John Beilein [should be] Big Ten COY

Submitted by freejs on

So, big win for Nebraska, and I worry we're going to hear a lot of Tim Miles Big Ten COY talk. 

For me, it comes down to three things:

1) 15-3

2) Outright Conference Champs

3) 7-2 in conference road record

Nebraska was 3-6 on the road in conference. There is no comparison. 

I've been a passionate college basketball fan for a little over 30 years. I honestly don't know that I have seen a better coaching job in 30 plus years than what Coach Beilein and staff pulled off following McGary's injury. It would be a deep injustice to deny Coach Beilein the award to make some sort of trendy pick. 

Miles has, without question, done a great job, and in another year, sure, you could give him the award. But not this year. With McGary down, every last one of these guys was an underrated recruit. People should not lose sight of how improbable this has been. 15-3 should not obscure just what it took to get there. Don't penalize us for 15 wins. Sure, 13 would have been extraordinary. 14 ridiculous. 15 is PREPOSTEROUS. It's an all-time kind of coaching job. 

I guess the only upside I can see if they overlook the obvious and give Miles the award is that perhaps it puts another chip on the shoulder of this constantly disrespected team. 

We won the conference BY THREE WHOLE GAMES. 

Let that sink in. It's crazy. National POY leaves early. Another 1st round pick leaves early. And one of five all-americans in the country goes down with a season-ending injury. And they win the Big Ten conference by three whole games. Amazing. 

 

Soulfire21

March 9th, 2014 at 11:04 PM ^

I'm going to present the other side.  A beat writer for Nebraska stated Miles' case very well I thought (Dirk Chatelain)

No offense to Beilein, whom we all respect personally and professionally. But he still had a projected first-round draft choice in Glenn Robinson III back from a team that played in the national title game. Plus, a skilled scorer in Nik Stauskas. And he filled his open roster spots with McDonald's All-America types — Mr. Indiana basketball (Zak Irvin) and the Michigan Gatorade player of the year (Derrick Walton Jr.).

As for Nebraska, which graduated its two best players?

Miles brought in a transfer from Texas Tech who averaged 3.3 points a game, a transfer from Florida who averaged 0.5 points, and a junior college point guard who was so repeatedly insubordinate that he got kicked off the team in late January.

Or as Miles put it, guys who clip coupons to eat at McDonald's.

Undefined

March 9th, 2014 at 11:14 PM ^

Him saying "And he filled his open roster spots with McDonald's All-America types"  

Is a little misleading. Although he doesn't outright say it, the inference is that the roster is full of players who were McDonald's All-Americans, when in reality nobody on the team was. The rest of his argument has merit, but I don't like that.

Soulfire21

March 9th, 2014 at 11:28 PM ^

I agree that was quite exaggerated. I suppose it boils down to criteria: who did the best (Beilein) or who exceeded expectations the farthest (Miles)? Michigan was picked to finish 2nd behind MSU while the analysts at btn.com pegged Nebraska for 12th in the preseason.

Collection of random thoughts:

But if you consider after our loss to Arizona, we were sitting at 6-4 and thoroughly in danger of being in the wrong side of the bubble (okay, it was really early, but still). At that point it was looking more like a 5th place Big Ten finish for us but we persevered.

I also think Nebraska benefitted by a perfect storm of blunders by MSU, OSU, and Wisconsin throughout he season. That's not to take away from Nebraska or Miles, just an observation.

Then consider our single plays, all pretty much the bottom of the conference -- Northwestern, Illinois, PSU. Our path to the title was probably the most difficult of the top half of the big ten.

Ultimately I think a good case can be made for either, I'm obviously partial to Beilein.

freejs

March 9th, 2014 at 11:42 PM ^

Picked to finish 2nd with an all-american center on the roster. 

This team - going into this season - was night and day different with vs. without Mitch. 

I thought we would be lucky to win 10 games when we were 6-4 and Mitch went down. And I doubt that's just my opinion. If you had asked everyone to re-pick their predictions the night before the Big Ten slate began, do you really think we would have been picked second? No way. 

Raoul

March 10th, 2014 at 12:13 AM ^

Just to clarify, that "Conference Reset" was published on December 31, which was after it was already known that McGary was likely done for the season. The point is that the expectations for Michigan before the start of the nonconference season were much higher than the expectations immediately prior to the start of Big Ten play.

freejs

March 9th, 2014 at 11:38 PM ^

I really dislike a lot of this reasoning. There is no comparison between the loss of McGary and the loss of the guy Nebraska booted. 

GRIII was a projected first-round pick? Well, potentially, but far from guaranteed, and I would say that is at least part of why he was back. And where was everyone beating down the foor for GRIII when he was a recruit? That's right, this staff identified and developed talent. 

