Forbes Runs Feature John Beilein Fluff Piece, Calls him, "The Truest Coach in College Basketball"
From the piece - But what happened in this tournament may have been one of his best coaching efforts of his forty year career. In the third game versus Minnesota, Michigan players were losing their edge... Beilein huddled the team and spoke from the heart. No clipboard. No chalk talk. “It was about life,” said assistant coach Jeff Meyer. “It was about where they’d been… and about playing for each other.” In the second half the team caught its second wind and rolled to its third victory in three days. The tournament game almost seemed anticlimactic.
Coach B is about as real as it gets. Players Coach. Coaches Coach. Love that he's our guy. Hope he gets what he has earned the next 3 weeks. Go BLUE!!!!
Beilein did what all good leaders do: bring people together for common cause. And he did it because he and his assistants had found the right players, molded them in the expectation of excellence, and allowed them to use their talents to win as one team. One for all and all for one.
I will say, Beilein is very good at doing this no matter what we might say in the moment, and as a leader in some capacity not sports related, I actually try to talk this talk inspired in part by him. The hard part is trying to walk it as well, as well as watching Michigan athletics for management inspiration - that's sort of weird too.
Still, interesting piece.
Once again, fuck you doubters and haters of this good man and solid coach who doesn't cut corners.
You are free to cheer for pay for play Kentucky or Hooker U , Louisville or any other scumbag program if Beilein isn't up to your absurd win-loss standards.
I'll stick with the coaching savant who has had the most success of any coach here at UM since the Fab 5, and we know how that ended unfortunately for us.
Thankfully, most of the true haters disappeared after the B1G tournament victory--- where did "hang and 8th place banner" guy go? We're getting a banner btw and it's well deserved.
Walton has sustained that unsustainable pace for two months now.
Walton has played at an "unsustainable pace" for half of the conference season and a whole tournament now. There were a few games during that stretch that he didn't play as well and yet someone else stepped up and the streak continued. The whole team has elevated their play as a unit for the second half of the season. Frankly, I'm not sure there are that many questions left. The tournament will be tough with a difficult matchup right out of the gate and another tough matchup looming, but right now I'm as confident as I've been all year about this team.
March 15th, 2017 at 10:07 PM ^
There is a chance that the BTT was a self contained event. It remains to be seen whether it will carry over.Did we do anything in D.C. that we weren't doing the previous month?
March 15th, 2017 at 10:16 PM ^
Miss threes?
March 16th, 2017 at 10:52 AM ^
Clearly you have been criticized hard by the "unsustainable pace" comment, but my biggest concern by your comment is that if we fail to succeed in the NCAA Tournament, people like you (based solely on this comment, and nothing else so don't take it personally) will downplay the success this team has had, especially the Big ten tournament. We will be playing very good basketball teams from here on out. I would not be surprised at a loss at any point, but that should not at all be held against what this team has accomplished.
In my opinion, the turnaround, the teamwork, the self-respect for themselves and their teammates, and of course the BTT championship have already made this season an unbelievable success, to the point that everything else is gravy. I just hope if we do happen to lose early in the big dance, people still give the credit to Beilein and this group of players that they deserve.
March 16th, 2017 at 11:24 AM ^
is not "people like me." (I am not taking it personally, but I have never called for Beilein's firing or anything like that, I vocally oppose that crowd at every turn). What I am saying is that we should expect a fairly high level of play and competitiveness from our team as a matter of course. The BTT was awesome and is very nice feather in the cap for Beilein. I am just saying that high level play should be the rule, not the exception. That is all.
March 16th, 2017 at 11:34 AM ^
Okay, then I was misinterpreting what you were saying with your original post. I agree with that sentiment. We should be able to expect the high level of play, and FWIW, I think we will. I am just nervous about the reaction if we do happen to have an early exit, and that is, that I am sure there will be bigger portion than there should of people who will deem this season as a failure when it absolutely has not been.
March 16th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^
will be that group, but a very small minority. The season would not a failure if we lost to Ok. St., but that loss would be a substantial disappointment. (That being said, I think I am in a minority in that I think we are going to hand Ok St. their ass and that it won't be an issue). I guess all I was saying in my original post is that while the fire Beilein group has been thoroughly discredited, the pro-Beilien group should not believe him to walk on water either. I want to see him keep the team playing at this level.
Didn't you admit to being one of those "doubters and haters" at one point?
March 15th, 2017 at 11:19 PM ^
I had doubts about his ability to get us back to the elite level of back to back elite eights and a championship game to boot given his unwillingness to get grimey in recruiting.
I never called for his head nor felt that our expectations should be where much of this fanbase has it. We are not a basketball blue blood nor will we cut corners in recruiting.
A bunch of people said, yeah but Wisconsin.... To that I say,
- Michigan has 2 regular season B1G titles in the past 5 years, Wisky has 1.
- Michigan has 1 B1G tourney championship in the past 5 years, Wisky has 1 as well.
- Wisconsin has 2 Final 4 appearances in the past 5 years, including 1 runner-up, while Michigan has 1 Final 4 runner-up appearance and an Elite 8 appearance over the past 5 years.
- Since 2010 Belein has a win percentage of 67%, Wisconsin 74%.
So yes, Wisky has been a bit better and more consistent overall, but that was under a coach (Bo Ryan) that was around for 15 years, and his best years were back loaded from 2010-2015.
