New 2012 ESPN 100 Basketball Rankings - GRIII #60 & Stauskus #100

Submitted by Matt EM on

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/rankings

 

Coach B has done a tremendous job turning this program around. As recently as last year, there were many people questioning his coaching style, and perhaps to a more significant extent, his ability to recruit B10 level talent. Taking into consideration that he's signed at least 2 ESPN 100 players since 2009, and the talent ranking seems to progressively improve, I'd say the man can recruit.

Take a look:

2009: Darius Morris(#100)

2010: Evan Smotrcycz(#84)

            Tim Hardaway Jr.(#93)

2011: Carlton Brundidge(#74)

            Trey Burke(#82)

2012: GRIII(#60)

            Nick Stauskus(#100)

 

I like the trend here folks, not only with recruiting, but the ability to take players that weren't highly touted out of high school(Morgan, Novak) and make them decent B10 players.

 

 

State and SouthU

May 24th, 2011 at 1:51 PM ^

I dont get why people are "questioning his coaching style". The guy has brought Michigan hoops back to a nationally respectable level and taken this team to the NCAA tourney 2x in his short tenure as coach. Other coaches KNOW that he might break out a 1-3-1 trap defense and so they prep for it....but still succumb to turnovers and panic mode when it hits them. That's due to his coaching and player execution, not because of the individual players Michigan is trotting out. One more thing, let's not forget that a few months ago during the tourney, he went toe to toe with arguably the greatest coach in college basketball history, the country's defending national champions (consisting of a Naismith POY finalist, the likely 2011 #1 draft pick, and a much deeper, bigger, more battle tested team) only to come up a single basket short. To say this isn't due to tremendous coaching is crazy. Belein shouldn't have to defend his coaching chops to anybody. For my money, there is only a handful of coaches I'd rather have. He's one of the more under rated coaches working today.  

CWoodson

May 24th, 2011 at 2:25 PM ^

The issue is that he plays an outside-in game that is heavily reliant on 3s, doesn't emphasize a traditional big man, and often rebounds poorly.  People do not like this because a) they aren't used to it and b) more legitimately, if shots aren't falling the team can be dead in the water.

Anybody ripping JB's skills is nuts and always has been, particularly since his fellow coaches think he's one of the best Xs and Os coaches alive.  Now that he's having so much recruiting success (admittedly not on a Pitino-Calipari level) and his teams continue to play over their heads, people are getting on board.

UMfan21

May 24th, 2011 at 2:45 PM ^

Reliance on 3s seems to be a bit of a false label in my opinion.  Look what he did last year by adding the pick and roll to the offense.  And he nearly eliminated the 1-3-1 last year as well.  He has shown the ability to modify his offense and defense to maximize talent.  I think that where he differs is that most teams tend to set screens and drive off of them.  Belein tends to use motion without the ball to set jump shots or easy looks inside.  They certainly get a lot of open looks at the 3s, so it's not like they are taking bad shots by any means...and those long shots open up the easy passes, so you really need a good balance.

Rebounding seems to be a point people pick on as well.  I personally think rebounding is a trade off, the more guys you send to the glass, the fewer you have back on defense, and the more transition points you give up.  I think that's a tradeoff Beilein does not want to make. 

I think the best way to categorize Beilein ball is posession based.  He wants to make you turn the ball over more than his team.  He wants to make get back on defense and make the other team work for points.  He wants to be smart with the ball on offense, whether it's an open 3 or a pick and roll.  In many ways it's a MANBALL on hardwood.

CWoodson

May 24th, 2011 at 8:52 PM ^

To be clear, I'm a huge fan of JB and his style, and have defended him against the attacks of basketball illiterates like M-Wolverine on this site endlessly.

With that said, JB's teams shoot more 3s than the typical inside-out team.  More threes than almost any team in the nation.  KenPom ranks us 10th in the country in % of our total points coming from 3s, and we were 19th nationally in 3s attempted.

So reliance on 3s specifically describes JB's current offense, and it has since he came to town.  This is true despite the fact D-Mo and Morgan sometimes ran an effective pick and roll - it's a wrinkle in this offense, not its main component.  It's not a knock on JB, it's just a fact, and in most games we'll lose if our 3s aren't falling.  We can also beat anybody on any given day thanks to our 3-point shooting, or at least come close (see OSU, Duke, Kansas, MSU, etc.).

readyourguard

May 24th, 2011 at 3:39 PM ^

Ok boys, time to pull the reigns in a little bit on the AAU circuit.  We don't need any slimey coaches from around the country trying to wooo you with overzealous recruiting tactics. **cough*cough*Rick Petino*cough**cough**

/s

 

goblue27

May 24th, 2011 at 10:43 PM ^

i think in addition to coach b much credit needs to be given to coach bacari alexander...dude is great when it comes to recruiting. i used to coach 2013 target mark donnel in junior high and have kept in touch with him about the process. he doesn't say much but when he talks about michigan he talks a lot about coach alexander...

duffman is thr…

May 25th, 2011 at 2:57 AM ^

Great news! The program is really turning around, and rather quick honestly. The addition of a practice facility and the Crisler revamp should only help in the future. Let's just hope Burke is ready to play some significant minutes. Although I do expect a little of Stu at the point, at least early on.

vegasjeff

May 25th, 2011 at 5:45 AM ^

Three in the top 50 and four top 100. They already have a couple of good plaayers. Hoosiers are going to return to the top tier of the Big 10.

It looks like there will be a bunch of good Big Ten teams next year, including Michigan.

Maybe a third straight Big Ten triumph over the ACC?