Nik? He was offered by Duke, Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, etc., right? Nope. He was a scrawny kid with a big attitude and some neat you tube clips.This staff identified Nik, developed him, and here we are. 

Nebraska graduated its two best players? Nebraska had two best players? Like I said, we graduated the NPOY and a first round pick who is showing out in the NBA this year. 

Walton Jr. was an excellent recruit - he's a freaking freshman point guard. We won 15 games in conference with a freshman point guard and a guy named Spike running the show. You guys check out Spike's HS games? I saw a couple of them when we signed him. I sure as heck didn't see what the staff so brilliantly identified. 

I think anyone who tries to deny the absurdity of Coach Beilein's accomplishment has to engage in major after the fact rationalization. 

Yeah, it all happened, but it's not like it was an accident. 

Naked Bootlegger

March 10th, 2014 at 10:29 AM ^

I hate it when shallow analyses are thrown around like "UM was blessed with such great talent...any bozo could've coached that team to a B1G title."  Sure, GRIII was a potential 1st rounder, but he was not a blue-chip 5 star recruit when he committed to UM.  Neither was Burke.   Neither was Hardaway.    So we lost 2 1st rounders who were ho-hum 3-star type recruits.   That is great player development and great coaching.  

Miles has done a great job with Nebraska this year, but - maize and blue goggles be damned - JB deserves it for wreaking havoc on a tough basketball conference and winning outright by 3 games.

slimj091

March 9th, 2014 at 11:59 PM ^

i remember people wondering if Michigan was going to be able to have the same success as last year while losing trey burke and tim hardaway jr. now at the end of this season they win the Big-Ten outright, and it's all like "meh... you guy's were supposed to win the Big-Ten".

one would think that doing the best job as a coach would mean winning more than the other coaches in the conference. I mean they don't give the player of the year awards to the players that didn't perform as well, but tried as hard as they could do they?

Lucky Socks

March 10th, 2014 at 4:31 AM ^

Normally I'd advocate for Miles. But JB has done the same thing twice. The season with Morris and Novak aneurysm. And our first BTT. He gets passed up for Thad winning a lot of games with great players. Both coaches did a phenomenal job. Give it to our guy, mostly because he's way overdue.

jmblue

March 10th, 2014 at 10:57 AM ^

How Izzo won it over Beilein two years ago, I have no idea.  Beilein won a share of the conference title with one capable post player (Horford redshirted with an injury), an unheralded true freshman point guard and a 6'4" power forward.  He's definitely due.

 

blue in dc

March 10th, 2014 at 8:04 AM ^

The adversity that Miles overcame was doing a crappy job of recruitng, a big part of his job. The adversity that Beilein overcame was losing his best player to injury.

Therefore the coach that screwed up one part of his job, but overcame it to finish fourth did a better job than the coach who did all parts of his job well, overcame a significant injury to a key player and then won the conference by a wide margin.

Seems like a solid argument to me.

Space Coyote

March 10th, 2014 at 8:27 AM ^

He's only been there two years now. When he arrived, Nebrasketball had God awful facilities and absolutely no basketball history. Beilein didn't immediately start recruiting great players, he had to work his way to it.

I think it's unfortunate that this year probably sees the two most deserving candidates for COY in recent memory. Nebraska was nothing, it was a laughing stock in basketball. Yet, Michigan didn't just win the B1G, they dominated it and won it by 3 games, which is incredible. I think Beilein will win it, and I think that's the right call, but if he didn't I can't say I'd see it as any sort of slight.

blue in dc

March 10th, 2014 at 8:41 AM ^

If he'd argued that:

Miles
- inherited a squad that wasn't very good
- was at a huge recruiting disadvantage because of both facilities and history
- and still greatly exceeded expectations

It would be a much better argument. I'm not arguing that he isn't deserving of consideration, I'm just suggesting that the argument put forth was pretty lame. Yours, probably written in at most, a couple of minutes, was much better.

freejs

March 10th, 2014 at 8:56 AM ^

I'd note that it's a good bit harder to recruit a basketball player to Omaha than it is to Ann Arbor, although Nebraska has definitely gone all in on trying to address that imbalance with hi-def screens in the crappers. Which, good for them. When Nebraska joined the conference, you didn't know what they would be bringing basketball-wise, and they have stepped up with serious commitment. 

But I would agree that some people are acting like player identification and player development aren't part of the equation. Caris LeVert is basically the perfect representation of this team, this program, and of the job the staff has done. Here's what Caris looked like when the staff locked in on him: 

No, that is not a HS sophomore, btw. 

It really bothers me when it seems like Coach B and staff are being penalized for identifying under the radar recruits and developing them into big time performers.  

Gobgoblue

March 10th, 2014 at 11:16 AM ^

None of the voters are going to take any of this into any consideration.  Here is how to win Big Ten COY in the mind of a voter:

"Wow this game is exciting!  They're doing much better than I thought-- oh hey they finished pretty good!  I like that Tim Miles guy he is cool.  Oh man they are fun to watch on ESPN!"

