john beilein does in fact know what he's doing

Things discussed:

• Craig Ross doesn’t jump in and ask John Beilein if Terry Mills was better than Jon Teske
• The Super Bowl
• Brad Davison is a garbage player, tried to injure Jordan Murphy this week. Don’t understand why they ref him so badly—if you’ve got a cheater treat him like it
• Brian’s basketball conspiracy, re Carstenson and Garrison
• The 2nd call on Teske in Iowa: the worst call of the year
• Auto-benching, low foul rates, let Poole play
• John Beilein is the kindest troll
• Rutgers postgame: some Rutgers press guy says “Wow”
• Michigan State: Reconsidering loss of Langford
• X is Jason Kidd statistically; he’s keying the offense.
• Crossover dribble into a sky hook; has that ever happened before?
• Pep Hamilton promoted to a beach in Tahiti

You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Podbean.

Segment two is here. Segment three is here.

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
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• Direct download link (right-click/save as)
• What's with the theme music?

He was chastising me in a way that was so urbane I didn’t realize it for a day.

MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULCH

Mulch Madness at the Beilein Residence today 15 yards of Mulch delivered In just over 2 hrs the huge pile was gone and put in the beds Thx to Austin , Isaiah , Jon , Jordan , Drew, Zach and Nolan Loved working side by side with these guys again #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/XalInNCGo6

— John Beilein (@JohnBeilein) May 17, 2018

I HAVE QUESTIONS. When did Beilein think up "Mulch Madness" and how excited was he to send that tweet? Why does John Beilein need 15 cubic yards of mulch? I need 15 cubic yards of mulch because my entire yard is mulched. Does John Beilein also have a no-grass yard? Did he clear this with compliance? (A: Yes, obviously.) Did that mean the players couldn't have snacks?

Where did he get his mulch? How much did it cost? Is it cheaper than the mulch I buy? What's with the pitchforks, doesn't the mulch fall through? Is it stupid to use a snow-shovel instead of these pitchfork things? That's what I do. Will I force Ace to ask all these questions at a press conference? (A: Yes, obviously.)

No. Uh, Sir. It's 2010 all over again:

He said Saturday he feels the game hasn’t been emphasized enough by Michigan.

“To be quite honest I really feel like over the years, in recent years, there hasn’t been the emphasis that I’m used to being put on that game,” Woodson said.

“Every game has been out on the same level of that game and that’s not the way we were brought up, that’s not the way we were raised around here. And we had no shame in saying it.”

Michigan lost by a literal inch in 2016 and last year had a brilliant gameplan undone by a third string quarterback playing like an eighth string one. Also they went and grabbed a defensive coordinator who runs a 4-2-5 as a base and has a 3-3-5 changeup in an attempt to tackle OSU's spread offense. There have been cracks in the Harbaugh façade—cough cough Drevno—but "doesn't prepare enough for Ohio State" is not one of them.

Purdue could be real interesting real soon. Former five star and now former Clemson Tiger Hunter Johnson is transferring after one year. He's from Indianapolis—a couple years back he played Brandon Peters in a game Ace broke down—and has a couple of Big Ten locations high on his list:

Sources told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg that Northwestern and Purdue are two possible destinations for Johnson. His brother Cole played in few games as a reserve for Northwestern a few years ago.

This is against the natural way of things where failed Purdue quarterbacks inexplicably go start for major programs in the south, but I suspect Boiler fans will accept this violation of tradition if in fact they do land Johnson. If the Boilers can hold onto Jeff Brohm, who was a candidate during Tennessee's crazy search, they could be in for some Tiller-era seasons. Large ifs, but with Nebraska finally hiring someone who is a good idea the West could be substantially less sad in the near future.

Or Johnson could be so definitively behind Trevor Lawrence he transfers after one spring session because he's not actually that good. Peters's team blew his out, after all.

