the just released schedules were a flat-out statement that the B10 doesn't believe SOS will matter in playoff selection
Congratulations Coach Beilein on win #650!
And my fortune cookie backed it up.
Yep, that's Simba made out of a pineapple.
When he was hired I told my high school gym teacher that beilein was the man. Part of it was blind hope but part was I was sold on his 1-3-1 zone and told him that his Spartans (played baseball at msu and brother is a strength coach for msu football, men's and women's bball, and hockey) would have troubles with that D and the beilein 3 point game. So when we swept state a couple years ago I confronted my former gym teacher and he supplied me with 2nd row seats for msu vs Wisconsin right behind msu's bench. The seats normally reserved for recruits were aMAIZEing and I made sure to rub the sweep in to both him and his brother. GO BLUE from the great white north
If you spell Crisler like the car company you should hand in your fan card before the next meeting.... Same goes for Ferry Field
that I placed his name in contention. Well not really, but I plumped for him.
I did. I remember watching him take WVU to the Elite Eight and Sweet 16 in back-to-back years and being envious of them (this was when we kept finishing on the wrong side of the NCAA bubble under Amaker). I figured that if he could do that there, at a school with little basketball history or recruiting base, he certainly could here. And that was his rationale for coming here - he knew Michigan had great upside as a program.
How far can he get with 30+ win seasons?
congrats coach and many more on the way.
It just feels like Coach B is gonna be here for a long time building the program back to where it should be.
Great coaching, great recruiting now for the last couple years and going forward, great school, great fanbase....everything is great! Go Blue!!!
This one? Yes.
The one about how we're a little worried that we're getting too many one-and-done type players and that we might only have a top five team in some years? No, didn't see that one coming.
EDIT: This was intended as a response to the "Did anyone see this coming?" post above.
Congratulations to John Beilein! What a nice victory #650 was as well.
As a bit of trivia, he is the only coach to have achieved 20+ win seasons at four different levels of competition from junior college to Division I play. I could be incorrect on this, but I think Beilein is also among the top 20 winningest active coaches in Division I right now and near the top in games coached and years coached among active coaches as well.
Here's to many more wins, Coach. The program is definitely in great hands.
"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."
Follow the random tweets of a Michigan alum - http://twitter.com/#!/LorneEC3
My uncle said he was a bad hire. He also said that Hoke was a bad hire and RIch Rod a great one. My uncle is wrong a lot.
"I tried to but a pencil in the light socket but it was too wide and didn't fit so I used a paperclip."-Terrelle Pryor, Future Rhodes Scholar
Could you let us know if he picks stocks as well?
Let's review:
Hoke has gone 19-6 and 12-4 in the B1G while still not having his style squad and particularly on offense and he is top 5ish in recruiting on a regular basis now
while the guy before him was 15-22 and 6-18 in the B1G and recruited stupidly and had high attrition because of it.
If in 2 years we're still losing 3-4 games a year, maybe we'd have to consider that unworthy, which it would be....but I have a feeling we'll be double digit winners just about every year for a while and possibly 12-2, 13-1 or 14-0 seasons often.
Im willing to bet that lots of players on the past two teams were RR recruits, especially last year. Hoke has done well, but we haven't seen his players yet.
I have a Fandom Endurance III merit badge
He also recruited exactly one OL in one of his classes, which is why we have no interior line depth.
Moeller v. Excalibur Restaurant -- Fight!
However, the lack of depth on the OL currently is completely on RR.
If you need drugs to be a good writer, you're not a good writer.
-Rod Serling
Both sides of this fight are silly, but this point is especially ridiculous. Of course a lot of the players on the past two teams were RR recruits. Even if you call the class of 2011 guys Hoke's recruits, the most senior Hoke recruits were redshirt freshmen / true sophomores this past year.
...and everything to do with unrealized expecations.
As a point of reference, who am I?:
I took over coaching a well known and tradition-laden college football program after the previous coach whose underwhelming recruiting and coaching got him fired after 3 years. In my first 2 years at the helm, I compiled a 19-6 record, including 2 BCS berths and a national coach of the year award. My next 3 years I went, 3-9, 7-6, and 6-6. I was then fired. Who am I? (hint: I have a FUPA)
Again, I will reiterate. This has absolutely nothing to do with RR and I never once mentioned it in my post. Hoke has done well thus far (although this season was not great by any means), but he far from meeting expectations of this program, and we should probably wait until he hopefully does so before we determine if it was a good hire.
I'm so happy to see his success here. My high school years saw him get to the Elite Eight at WVU, I think it's about time it happened here at UM.
I remember a couple years ago when the basketball team was struggling early in B1G play thinking that we should go in a different direction. We had just hired Hoke and I truly thought Brandon should have made a change in basketball as well. Boy was I wrong. Congrats to coach Beilein on his achievement.
I hate ohio. Thats all you need to know.
I remember that moment as well. I think Brian even had a post where he acknowledged calls for Beilein's head and speculated on what it would take for him to get fired. Then there was a leadership aneurysm, someone had to GTFO Morris' court, and things started to look pretty different.
Now with 100% less South Bend, 100% more Washington DC.
considering his track record and the fact that he led Michigan to their 1st NCAA tourney appearance in 20 years which is something that Tommy Amaker and Brian Ellerbe had failed to do so. This is why you need to let it play out for 4-5 years before judging the hire.
you mean 11 years, 1998 till 2009 before NCAA appearance, then yes, you're right, 20 years
I'll admit, I though he was a terrible coach after that Big Ten tourney game against Ohio in 2010. I am quite pleased to be proven thoroughly wrong.
