a couple of regional titles.

What say you? I think this is a really good question and tough one at the same time.  

TheBlueBaller

July 15th, 2013 at 4:34 PM ^

Not just saying that to back the current guy. I think he does a great job with our team. Especially considering the fact that we don't have some of the huge recruits that Kansas and Kentucky get. We have a very solid team and I believe his leadership is what makes us a true contender

Jon06

July 14th, 2013 at 11:36 PM ^

I didn't realize before reading up on this just now that early in the program's history our basketball coaches were also football coaches, sometimes simultaneously.

I'd think it has to be Fisher until Beilein repeats his success with new players, but I'm not old enough to have opinions about Orr or Frieder. (I didn't know who Dave Strack was prior to this thread, so I can't cast my vote for him.)

Bando Calrissian

July 15th, 2013 at 12:06 AM ^

For me, it's a tie between Frieder and Fisher, probably give the edge to Frieder because he was such a maniacal personality (and an equally maniacal recruiter).

Like it or not, Fisher always had the chip on his shoulder from being the lifelong assistant who got unexpectedly thrown into the head job and managed to win a championship a few weeks later. The fact he could never quite replicate that success at Michigan without cutting corners says all you need to know. 

Section 1

July 15th, 2013 at 12:09 AM ^

Yes; the OP was nicely written.  Dave Strack is the choice.  Beilein could take Michigan back to the Final Four again this year, and he would only have matched the great run of Dave Strack's Cazzie/Buntin/Darden/Pomey teams.

Plus, I think it would be fair to say that Dave Strack brought the Michigan program farther -- from deeper in the doldrums than what we've seen in recent years, to higher than the program has been at any time prior to the Glen Rice teams and the Fab Five years.

Strack was also instrumental in placing Johnny Orr -- our winningest coach -- as his chosen successor.  So... bringing the program back, taking it to the highest level, putting Michigan basketball on the map, becoming a national recruiting force, extending his coaching tree... I'd say that the OP was correct with the placement of Dave Strack.

Coach Strack with prize recruit Rudy Tomjanovich in the newly-constructed Crisler Arena:

M-Wolverine

July 15th, 2013 at 12:24 AM ^

But the rant against Fisher was a little ridiculous. Knock him all you want for the off the court stuff, but you don't even talk about that.

You give someone else credit for the National Title he won, but don't give him any credit for the team he put together winning the Big Ten Tournament. I'm not sure how all those Tournaments ended in disaster. (If a 9 seed losing to an 8 seed can be considered that, I guess so). I mean "the most the Fab Five ever won was regional titles" is just as much as this year's Michigan team won, which I bet you think is a big deal (I do). But they did it twice.

Look, he deserves all the scorn for helping cultivate the festering problems in the program, but the guy went to 3 championship games in 5 years, and is doing a good job at San Diego fricking State. He may not be our best coach....he may not be in the top 3, but the guy can coach.

HAIL-YEA

July 15th, 2013 at 12:37 AM ^

Ill take Fisher all day.  I love Beiien and he could be the best before he's done, but Fisher was our best coach. How the heck did he under achieve? Frieder had a track record of getting bounced early in the tournament..why would he get credit for that title? Fisher proved he was a good tournament coach, and an amazing recruiter. His career here ended in scandal which sucks, but he had 1 Elite 8, 3 title appearences with 1 natty in 9 years. He also just took SDSU to the aweet 16 a couple years ago, the guy is a great coach.

5th and Long

July 15th, 2013 at 2:16 AM ^

At some point in the future I hope Beilein ends up being the definitive answer to this question.

However, I agree that Fisher was/is a good coach. Prior to the Fab Five class Fisher was considered a better in-game coach than a recruiter. Even though it wasn't "his" team, it was his coaching that won the championship. Frieder would most likely have not gone that far. Fisher's biggest move was to take Calip out of Frieder's doghouse and give him PT. DC was key to victory over Xavier, and his defense on Lebo was a big deal in the UNC game.

Tater

July 15th, 2013 at 6:56 AM ^

Fisher's incompetence and his "ostrich approach" allowed Ed Martin to gain a foothold into the program.  I would rate Beilein #1, Strack #2, Orr #3, and Frieder #4,   Beilein, Strack, and Orr built teams that made it to the title game.  

Frieder built the personnel that won the NCAA Championship, but they performed better without him than with him.  Fisher's relaxed approach was great for those six games, but he was overwhemled when it came to the realities of running a major college program.  Fisher has proven to be exactly what he is now: a decent coach who belongs at a mid-major.

