Is John Beilein bitter about Biefeldt transfer?
Wtka just played Beilein's press conference from yesterday. There was a question about 5th year grad transfers and how they can be like free agents and does he think it is good or bad for the game.
"JOHN BEILEIN: I think we’re in a dangerous area there where you have the graduate transfer, and then where he can go afterwards and things like that, like we actually have one in our league. Those are difficult things, I think, that we have to look at in the future, and what is the real purpose that have? Is that young man going there just to play basketball? Is he going there to get his Masters degree? How many are getting their Masters degrees? There’s got to be some legitimacy to that rather than just another year of eligibility?
So the mid-majors that are getting to having their best players taken from them — you remember, a guy — there’s a reason a guy has a fifth year, that somewhere during that year he was injured, he had doctors, he had trainers, he had people looking after him at his home school. And now he’s going to take everything they did to another school, right? That’s not necessarily fair to anybody. Or fair to the home school that did all that work, the coaches that worked with them.
So we’ve got to be very careful of this area. I trust the NCAA is looking at it closely and hopefully will continue to make the right strides to make it a situation that really fits everyone much better."
This is the second time this year I have heard Beilein be very critical of the grad transfer rule. I don't ever remember him being critical of this rule before this year. If he wanted to keep Biefeldt he had plenty of opportunities. Beifeldt made it clear he didn't want to leave he wanted to finish his career at Michigan. How would it be fair to take away the opportunity to transfer from a 5th year player you don't want anymore?
its Beezers own fault that Mad Max didn't come back and play in A2 this year.
So yeah I'm sure he's a little upset with himself.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:25 AM ^
fans sitting around grumbling about it gets pretty damned old. Yes, it was a cock-up IN RETROSPECT. Beilein has admitted as much. But the simple truth is that Moritz wasn't ready and Doyle and Donnal haven't lived up to billing; they just haven't amounted to a strong 5 between them. I don't think it's unreasonable for Beilein to have THOUGHT that he had the position covered with an undersized Bielfeldt, but (instead) that he would have a logjam at the position if he stayed.
Reasonable to say that the lack at the five is this team's biggest deficit, even to lay that at Beilein's door. But it's NOT hard to see how they could have arrived at the decision to let Bielfeldt go. It didn't work out.
I like the idea of freeing up guys who have graduated to play elsewhere. But it's also reasonable to say, hey--if we're going to pretend that it's to do Masters degrees let's do Masters degrees and not make it strictly a pretense.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:30 AM ^
March 18th, 2016 at 10:35 AM ^
hey now, we all like different things
March 18th, 2016 at 10:38 AM ^
guessing that, in some cultures, the words "cock-up" when put together mean "mistake."
March 18th, 2016 at 10:50 AM ^
Seems like a British thing, they say it on Top Gear all the time... That, and *expletive* Nora
March 18th, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^
If you put an infinite number of monkees in front of an infinite number of keyboards, one of them will eventually call you a cock-up.
Mickey Dolenz. Or Davey Jones .. another likely candidate. They're the young generation and they've got something to say, after all.
March 18th, 2016 at 12:17 PM ^
very handy replacement for f*ck up in most of the English-speaking world, no longer restricted to the Brits:
Question is, why is it taking 3, 4, even 5 years for Michigan big men to develop? Even Morgan didn't show much until his 4th year. I think Beilein has got to look at his coaching staff very critically this offseason.
I don't know where this idea of Morgan as a late bloomer came from. Not only was he a four-year starter, he actually set his career highs in scoring (9.2 ppg) and rebounding (6.5 rpg) as a freshman.
March 18th, 2016 at 11:31 AM ^
That doesn't change the fact that forcing him to leave was a move that had absolutely zero upside for Michigan. And don't say "Well we were recruiting Jaylen Brown!" As Bielfeldt is on the record saying he wanted to return post-Brown decision. His move inspired criticism when it happened because Bielfeldt was our best big at the end of the year.
Beilein made a dumb move, that hurt the team this year. He deserves criticism when it happens.
March 18th, 2016 at 12:00 PM ^
March 18th, 2016 at 12:27 PM ^
that Beilein has ADMITTED that in hindsight it was bad. Said the rationale was pretty plausible at the time, that butthurt M fans flogging this dead horse was getting old. But. . . remain on your internet dead high horse if you will! It's your God-granted right!
the odd thing is JB hasn't had a young 5 perform well (outside of Mcgary), so you would think he'd be conservative.
But I think you're right that its beyond moot at this point.
I do think that Donnal + others could have developed at the 4 (this is a response to the post above yours) even with Bielfeldt on roster.
Beilfeldt is a 5th Year senior, our other centers are sophomores or freshman. You don't play those guys, they develop slower, and you lose out in the long-run.
It was a short-term sacrifice for a long-term benefit. The short-term sacrifice MIGHT have been minimal if Doyle had developed as hoped, but it turned out to be a big deal.
Acting like there is No Upside is ridiculous. There's an obvious trade-off.
Why is part of the fanbase stirring the pot against "our" coach? It reflects more on the poster than it does on JB.
I wanted him to love Michigan so much he wanted to pay his own way and stay. And I hate seeing him in red. Not logical, I know.
strikes me as a guy who is just honest. I don't think he is "bitter," he was probably just asked a question about it and gave a real actual answer instead.
