john beilein is your basketball dad

Time to get irrationally mad! Lovely of Jeff Goodman to offer himself as a midsummer piñata in the aftermath of Brad Stevens exiting coaching for a head coaching job with the Celtics:

Not saying they can get him, but one name I would look at if I was the Celtics:

Juwan Howard

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 2, 2021

Indiana fans with long memories and an antipathy towards Goodman rushed to point out that 1) Goodman floated Chris Collins(!!!) as a potential Beilein replacement and 2) was one of the chief NBA-guy-to-college skeptics:

Michigan fans have taken the suggestion with their usual aplomb.

Juwan Howard would be a good fit for Bost-
Michigan Twitter: pic.twitter.com/DW4mXMRA4Q

— Noah Neidlinger (@candor_for_sale) June 2, 2021

I think we're good at least through Jace and Jett's respective Michigan careers.

[after THE JUMP: weird guys]

Previously: (Rather Early) Season Preview Podcast (post-Franz-injury update in last week's Ace Pod), Big Ten Tiers Part One, Big Ten Tiers Part Two, Position Preview: Definitely Guards, Position Preview: Wings, Position Preview: Bigs, Five Questions/Five Answers

Tonight: Appalachian State

Juwan Howard isn't the only coach making his debut for a new team tonight at Crisler. Appalachian State fired Jim Fox after an 11-21 season capped a five-year tenure in which he never finished above .500 in the Sun Belt.

His replacement is Dustin Kerns, who's in his third year as a head coach; his first two were spent taking Presbyterian from a 5-25 record the year before his arrival to a 20-16 mark last season while breaking a six-year program streak of finishing in the 300s on KenPom (#179! Skipped the 200s entirely!). That's a very good time to find greener pastures.

Kerns runs a very three-point heavy offensive system; Presbyterian was 14th in 3PA/FGA last year and 25th in 3P%. The Mountaineers return a high-volume gunner in guard James Forrest, who used 29% of their possessions last year with 44/35/73 (2P%/3P%/FT%) shooting splits and a free-throw rate approaching 50. Unless a freshman breaks out, though, it doesn't look like anyone else is a major volume scoring threat from the outside, and Michigan has Zavier Simpson to cut down Forrest's production.

KenPom predicts an 18-point win. Bart Torvik ups the ante to 20.5. As long as there isn't a huge gap in three-point shooting, this should be a comfortable victory, even though Appalachian State is friskier than M's usual early-season cannon-fodder by virtue of projecting towards the top of the 200s instead of being truly bottom-barrel.

[Hit THE JUMP for this year's story and predictions of all varieties.]

The Sponsors

This show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan, MGoBlog would be like if the basketball program stuck it out with Amaker all these years.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown hosted us (and the Wagners last week), the University of Michigan Alumni Association might know a guy, Ann Arbor Elder Law might've come up with a better retirement plan than Cleveland, Michigan Law Grad will get you out of a ticket if you're racing to lock up a star assistant, Human Element is about to unleash the greatest posbang in the site's history, the Phil Klein Insurance Group is about to be contacted about a very bad policy, Peak Wealth Management is about to have a new client, and HomeSure Lending was probably like Alonzo Mourning dot gif when he heard who just stole Beilein.

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1. Now What?

starts at 1:00

We review the candidates who've come and gone. Ace warms to Yaklich after hearing the names after Juwan Howard. Speaking of Juwan Howard: about the best resume for an assistant you can possibly have. Porter Moser is not on this list.

2. Best of Beilein: Honorable Mentions

starts at 29:31

We all made lists of our top Beilein-era moments, and those lists did not fit into a Top 10, nor a Top 15, nor a Top 20, so here's all of the things that didn't make the list—it's a long non-list.

3. Best of Beilein: 11th-20th

starts at 1:07:07

Now we give our lists. Except we need to talk about our top moments for so long that we're going to need another segment before we even get to the top ten. Sorry not sorry.

4. Best of Beilein: 1st-10th

Starts at 1:39:30

Some you know. Some you're just going to get mad about. A few are obvious, but not in the obvious spot. This is really hard. There's probably a Smiths song in the Music.

MUSIC

• "Cemetery Gates"—Leah Blevins
• "Holding On"—The War on Drugs
• "End of the Road"—Boyz II Men
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

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

It's very on brand that we fit Denard onto this list