Howard's link to the golden age of M basketball

In no way is complimenting Coach Howard's strength an insult to Coach Beilein. But this post reads like someone saying "I mean no offense but"

We do not get to enjoy the year we are without the foundation Beilein built.  Regardless of his "style", Beilein did more than make MBB respectable...he saved MBB.  Full stop.

Howard brings a ton of recruiting and next level cache that attracts the obvious future NBA player, but Beilein's ability to mine for NBA talent nobody else truly saw should never be discounted as 'can't recruit top talent'.  He simply found it in different places.

Have some subs.

So first, Beilein did not return Michigan to respectability.  He returned Michigan to 'much better than respectable' tier.  As much as he's maligned as a flawed coach, Tommy Amaker put Michigan back in respectable company.  His name, his crystal clean reputation, his association with college bball's Holy Grail, and his decently competitive teams all brought Michigan back from the depths of hell that Booster Bill, Steve Fisher, and Brian Ellerbe excavated.

Second, Beilein's recruiting was informed by the style of play he espoused.  He was never going to get 5-stars in bunches because of the style of basketball.  Michigan academics only played a tangential part in his recruiting - and it only plays a tangential part in Howard's 'crootin, also.

Don't diminish the success of John Beilein simply because you think Howard's team plays a more fun style of basketball.

We're very lucky to have Howard.

We were very lucky to have Beilein.

Two thoughts. We have the (tied for) 4th most players on active NBA rosters. Our recruiting and development has been excellent. Especially in this era of 1 and done factories like Kentucky and Duke. So the premise you begin with is flawed. 
 

Two, Patagonia this time of year is incredible. It feels like another lifetime, but I was actually there a year ago last week doing the Torres del Paine circuit. 

One thing that is underrated about Beilein’s tenure was his not sacrificing integrity for success. He showed the CBB world that character and talent coexist at Michigan. I’m not saying that Juwan wouldn’t have created the same atmosphere without Beilein, just that it’s great that the identity of the program was in place when Juwan was hired. 

I feel like saying bad things just for the opportunity to join you in Patagonia.

Your take is not bad at all.   We can celebrate JB for everything he did to elevate the hoops program to a higher and sustained level.  But we can also celebrate JH for his equally creative hoops coaching philosophy and his ability to attract high-level talent.    It's a great situation.

I upvoted this.

I don't think fans 'fooled themselves' into think Beilein's strategy was the only strategy: Michigan fans accepted it as John's strategy.

As time went on, and success followed, a lot of people didn't really care that he didn't/couldn't dip his foot into that 5* pool. Michigan's first round picks rivaled the one and done factories, so how and who Beilein recruited became a moot point.

Once Howard was hired, I think most fans though recruiting would take an uptick (and coaching might take a down tick). The former has proven true and the latter has proven false. Not ALL 5* recruits swim in that 'pool' (though it should be noted, Houstan and Diabate are did not grow up in America and were not exposed to AAU until later in their life - their parents are even further removed). There are good kids and good families that aren't interested in the dark side of recruiting.

Beilein left a great foundation. Michigan was a top tier program when he left. Juwan, to his credit, took that rocket and has it pointed upwards.

JB is no slug

I'm bought into the future of Michigan basketball under Juwan, but let's hold off calling it "golden age" until at least one National Championship. Juwan has a long way to go before matching the team success that Beilein had.

I'm there with you in the excitement. The trajectory looks like the program will be a powerhouse! I'm hoping the eventual commitment of Jett would indicate that Juwan will be here for 7 to 8 years. If Juwan does establish a golden age with championships, I expect him to move onto the NBA. Beilein couldn't resist the calling and Juwan is an exponentially better fit than Beilein was.

I think the whole point about current players not knowing and caring about the Fab Five is still true to an extent. How is John supposed to pitch that? "Hey there was this team about ten years (!) before any of you were born...." Not to mention it would be much more relevant to the kids to pitch them on the last 8 or so years of success that John had helped build. 

On the other hand, Juwan being here in a way opens the door to the Fab Five even being relevant by connecting the past with the present. Now that he's here of course recruits are going to see that Juwan was everything that they probably aspire to be in terms of basketball success. You respect his career as a player, which includes time on an awesome Michigan team, long time NBA player, and then as a coach in the NBA where these kids are trying to go. 