EDIT - As the comments above, give me a source. That looks like pure speculation to me, very much like a lot of the Swenson discussion when everybody was up in arms.
"I did tell the coaches that I did want to come back to Michigan," Bielfeldt said. "But at the end of the day things didn't work out and we both decided to move on."
Bielfedlt added, "I told (coaches) that I wanted to stay (and) Michigan was my first choice but as time went on I had to explore other options."
I like Beilein I think he is a hell of a coach and has a ton of integrity. Not trying to say anything different here. I had just never heard him be critical of grad transfers before Max and have scene multiple times this year after Max left were he has been critical.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^
Here is a quote from max last summer.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:25 AM ^
I guess the verdict is in. Max absolutely wanted to stay, was pushed out unfairly and unjustly by a bitter coach despite being willing to pay double tuition out of pocket. Got it. When can we fire this guy?
March 18th, 2016 at 10:32 AM ^
I never said he was pushed out unfairly and unjustly. He got his 4 years that he was promised. I also never said I wanted Beilein fired. I like Beilein. I don't think he was a mean nasty evil person for not giving Beifeldt a 5th year. All I have said is that Beilein has come out strongly anti grad transfer right after Max left. Maybe that is coincidence or maybe Beilein is pissed that he could have brought back the 6 man of the year and chose to let him transfer instead.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:37 AM ^
is not you it is other people who want Beilein fired who add this to the list of his "failures."
March 18th, 2016 at 12:22 PM ^
and i think this is consistent with his entire recruiting philosophy. he does not recruit one-and-dones and places true value on a college education. similarly, he wants grad transfers primary goal to be getting a graduate degree. bielfeldt is probably a bad example of this because i think he is about the degree. all that said, i think JB made a mistake on bielfeldt if he did, in fact, have an available scholly.
March 18th, 2016 at 12:39 PM ^
don't think it would have made a meaningful difference in our season. Max played well this year but he was sporatic (and also mistake prone, he made numerous bad plays in the BIG tourney game that allowed us to hang around). Sure, having a stretch big like that would have helped, but we were actually a pretty good rebounding team and Max doesn't block shots or protect the rim. I mean, does he take us out of the First Four? Perhaps, but is that worth sacritcing a year of sorting out what we have down low going forward. We have found out quite a bit about Donnall, Wagner, and Wilson this year that we otherwise may not have known. Not all of it is good news, granted, but with Teske coming in I think Beilein needed to know what he was working with.
I will agree that his comment in the OP seems a bit petty, but I think he was asked and just gave his honest take.
Everyone thought McGary was a one-and-done during the recruiting process.
The list of coaches who have landed one-and-done's is not super long, either.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:03 AM ^
OMFG. Is John Beilein really that naive? Does he really honestly think that the vast majority of the kids at big-time programs aren't there "just to play basketball?"
It's honorable that he would take the view that kids are students first and athletes second, and in a perfect world that would be the case everywhere. It ain't.
Burke, Robinson, and Stauskas all left before they graduated, and if Mitch hadn't been forced out, he certainly would have as well. Tell me again why they were at Michigan?
With respect to Bielfeldt, Beilein's apparent anger is strange, considering how Max supposedly wanted to stay at Michigan. Who did Michigan bring in with Max's open scholarship?
March 18th, 2016 at 10:42 AM ^
Accoring to this past thread, it appears some think Beilein is naive:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/interesting-convo-i-had-prominant-chicago-hs-basketball-coach
I dunno, if you don't want a guy going to another team for his 5th year, don't cut him loose.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
but here he is wrong. Coaches can go anywhere, and if you can't sell your program to a guy after 4 years, than it's really not fair to keep them.
Michigan took advantage of a similar situation with Rudok last year. He was pushed out by a prgram that didn't really want him as the starter. He accepted this, moved on to another program, and now has an option to possibly go pro.
Was JB upset when Anthony Wright transferred to Toledo for his graduate year?
I don't think this is about Max, since we redshirted him freshman year. I think he's more so talking about teams like Michigan State (Forbes) and Maryland (Sulimon and Carter). These guys transferred in and totally changed those teams.
Forbes wasn't a 5th year transfer...
March 18th, 2016 at 12:25 PM ^
eron harris? the guy from WVa? that i thought JB was actually looking into as well.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:01 AM ^
Only Sulaimon was a graduate transfer.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:11 AM ^
I thought he had burned his bridges at Duke and wasn't really welcome there anymore. Could be wrong though.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:15 AM ^
March 18th, 2016 at 10:18 AM ^
March 18th, 2016 at 10:37 AM ^
He was given a 4 year scholarshipHe was given 4, 1-year aid-in-kind allotments. That's the dirty secret a lot of parents and students don't get or don't understand for some reason. The school holds all the power once the LOI is signed. The student signs a LOI binding him/her to that organization for the term of their eligibility. If they wish to get out, they have to be released. The school on the other hand only has to honor it yearly.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
At least in football, it is now a 4 year scholarship. Not sure in basketball, but I assume all "full scholarships" in the B1G are now 4 years.
March 18th, 2016 at 10:34 AM ^
He does elude to Max when he says we had one transfer in conference this year.
March 18th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^
One does not elude Max. Not with those calves.
What are you saying? Beilein can't be bitter about Max's transfer as it was Beilein who "didn't want" him back.
Sounds like Beilein is a little iffy on the grad transfer rule if it ends up not being beneficial on his end.