Camp Sanderson now has data behind it. Moe Wagner came back to Michigan in part because he wasn't an NBA-ready athlete. The bits of this that can be fixed seem to have been fixed, emphatically:

Michigan big man Moe Wagner ranked high among the centers tested at the 2018 #NBACombine pic.twitter.com/SnpmNnsnxv

— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) May 18, 2018

Wagner still doesn't have pterodactyl arms, but hopefully his increased physical prowess and the big leap in his rebounding that made possible allow him to slip into the tail end of the first round.

Hoops croot quotes. The Detroit News runs down Michigan's incoming basketball class, with quotes from both Rivals and 24/7 scouts. Some of them are silly, like this assertion from Brian Snow…

What (Brazdeikis) does is he just scores the ball. He's more of a mid-range shooter right now, which I don't love because it's the most inefficient shot in basketball, but he does it at a high level.

…that is flatly incorrect per UMHoops:

But other assertions are more interesting and less directly contradicted by data. Both guys think Colin Castleton has a chance to be elite:

Bossi’s take: “Castleton is a guy that we gave a pretty big bump to after his senior year because he has always been able to move really well for a kid his size … but what really stood out to me is how quickly his skills emerged. He's become reliable as a 10- to 12-foot jump shooter. He's got a little jump hook, and the production on offense that wasn't really there last spring and summer has started to come on during the high school year. I think he's got confidence now.”

Snow’s take: “Colin is a kid who can really run the court, has good hands and good shooting touch. He's physically not strong yet but he does compete. I think he has a chance to really improve as the years go along. He's going to have to get stronger and spend a lot of time in the weight room, but he's a good athlete, he can block shots, he can score inside, from the mid-range and even step out to 3. He might not be ready for big minutes right away, but I think this is a kid who down the line has a chance to be a special player.”

Brandon Johns is also proposed as a potential 4/5 combo, which would be another way for Michigan to get some stretch 5 minutes even after Wagner's departure.

But at least he made logical hires! So this guy still had a job?

Kansas football went 12-72 during Zenger’s stint as AD. They’ve lost 60 of their last 63 Big 12 games. https://t.co/eekObJ3OnF

— Max Olson (@max_olson) May 21, 2018

The guy who hired Charlie Weis after Notre Dame survived longer than Weis.

Etc.: NHL GMs are just in charge of things. ChadTough Cancer Center is now a thing. Ethan Sears on Trey Burke's NBA revival. DJ Carton moves to five-star status at 24/7. Jalen Wilson is just outside at #29. Stephen Spanellis is a thinker. Jim Harbaugh doesn't understand roasts and that's probably for the best.

Beilein at yesterday's Final Four sendoff. [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

In what is hopefully the first of many such honors, CBSSports has bestowed John Beilein with their national coach of the year award:

Michigan's last loss was Feb. 6, two days after the Super Bowl. The Wolverines have won 13 in a row, and Beilein is going to his first Final Four since his team lost to Louisville in the 2013 title game. And they're doing it on defense -- despite Beilein's longstanding reputation as an offensive guru, this team is building its reputation on one of the nation's best defenses. That's the reason why the 65-year-old Beilein, one of the most respected coaches in the game, is CBSSports.com's Coach of the Year.

There's one more thing that makes it special that Beilein is our national coach of the year. This season of college basketball has been shadowed by the FBI scandal that broke in September. Yet here is Beilein at the end of the season, still winning despite his reputation -- among peers -- as the cleanest high-major coach in the country. To be sure, Beilein won this award because his team vastly exceeded its expectations in making a Final Four run. But it's pretty sweet, during a dark college basketball season like this one, to be able to award a coach who is respected for things other than winning. -- Reid Forgrave

Same, Reid Forgrave. Same.

Beilein, quite notably, not only accomplished this without anyone on the first- or second-team All-American list, he did it while facing two such players: OSU's Keita Bates-Diop and (grins) MSU's Miles Bridges.