M Tennis coach Bruce Berque fired after 10 years

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Today, Michigan fired Men's tennis coach Bruce Berque after 10 seasons.

9 straight years in the NCAA Tournament must not be good enough for DB.

A very strange amount of coaching changes on this campus in the "non-revenue sports" the last two years. From what I've heard from various people and a few posters on here, Water Polo coach Matt Anderson was forced out rather than him leaving last month on his own terms despite a slew of championships here in the past.

News just broke on @umichtennis and MGoBlue.

Mgotri

May 13th, 2014 at 9:29 AM ^

I also did this. Saved a bunch of money, but it was really depressing to go to EMU while all my friends were at Michigan.

 

As for prom, maybe one of the mgoladies on the board can escort this young gentleman who does so much for our board.

blueblueblue

May 13th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^

Congrats on going to college. College can be a great equalizer if you take advantage. All of a sudden, all the benefits others had while living at home don't matter so much. Keep the partying to a reasonable level, work your ass off, and doors will start creaking open for you. 

Wolverine Devotee

May 12th, 2014 at 11:48 PM ^

Unless DB has Stanford's coach coming here, Anderson was the very best option for Michigan. No school from outside the state of California has ever won the NCAA THIRD PLACE game, much less a national title. Him getting Michigan to that 3rd place game was a huge accomplishment. Not to mention all the CWPA Championships won.

ThadMattasagoblin

May 12th, 2014 at 11:43 PM ^

Doesn't seem like a good decision unless they have a better coach lined up. The one non revenue sport where I thought they'd make a change was either mens or womens golf both of which finished last in the big ten.

seattleblue

May 12th, 2014 at 11:43 PM ^

I don't know about water polo, but in re: to men's tennis making the tournament isn't good enough.  The ncaa field is 64 and the women's program is consistently top ten and wins the big ten regularly.  There's no reason that the men should be barely making the tournament and not in the running for a big ten championship (dominated by Illinois and then Ohio State in recent years).  Michigan has tradition and a top tier tennis facility.  The only thing Michigan tennis has stacked against it is cold weather, but that's an issue for all big ten schools.

I'm actually happy to see Brandon make these kind of moves.  Head coaches pay is ridiculous even in non-revenue sports and when you have the facilities and tradition that Michigan has finishing middle of the big ten year should never cut it.  The expectation for revenue and non-revenue sports should be the same and a lot of the coaches that he's gotten rid of simply didn't show that much improvement year over year.

Raoul

May 14th, 2014 at 3:55 PM ^

Brandon's standard for all sports is for Michigan coaches to be winning Big Ten titles on a consistent basis. Berque won 0 conference titles in 10 years. It's pretty clear why he was fired.

Here's a bit more from the Zoo Tennis blog:

Much like the University of Florida, however, which accepted Andy Jackson's resignation in 2012, the expectations at Michigan are high for all the athletic programs, and Berque was unable to break the stranglehold that Ohio State has had on the Big Ten conference, despite going 66-25 in the conference, and 159-104 overall.

The Buckeyes have consistently been the conference's top program for years now, and the current athletic director at Michigan, David Brandon, who started in 2010 and did not hire Berque, chose to look elsewhere for a coach to change that. An excellent recruiting class for this fall will be part of Berque's legacy, yet as always in situations like this, it is difficult for those student-athletes, who are committed to Michigan, but do not know now who their coach will be.

Prince Lover

May 12th, 2014 at 11:54 PM ^

Brandon only micromanages Brady Hoke! There's no way he has time to analyze other coaches too!! That is too bad for Coach Berque, I'm sorry for making a joke about the DB hate around here at the expense of a man losing a job. Good luck in your future endeavors. Chinese word for crisis and opportunity and all that.

sadeto

May 13th, 2014 at 12:34 AM ^

The Chinese word for tennis is "net ball".

The Chinese word for coach is "teach drill".

The Chinese word for fire is "separate employ".

It's a very literal language, which achieves subtlety in word usage, not word construction. The old trope about the word for crisis containing both danger and opportunity is based on a mistranslation of the second character. 

But you probably weren't looking for a Chinese lesson. 

 

(There are of course naughtier examples, such as the result of combining the character for "enter" with the character for "meat"). 

LordGrantham

May 13th, 2014 at 2:21 AM ^

This seems like a terrible decision.  Then again, so did general admission seating, and we all know how that turned out.

Mgodiscgolfer

May 13th, 2014 at 6:00 AM ^

the man was fired. It looks as though his past win loss record may have very little to do with the reason he was fired. Coaches in any sport have to win a certain amount of games as part of their accomplishments but  that is certainly not the only criteria that has to be met in order to maintain your job. I imagine we will find out the real reason he was fired but to assume that it was his win loss record alone will only make an ASS out of U and ME

Darker Blue

May 13th, 2014 at 8:09 AM ^

Just wait until Brandon fires Beilein for winning too many games. 

 

It would be absofuckinglutely hilarious if Dave Brandon was a poster on this message board. What if he does shit just to troll the MGoBoard? 

Wolvie3758

May 13th, 2014 at 1:07 PM ^

Dave Brandon is doing a EXCEPTIONAL job making good desicions all around..all these  snarky comments are just people needing something to complain about