Cool Story Bro; A conversation with Coach Beilein

Submitted by dinsdale613 on

My family headed up to Detroit this weekend to visit family and on the way stopped in Ann Arbor.  None of us had seen the new renovations so we went to get a look at the Newly Renovated Crisler.  As we were heading through the parking lot we happened to run into Coach Beilein.  He was nice enough to take time out of texting pictures of his new grandchild to stop and talk with us.  I took the opportunity to talk some basketball with him and i was impressed with how open he was with a random Michigan fan.

Some things I learned;

I asked him directly about Horford and he said he is going to be fine.  In fact, he got pretty excited when i asked.  He went on about how well he has been playing and rebounding.   It seems like he really likes Horford and he should be in line for a big year.

I asked him about all the size on the team and how much has been made of how Beilein is going to use it this year.  He told me flat out that usually teams that have a lot of size are not very good.  Athleticism is far more important than size to him.  He used the NBA finals as an example of how the game is evolving away from pure size with team like Miami using a smaller but much more athletic lineup.  After talking to him I am very curious to see what he does with the lineups.  i could tell he was very excited to put his new pices on the floor.

That's basically it.  Cool story bro and all, but i thought people would like to hear a little talk directly from the man himself about his philosophy and what we can look forward to this year.

 

 

brose

October 29th, 2012 at 3:50 PM ^

I had a 2 year project in West Virginia from late 2006 to mid 2008 and most of the people I worked with were huge WVU fans.  When Beilein left, they all were sad to see him go, but ALL of them had great things to say about him.  One guy talked about how Beilein talked with his 12 year old son for about 20 minutes about basketball after he had done a clinic and called him a class act.

When RR left, they all spewed venom like you wouldnt believe...

 

This is not about bashing RR, just more about how great a guy Beilein must be that the same people who swore up and down against RR didnt say one bad word about Beilein.

steve sharik

October 30th, 2012 at 4:20 PM ^

  1. WV is a football state first, hoops second, and more importantly
  2. They considered RR a true West Virginian, but Beilein wasn't.  WVians, more than any other state people, have a tremendous loyalty factor. They truly believe that a real West Virginian would rather coach WV for peanuts than the Cowboys for $10M/year.  RR was born and raised in WV, not so for JB.  RR took WV to heights rarely seen in football; WV had been to NCAA tltle game before JB (long ago, but still this is the program of Jerry West and Hot Rod Hundley).

BlueinLansing

October 29th, 2012 at 3:51 PM ^

is easily one of the most approacheable Michigan coaches I can remember.

 

I've talked to him twice by accident and both teams was just a pleasure to talk to him, he just loves talking about his team.

DingoBlue

October 29th, 2012 at 3:59 PM ^

how pleased I am to hear that Beilein is optimistic about Horford.  He will be very important down low for the team as a third year player in the system that can fill in for Morgan when he gets into foul trouble.  After Eso and Jon had difficulties last year, here's hoping the team can stay healthy throughout the season.

Blu

October 29th, 2012 at 4:19 PM ^

to talk with coach Beilein last winter about the new facilities.  We were talking about the new athletic training room, and he started talking about when he was growing up in Buffalo, NY they would just tell you to put your foot in a snow bank. 

kjhager444

October 29th, 2012 at 4:42 PM ^

We had an IM Basketball game at Crisler, right around the time of the NCAA tournament.  Novak was still on the floor shooting while we were trying to warm up, and Beilein finally told Zack to stop shooting so we could warm up.  He essentially had to kick him off the court,as Novak was running low on his time left.  Anyways, Beilein stopped over to talk to us about how he would stop and "recruit" our game if it wasn't for his radio show later that night.  He obviously wasn't serious, but it was really cool how down to Earth he was with some random college students.

Sidenote- I am 2-2 lifetime from 3 pt range at Crisler; one of my favorite IM games at Michigan ever.

Newbs

October 29th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^

I know this is another cool story bro but this summer I was doing a junior golf camp over across the street and we got a short tour of the PDC and in the weight room met Zach Novak and Eso Akunne. A little offtopic but I thought it was pretty cool.

redhousewolverine

October 29th, 2012 at 5:56 PM ^

Makes you wonder if we will see a lot of line-ups with Robinson at the 4. That would probably lead to Tim being the 3 and Stauskas at the 2 with Vogrich playing either spot also. Will be interesting to see how Beilein utilizes all the talent he has. Good problem to have.

VCavman24

October 29th, 2012 at 9:41 PM ^

Such a class act.  I always hear good things about him.  I remember seeing a video about he and his wife purchasing doughnuts for fans who were in the line for College Gameday against Ohio State.  At least Bill Martin made one good hire from West Virginia.