Beilein vs Dantonio
Before I begin, congratulations to any of you MSU fans who happen to read this. Good win today.
Here goes.
I find many parallels to our basketball coach and their football coach. Both have done a fantastic job of turning around struggling programs. Both have intensified the rivalry between Michigan and Michigan State. However, I would argue Beilein is doing a better job. Two bullet's as to why:
-Dantonio went head to head with RR, the worst coach in the history of Michigan football for three years. Beilein is going against possibly the best basketball coach in the history of MSU basketball. Beilein has a more difficult hill to climb.
-John Beilein is recruting better than Dantonio. Look at this incoming basketball class. In Dantonios five years he hasn't reached a class ranking as high as Beilein's incoming class.
Dantonio does have a big ten championship, albeit shared. He's also not going up against Bo Schembechler (similar to Beilein going against Izzo).
Thoughts? I love where this program is headed.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:55 PM ^
I don't know if that really made a difference. Under the sanctions, we had 12 scholarships to give out per year instead of 13. That's not a huge deal - no one has a 13-man rotation anyway.
The postseason ban was a bad break for that team (which turned out to be Amaker's best at UM), but was only for one season.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:43 PM ^
Draymond sure had a sprained knee today.... What crap. I'm at a point where I no longer give any team props for winning on their home court with how bad the home cooking refs are at every home game. The worst being the refs at Indiana. The only thing that stands out to me any more are road wins. Everything else is water is wet.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:55 PM ^
I thought the officiating was decent today and, if anything, favored us a bit.
February 5th, 2012 at 5:03 PM ^
There were a few questionable calls each way (Morgan's and-one was some attenuated continuation, couple of missed goaltends on State, etc.), but It don't think it was too bad. I found myself screaming at the refs much less than usual.
The only thing that gets me is that Izzo can throw a full-blown toddler temper tantrum and not get T'd up.
February 5th, 2012 at 5:24 PM ^
Yeah, while Beilein didn't seem to say anything out of line and got a tech. That was definitely strange.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:45 PM ^
Please don't ever put our coach with that scumbag Dantonio in the same phrase. It just insults Beilein by association.
The only thing I will ever give Dantonio is that he is a good defensive mind. Beyond that, he acts like an immature five year who gets his toy taken away everytime something doesn't go his way. I do not blame him at all for hating us, as that's the way it should be, but he gives no respect to us, and that mindset trickles down to his players. So I don't respect him.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^
Alright, alright. I will be THAT GUY and semi-defend the post. By appearances, Dantonio is the guy that has apparently evened out the football rivalry while Beilein appears to be the guy who has evened out the basketball rivalry. I mean, we have discussed in the past some of the odd parallels and topsy-turviness of things - Sparty proclaiming hoops superiority based on the past and football superiority only by ignoring the past, and vice versa and etc. etc.
That said, Dantonio is a whiny prick who bullies those beneath him on the payscale, and Beilein is one of the classiest coaches in his entire sport - nay, in all of college athletics. Never put them in the same sentence ever again.
February 5th, 2012 at 5:00 PM ^
I agree with the premise, but the difference between MSU and UM in career basketball records is quite a bit different than between the teams in football. I don't have the exact stat before me, but Izzo's run is the major difference in records between the two squads (and the proper vacating of wins by the NCAA). Before Izzo, UM was the slightly better team historically, while in football UM has been better than MSU for virtually their whole existence. Yes, the past 4 years has been a run for MSU, but that doesn't look sustainable. With Izzo, his success coincided with UM going through a rough patch that helped to inflate the career differences between the schools.
February 5th, 2012 at 5:11 PM ^
You're selling us a little short. Our alltime record against MSU in basketball is 94-75. Izzo is 19-11 against us, so before he arrived, we had a pretty commanding lead (83-56) in the series. We also won our first five against him, so our advantage got up to 88-56 before the program fell apart.
February 5th, 2012 at 5:37 PM ^
Thanks for the info. I couldn't find the exact numbers, but that was the sense I had that Izzo's recent run has skewed the numbers a bit more than they normally were.
My point remains that MSU's "dominance" in basketball has a far shorter shelf life than UM's dominance over MSU in football, and so MSU's recent run in football doesn't trumpet a change in the rivalry just as much as UM suddenly going 19-11 against MSU in basketball.
February 5th, 2012 at 4:53 PM ^
...and still be really, really different. Apples and testicles are both round, but I don't go around saying "let's try to find some differences between my balls and those Granny Smiths."
February 5th, 2012 at 5:22 PM ^
Oh God, I need to take a bath.
February 5th, 2012 at 8:49 PM ^
February 5th, 2012 at 10:52 PM ^
From turning the program around standpoint yes.
Dantonio is a douche who is completely obsessed with Michigan and has a inferiority complex that dominates his every action...
Beilein is the nicest man on the planet and gracious in victory and defeat.
So, those are some differences.
February 6th, 2012 at 9:06 AM ^
If you ask anyone--ANYONE--who knows college hoops about Belein as a coach and a person, you will hear the kind of responses that make you that much prouder to be affiliated with Michigan.
I am not sure MSU fans enjoy that same privelege re: football and Dantonio.
February 6th, 2012 at 1:25 PM ^
This is kind of apples and oranges, or maybe basketballs and footballs...