Belein is #1 becuase he is the only coach out of all of them who is doing anything unique in the game.  The others ran versions of other people's systems.  Beilein's is unique and it works,

Wee-Bey Brice

July 15th, 2013 at 8:19 AM ^

As of today it's Fisher. In five to ten years it'll be Beilein and it won't even be debatable. The best part about it all is that at the end of Beilein's career we won't have to worry about there being any asterisks in the record books during his tenure.

Rocking Chair

July 15th, 2013 at 9:07 AM ^

I may the the only one here who has watched them all and my vote goes to Dave Strack.  He lifted the progam up out of nowhere and left a legacy that shines brightly today.

Wolfman

July 15th, 2013 at 9:37 AM ^

Eliminate Fisher right away.  As he told others setting around him at Crisler. Something is wrong with this program. He's allowing access to far too many people not associated with this program in any manner whatsoever. Freider? Good run, but I think the OhUSC shit started under him honestly.  It has to be the man that allowed the building of the house with the sense to hand the plans over to Cazzie. In time, JB might overtake him. He has the same qualities that Bo had in recruiting his players. Questionable character= end or recruiting. He might prove to be wrong in the future on a few but up to the present he's shown he's on his way to being right up there.  Orr spoke of himself as the greatest in the Big X alongside Bobby Knight and who the hell does that? Only a person that's not quite sure, and then to go to leave to coach another school voluntarily? That's not Michigan at all.   Lasting lessons, my friends, lasting lessons.

M-Wolverine

July 15th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^

He hired Frieder.  Bo didn't try and stop him from going to Arizona State because there was too much of a stink around the program.  He was going to clean house of the guys Canham hired, and then they won the title and he couldn't really hire anyone else.

Where was Canham seeing something wrong with the program when players were going around in fur coats and Rumeal was getting money when he was in charge?

kehnonymous

July 15th, 2013 at 9:45 AM ^

Speaking about coaches whom I was alive to observe - assuming that John Beilein isn't actually Jim Tressel with sub sandwiches - the best 3 M hoops coaches in history are Beilein, Beilein and Beilein and for me it's not even close. As hard as it is to win at the Division I level, it's even harder to win playing clean and that's what he's done.

PeteM

July 15th, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^

Frieder was a great recruiter, but as I recall none of his teams ever made it past the 2nd round of the tournament (I realize '89 was "his" team but who knows what would have happened if he was coaching.

PeteM

July 15th, 2013 at 10:28 AM ^

The coaches who should be in the conversation are Beilein, Orr, Fisher & Strack.  All have a NCAA final to their credit, with Fisher winning one.  My impression is (I haven't looked it up recently) that Strack & Orr both tailed off a bit toward the end. 

To me it comes down to Beilein and Fisher.  At this moment, I think you'd give the edge to Fisher based on his record of a championship, two finals and an elite 8, but how you analyze that record depends your view of the Fab 5 (which really means Chris Webber since he was the only one cited by the NCAA).  I think it adds something to his overall reputation that he's had success at San Diego State.  On the negative (as noted above) the post-Fab 5 teams underachieved.

That said, I remember thinking as this tournament started that if Beilein makes a run he's in the top 2-3 Michigan coaches of all time.  I also think it's in his favor that Michigan was struggling when he arrived with a dominant program an hour and a half north -- something I don't believe Strack, or Orr faced (maybe Frieder coming off the Magic years).  If this momentum continues -- meaning consistent tournament success, defined as sweet 16/elite 8 most years with an occasional run beyond, for the next 3-4 years -- I'd say is Beilein is clearly number one.

samdrussBLUE

July 15th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^

All of this and no love for Amaker. Serious, I did like watching Petway and Graham play. That was fun.

MGoBender

July 15th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^

First, lolTommy.  Second, it actually was fun watching Graham Brown, Brent Petway, Bernard Robinson, Daniel Horton, etc play.  That's why it was so frustrating that Amaker never found a way to get them to the tournament.

Blueroller

July 15th, 2013 at 5:36 PM ^

Probably Strack for now, though it is tempting to go with Beilein. But it should have been Johnny Orr. I don't blame him for bailing. Michigan wouldn't pony up to keep him, and he finally got the appreciation he deserved at Iowa State. He was one to shoot from the lips but that was mostly good. I went to a luncheon once where he had the crowd in stitches. And his teams were entertaining as hell to watch, running and gunning. The Ricky Green teams were a blast. But Crisler was moribund during much of Johnny's time (late 70s for me). The support from alumni, students and university just wasn't there. A damn shame.