FreddieMercuryHayes

March 10th, 2014 at 8:31 AM ^

Maybe it's just me, but the whole grad transfer thing really mucks up the argument for Miles in my opinion.  JUCOs and grad transfers are a way to get immediate experience without having to actually build a player.  Just polish the edges, and let them loose with their experience.  Miles loaded his roster with that.  Good job on his part in convincing them to come to Neb, but Belein identified, recruited, devloped the talent on UM's roster, which is still one of the youngest in the entire freaking conference.  In other words, Belein did more of that whole 'coaching' thing coaches are supposed to do. 

Gobgoblue

March 9th, 2014 at 11:12 PM ^

I know we all want Beilein to win the Big Ten COY, but can we hold off on the three threads per day making the argument?  If it happens, post the thread and celebrate.  Until then, this is kind of getting old.  

EDIT:  I too came thinking that the news was released.  Thanks for the fix.

freejs

March 9th, 2014 at 11:28 PM ^

Sorry about the misunderstanding. I thought everyone would know that this was still firmly in the realm of speculation. That didn't even cross my mind that this could be misinterpeted, but I can see how it could be. Thanks to the mod for the edit. 

I suppose if I had some sort of inside information, maybe the votes are in, so to clear up any future potential misunderstandings, I never have any inside information, ever. 

Wolverine Devotee

March 9th, 2014 at 11:07 PM ^

Michigan won this ridiculously tough conference by 3 games.

When Michigan was picked to finish 10th of 11 in the 2010-11 season and wound up getting the 4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, Beilein was not named coach of the year.

Beilein will be coach of the year and Stauskas will be player of the year.

freejs

March 10th, 2014 at 7:51 AM ^

Really? If I'm reading correctly, Coach Beilein hasn't been recognized for a conference coach of the year honor since 1994.

He's a humble man, but he works his ass off and he deserves this recognition and credential. 

I think it's something that either would mean something to him or will somewhere down the road.

He's long overdue and the job the staff has done with this team is mind-boggling. 

Coach B works his ass off and has delivered excellence on a consistent basis. This season is a capstone achievement. There oughtta be an award for that. Wait a second, there is. 

Coach B deserves this, even if some other guy won a big home game on the last day of the season. 15 conference wins, winning the conference in what turned out to be a rout, first outright since 1986, doing it all with the pre-season losses and the one huge in-season loss - this is really a no-brainer. Which is exactly where some folks seem to get in trouble. 

michiganman01

March 9th, 2014 at 11:28 PM ^

in 2011 when we were supposed to be last or close to last in the B1G 10 and finished 4th with a bye, Belein didnt get COY. Mill and Nebraska basically did the same exact thing this season so if Beilein doesnt get one this year, he will be robbed twice.

blue in dc

March 10th, 2014 at 6:13 PM ^

The only way to argue that he should have won it twice is to argue that making most with least should be the criteria in 2011 and doing best should be criteria in 2014. If you are ok with that, it seems harder to argue that he was robbed if the criteria are applied in the opposite way.

atom evolootion

March 9th, 2014 at 11:28 PM ^

rebuilding Jordan Morgan's confidence, which seemed nonexistent by the end of last year, is worthy of coach of the year. we don't win the conference without that rock in the paint, and that rock's not the same rock without beilein. to go with that, he also solved teams' attempts at nullifying stauskas.

Jobu

March 9th, 2014 at 11:46 PM ^

It will be announced tomorrow that we have POY and COY. Don't let the corn heads fool you. Snyder already hinted that we would be happy tommorow. Congrats to Coach B and Nik

buddhafrog

March 9th, 2014 at 11:50 PM ^

I don't know if I agree, but I don't disagree.  I will say both coaches are more deserving this year than any coach in recent years.  Maybe they will luck out and share it.

I will say this:

Beilein is the team MVP.  There are four pillars to this team:

  1. Stauskas is MVP player, no doubt.  Allowed us to do so much offensively.
  2. LeVert's improvement is possible the most important factor in this team's success.
  3. Morgan (and Horford) being able to provide the lone senior leadership, determination, team-firsst focus and example, and hard work - plus the tangibles of stepping in for McGary was the glue that made this team successful.
  4. Beilein.

If we lost one for the entire year, the one that would scare me most would be Beilein.  He is remarkable in so many areas of the game.  Offensively, player development, and getting this team to play for each other.  Incredible. 

The good thing is he isn't going to the NBA.  He is returning.

Michigania

March 9th, 2014 at 11:59 PM ^

Someone please explain bot lh the notoriety and love for Tim Miles among many here...was he an alum or something? Because it has seemed over the top the past few months.