*why not both gif*

The Frieder/Fisher era showed a deepening reliance on UBERTALENT as the way to victory.

Obviously, the way those cats did it was not sustainable (though entertaining as hell), and especially Fisher was not the leader *yet* he needed to be at M that he would later be at SDSU.

Ellerbee was a train wreck both in Xs and Os and recruiting.

Amaker was a solid coach, a decent recruiter, and most importantly, a great person. He did bring respect back to the program lost to its own greed and hubris.

Beilein expanded that into a new culture that was also a winning culture. He kept the good parts of the Amaker regime and added elite coaching and preparation. His recruiting was exemplary in that JB could see what other scouts/coaches couldn't, by making award-winning chicken salad. 

If you want to see Beilien's recruiting and development chops, go look at the lower-rated recruits who are likely not going to be NBA players and their career numbers under JB. From 4-year guys like Novak, Douglass, MAAR, Teske, and Simpson, to guys who transferred elsewhere and thrived, like Spike, Beifeldt, Dawkins, even Donnal. Unearthing and building NBA guys like Duncan and Caris, Hardaway, or offering progress so quickly, a 3/4* recruit goes pro early (Burke, Stauskas, DJ, Poole, etc.). In fact, some of Beilien's "best" (by stars or ranking) recruits were busts or slightly disappointing all things told (Chatman, Irvin). More often than not, improvement is off the charts great.

What Howard has done is seemingly continuing the coaching excellence, the winning and integrity  of the culture he inherited, the strong player development, and now is adding in elite recruiting. 

Howard can do much of what Beilein did and even more. He might never need to find diamonds in the rough like JB did, but Juwan links the good of each of these modern eras into something that in all of its best forms feels like Michigan Basketball.

The fun and swagger and bounce of the Fab Five

The dead-eye shooting and size of the 89 Title Team

The scrap and toughness of Yak-era defenses

The class of Amaker and the development and intelligence of JB

The journey from 80s Frieder to 20s Howard is a long and circuitous one but it's been a ride.

There are going to be games where the opposition “throws a wrench into Juwan’s offense.  There will be teams who cut through our defense like a knife.  That’s basketball.  I don’t think cherry picking a couple duds really helps your case.
 

As far as quicker pace and crashing the glass etc, those are choices that have can have downsides.  It’s obviously working for Juwan but there may be games we lose because our pace lead to more turnovers.
 

One of the things that held Beilein back in recruiting was one of the things I liked so much about him, how throughly he vetted the player’s character.  My friend’s brother was the student manager and said every player was an incredible nice person.  The teams had almost zero disciplinary issues.  That’s helped by the no offers before a visit in your junior (or was it sophomore?) year policy (Bacari told Sam that they would decline to extend an offer for things like being rude to a secretary).  Obviously not ev ery player is going to wait that long, especially if they are blue chips.

Hopefully Juwan is able to keep this going, but he is much quicker with an offer (circumstances has forced his hand, we’ll see how he manages recruiting when he can start from square one with guys and have in person visits).  But so far we’ve seen what high character the first recruiting class and the two grad transfers seem to possess, so I’m not all that concerned.  

Beilein was my favorite coach at Michigan football/basketball of all time. Howard is on a course to usurp Beilein, which is absolutely astounding. It's somewhat analogous to what happened at OSU when Tressel flamed out and Meyer fell into their lap. Subtract the sleaze factor and the fact that Meyer was already a double national champion, and you have a situation where a longtime great coach unexpectedly left and was replaced by one who has the potential to be even better – but in all the right cultural ways. Michigan football has been cursed over the last decade or so, but basketball could turn out to be charmed.

Juwan has taken recruiting to a level not available directly to John Beilein because he had no NBA experience and did not have NBA assistant coaches.  Juwan has done a great job using the culture that John Beilein brought and has spun it to high-level recruits successfully in a way that Coach B could not.  Coach B now has an example of how to do it.

We can celebrate both of them.

JB won his way

JH is winning his way

It is amazing that UM had these two great coaches in a row