Beilein has been around for 10 years now. The calls for his head were absurd.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:30 PM ^
No one, not even the biggest Beilein supporters, could have envisioned the drastic midseason turnaround we've seen from this team. We were 3-6 in the conference at one point, coming off of back to back disappointing seasons and looking like we were headed for a 3rd. At that point, it was fair to think that Beilein just didn't have it anymore. He has obviously proven that that isn't the case. So it's easy for Beilein defenders to come out now, puff out their chests and deride the doubters for the things they said when this season had hit its low point, but these same defenders weren't predicting that this team would suddenly turn around to become one of the best teams in the Big Ten.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:39 PM ^
It's not about 1 season and the last 2 were derailed by injuries. Complaints about soft defense and lackluster recruiting were fair, but the narrative had become short sighted (not looking at his overall work here) and absurd in terms of expectations.
If Levert was healthy the past 2 years, and McGary wasn't forced out early with the bs Marijuana crap things could have been much different for this team the past 3 years. And yeah, if my aunt had a penis she would be my uncle and all that matters is results, but I felt Beilein deserved the benefit of the doubt given his overall body of work.
The past month just cemented the fact that he is a damn good coach - and hopefully the defense continues to improve and recruiting ticks upwards.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:57 PM ^
His body of work isn't exactly hall of fame worthy. He's won 61% of his games here and been to the 2nd weekend of the tournament 2 times in 9 seasons. It's not like we were doubting John Wooden.
The past month cemented the fact that Beilein can win with an elite point guard, which is true of a lot of coaches in college basketball. He gets credit for Walton's development, but it took Walton being called soft by an opposing player for him to truly wake up.
is a complete load of horseshit.
it is misguided as well, but there is some truth to the fact that Irvin and Walton have underperformed up until this last stretch. However, I think the issue was less Beilein's lack of developing them and more injury issues to both them and other players. Think about the series of events Stringer - 1) Levert is injured midway through Irvin's second season, forcing Irvin to jump ship on his path of development to accept a completely different role, 2) Walton is injured later the same year and our backcourt is Spike and a second year Irvin with Dawkins and MAAR supplementing when they probably should not have been playing yet. 3) irvin is injured leading into last year and Levert goes down again right when Irvin should have been returning to form and Spike's hips are shot. Thus, Walton is shouldering nearly the entire load with Dakich running back up, so he can't really be aggressive defensively because we have nothing backing him up.
None of those players were ever able to assume the role for which they were designed during that stretch. All of this does not even mention the McGary unexpected departure which turned our front court depth on its head and lead to Ricky Doyle playing 25 minutes per game his freshman year.
It was a nightmare for the players and the coaching staff. There was also a trickle down effect to recruiting as Beilein was not particularly recruiting those positions hard at the time because he, like a lot of fans, believed our backcourt was in good shape until it suddenly wasn't. The injuries were the part of the equation that the strong anti-Beilein contingent were just entirely dismissing when they were seriously like 50% responsible for the team's play the last two years.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:19 PM ^
I had doubts about his ability to get us back to the elite level of back to back elite eights and a championship game to boot given his unwillingness to get grimey in recruiting.
I never called for his head nor felt that our expectations should be where much of this fanbase has it. We are not a basketball blue blood nor will we cut corners in recruiting.
A bunch of people said, yeah but Wisconsin.... To that I say,
- Michigan has 2 regular season B1G titles in the past 5 years, Wisky has 1.
- Michigan has 1 B1G tourney championship in the past 5 years, Wisky has 1 as well.
- Wisconsin has 2 Final 4 appearances in the past 5 years, including 1 runner-up, while Michigan has 1 Final 4 runner-up appearance and an Elite 8 appearance over the past 5 years.
- Since 2010 Belein has a win percentage of 67%, Wisconsin 74%.
So yes, Wisky has been a bit better and more consistent overall, but that was under a coach (Bo Ryan) that was around for 15 years, and his best years were back loaded from 2010-2015.
Beilein has been around for 10 years now. The calls for his head were absurd.
For one, why did you pick 5 years to go back?
By all objective evidence, Wisconsin has performed MUCH better than Michigan over the past 20 years (including 10 years of JB). I mean just take a look at JB's record against Wisco (and MSU, Indiana for that matter).
March 17th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^
Michigan's last 5 years (Beilein's best) to Wisconsin's last 5 years (Ryan's and now new coach's best). This isn't exactly cherry picking.
March 15th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
March 15th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
March 15th, 2017 at 10:42 PM ^
March 15th, 2017 at 11:22 PM ^
Not to mention he is a good man, doesn't cut corners, and is a teacher of student athletes.
OK article, although the author seems to be confusing this season with the last two when he speaks of injuries hampering the team.
March 15th, 2017 at 10:42 PM ^
True coach. True team. True Dat.
GO BLUE!!
March 15th, 2017 at 10:44 PM ^
March 16th, 2017 at 12:50 AM ^
March 16th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
The Forbes article -- based on an earlier Quinn article -- recounts that the coach and his wife were running away from the plane when he stopped and looked back, saw others trying to exit the plane, and then went back to the plane to hold down an evacuation slide so that others could get out safely. This reminded me of something I read a few years ago about Sully Sullenberger, the USAirways pilot who safely landed his plane on the Hudson River after birds had flown into the plane's engines.
People were calling Sullenberger a hero, but he would have nothing of that. He said something to the effect that a hero is not someone who runs out of a burning building to get to safety but someone who runs into a burning building to get others to safety.
That's our coach. He ran back to a plane with a smoldering engine and a full fuel tank. He put himself in danger to save others. Makes him a hero in my book.
March 16th, 2017 at 12:24 PM ^
My script blocker filed a lawsuit against me when I tried to open that link. Holy crap. I dunno what is on that page, but it isn't good.