JB has won everywhere he has coached. Took Michigan to NCAA tourney in 2009.
On another basketball note, NC State just beat UConn on a neutral floor. Good to see a team Michigan beat take down a team that beat Sparty. I know the transitive thing doesn't work. But it's still good for NC State to get that win.
Those Who Stay...
Also, Bradley just beat fellow mid-major George Washington, 72-68. Not an amazing victory by any stretch, but always good to see past opponents winning games they're supposed to win.
"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."
- Jack Handey
Well as stubbornly wrong as I was about Rich Rod, it's nice to be proven right about Beilein being the right coach (though even at my most optimistic, I didn't see this happeneing).
" I want to win Big 10 titles. Multiply. Consecutively. I just made that word up (multiply). I'm like that. I'm good at Scrabble."
I don't think they'll be counting his wins at Erie Community College for any all time lists.
However, he'll be getting to 800 from his current 575 in no time.
If you need drugs to be a good writer, you're not a good writer.
-Rod Serling
I don't think the NCAA recognizes those. Only 4 year institutions.
But I was pretty conservative not only on his win total, but how many years he might still coach. He's not a kid at 58, but ten years isn't unrealistic. In basketball though you see guys coach longer than that even; whereas in football that's really old if your name isn't "Paterno." You can even win:
Oldest NCAA Championship Coaches
Coach Y- M- D
Phog Allen, Kansas, 1952 66- 4- 8
John Wooden, UCLA, 1975 64- 5-17
Mike Krzyzewski Duke, 2010 63- 1-22
Lute Olson, Arizona, 1997 62- 6- 9
John Wooden, UCLA, 1973 62- 5-12
Dean Smith, North Carolina, 1993 62- 1- 7
Jim Calhoun Connecticut, 2004 61-10-25
John Wooden, UCLA, 1972 61- 5-11
John Wooden, UCLA, 1971 60- 5-13
Jerry Tarkanian, UNLV, 1990 59- 7-24
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncb&id=6273838
"I love him, he's a great coach, he's a great mentor, he's a great friend. He's every single thing you want a college coach to be, and he does it flawlessly." -David Molk
Why no UConn 2011? Calhoun was 68- the oldest champion coach ever.
If you look at the actual page, it is from March 2011, and has a disclaimer at the bottom regarding Calhoun:
If Connecticut wins the championship, Jim Calhoun (68-10-24) will become the oldest coach to win the title.
So yeah, Calhoun is the oldest now.
"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."
- Jack Handey
If Calhoun wins he'd be the oldest. I didn't want to copy the whole article though (even though there wasn't much more). Just wanted multiple examples of guys successfully coaching at an older age.
"I love him, he's a great coach, he's a great mentor, he's a great friend. He's every single thing you want a college coach to be, and he does it flawlessly." -David Molk
Holy crap, I had no idea Coach K was almost 66 (birthday is in February). I guess I should have realized he was getting up there because of how long he's been at Duke, but even still I figured he was in only his late 50s.
"The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman."
- Jack Handey
I posted this on the game thread but I really think JB is building a program in the tradition of the very best basketball programs and is on his way to be a legendary-type coach here. His journey to Ann Arbor was long, he seemed to win everywhere and yet never attract the spotlight of the loud-mouth, egocentric types that populate the college coaching positions today. And in the same quiet fashion he's been building the Michigan program, aided by the facility improvements no doubt, but his basketball brain, values and vision can't be overlooked.
I think it's worth pointing out that his next win will be number 100 while on the sideline for the Maize and Blue
I was mildy enthusiastic when he was hired. When his contract was renewed in the middle of his third season, in which M finished 15-17 despite being ranked like #15 preseason, including a disasterous start to the 2009-10 year, I considered it an intentional, malicious act by Bill Martin to screw Michigan one more time.
As it turns out, he has done a great job recruiting potential stars like THJ, GRIII, Burke, Stauskas before they blow up.
Missing Ann Arbor
because it's a given that a coach is a dead man walking if he has 1 year left in his contract. It hurts the team and recruiting because of the questions and uncertainity. The norm is to extend contract if he is about to enter into the final year of contract.
Remember Beilein has done some stuff that is so out of character for an established coach his age. He's basically modified his offense to his talent while still keeping his disciplines from a system coach (we like the 3; we aren't dependent on the 3). He was a zone coach who basically coaches man to man with zone as a change up. He's not recruiting only "system guys"; he may have landed his first truly great 3 point shooter after all these years. (We shot them a lot...we haven't hit a very good percentage). And mixed his system type guys in with true athletes.
And biggest of all he reassessed and did a complete overhaul of his staff. Not as rare in basketball as in football, but still not something you'd expect a guy who has succeeded everywhere he's been to do at his last job. And it certainly made a BIG change in recruiting, as well as X and O's things we probably can't notice as well. If he was still stubbornly doing the things that he did at Richmond he might not still be coach here.
This isn't to say what he was doing before was so bad. It's more a credit to him that he can spot weaknesses, and change to his times and environment. That more than anything (brilliant basketball mind; excellent recruiting eye) is behind his success. And it's not a lot of even great coaches have.
"I love him, he's a great coach, he's a great mentor, he's a great friend. He's every single thing you want a college coach to be, and he does it flawlessly." -David Molk



Did anyone honestly see this coming when he was first hired?