Beilein was magnificent!

Submitted by stephenrjking on

The contrast could not be more startling.

Last night, Indiana looked like it had never even heard of a 2-3 zone before, and Syracuse simply demolished them. Just like that, the B1G's best team was gone.

Tonight, a team that was capable of abusing all of Michigan's weaknesses played solid basketball and got production from all of its key players. Withey was a force underneath the basket, and every time McGary was matched up against him one-on-one Withey got the better of him.

Yet somehow McGary produced 25 points, Burke had 10 assists, and Michigan won a basketball game they had no business even keeping close, against a team that was as bad of a matchup as Michigan could imagine.

And Beilein must receive the credit. Unlike Tom Crean, he did not shrink from the moment; he put Michigan in a position to succeed. In a game where Michigan had to score effectively and efficiently against a strong defense, Beilein devised a strategy that put them in the right place. McGary scored 25 points--but never when he was posting up Withey. Beilein moved Withey all over the court on screens and switches, and used movement to get McGary in position to score.

Somehow, Michigan's offense found all the right spots to keep scoring, even when Burke started cold. Somehow, Michigan was in all the right places to score. Somehow, Beilein was able to keep Michigan humming.

Beilein was masterful. 

Wisconsin Wolverine

March 30th, 2013 at 1:14 AM ^

I think so?  I'm not sure.  We won, though.  I feel happy.  Belein = good.



Edit: Ok ok I should expand a little to be thoughtful.  It seemed to me like one of the biggest things Belein did well was to get Jeff Withey away from the basket on defense.  We didn't always make the shot, but by pulling Withey towards the perimeter, it allowed McGary to go all McGary in the paint.  Which, as we know, was huge.  I guess I believe that Belein deserves some credit for getting McGary's production today.  Awesome stuff.

gwkrlghl

March 30th, 2013 at 1:13 AM ^

but I'm convinced the only real difference between Michigan now and Michigan 3 weeks ago is the emergence of Mitch McGary. He's dominating right now. He had 25 pts and 14 rebounds on Jeff Withey! One of the best centers in the country and he had a career night against him

bighouseinmate

March 30th, 2013 at 1:18 AM ^

McGary was somewhat functional through the season and came on a bit late in the season, but not enough to matter with how worn down Burke and the others were.

 

Now, though, McGary is playing like a dominant player, taking some of the heat and pressure off the others. For an overtime game, our guys seemed to be in much better shape than Kansas' players, though much of that may be from the letdown of going into overtime when just minutes before it seemed like they had the game wrapped up.

 

 

joeyb

March 30th, 2013 at 9:58 AM ^

Mitch would not have scored 25 points last night if not for Beilein. Late game, the announcers kept making reference to moving Withey around with screens and so I started watching him. Every time that we would drive to the basket and score, Withey was guarding the 3 in the corner. That's Beilein calling plays to get Withey out of the paint.

JimBobTressel

March 30th, 2013 at 1:21 AM ^

Beilein is a great tactician. 1-3-1? Brought it out. Fouls in late game situation? Avoided. Timeouts? Called at the right times (especially end of OT).

Meanwhile Bill Self just sat smugly in his corner as Thrift Shop McLemore made it rain triples. You could see him counting down the moments to the Elite Eight in his head. When you become known for getting upset by mid majors, it's not good.

And at the free timeout given by the refs, he just drew up....I dont know what the hell that was. Now he gets to be 8-1 against us

PurpleStuff

March 30th, 2013 at 1:18 AM ^

Trey Burke >>>>>>>>>>>>> Yogi Ferrell

Beilein is a very good basketball coach, but guys look a lot fucking smarter when they have the best player in the country running the show for them.

bighouseinmate

March 30th, 2013 at 1:24 AM ^

He's a prick.

Beilein is a great guy on and off the court. He deserves to have a guy like Trey playing for him.

On top of that, Beilein is a better coach than Crean, as are 90% of the coaches in the Sweet Sixteen.

snarling wolverine

March 30th, 2013 at 2:37 AM ^

Beilein is a very good basketball coach, but guys look a lot fucking smarter when they have the best player in the country running the show for them.

Does Beilein get any credit for a) finding Burke and offering him a scholarship (unlike the rest of the B1G, save PSU) and b) developing him these last two years? I don't recall Burke being hyped as a future NPOY when he was a recruit.

PurpleStuff

March 30th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^

Beilein has done a fantastic job here.  That is what he and other coaches can/should be credited with.  Identifying talent, bringing in players, and building a program.  And as far as the marginal impact a coach can have once the talent is in place, I think most folks who follow the game closely (other coaches, etc.) are in agreement that Beilein is nearly as good as it gets. 

At the same time, he was just as good at that part of things when his team had a losing record in two of his first three years here and numerous people wanted him gone because he was a small-time "system" coach who couldn't get it done here at a "big-time" program.  Patting the coach on the back when a great player hits a 30 footer to go to the Elite Eight (since, you know, he told him to do that) is just as silly as getting pissed off when the offense is occasionally stagnant with a walk-on PG (in the same spirit, most of the "he can't coach offense" criticisms of Amaker should have been replaced with "Why didn't he recruit a pure point guard to take the pressure off Daniel Horton who is playing out of position?").

There are a lot of reasons we're still alive and IU isn't.  Strategery is pretty far down the list.

joeyb

March 30th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^

Devil's advocate here:

Hasn't every single PG under Beilein exceded expectations? Maybe it's Beilein putting Burke in great positions to make plays that has made Burke the POY.

roosterbaan

March 30th, 2013 at 1:23 AM ^

this is what i love about beilein

 

Q.  With Trey, with just 20 minutes to go, he has a decision to make after the season, it’s not guaranteed he’ll be back.  For you to know you get at least a couple more days to coach him, regardless of what happens from there, what does it mean?

COACH BEILEIN:  I think it’s the wrong time and the wrong place to ask that question.  That’s all I’m saying.  We’re not talking about ‑‑ ask me about Florida, you want to ask me about the next game.  It’s special to coach everybody on this team.

fuck you reporter

taistreetsmyhero

March 30th, 2013 at 1:48 AM ^

Beilein is a great coach. But if we're only doling out credit to one source, I think it goes to the players--not only because they obviously won the game, but because they made amazingly huge plays down the stretch. Coaching can only get you so far, it's the players who've got to hit 4000 foot three pointers.

We won this game because of heroball. I give Beilein a ton of credit--he absolutely made some great calls as were broken down in a earlier post. Nonetheless, this felt like the UTL game. A miracle, delivered by the best player in college basketball.

MaizeMN

March 30th, 2013 at 2:06 AM ^

WIN!

JB had a great game plan, but THJ and GRIII didn't perform as well as hoped. That makes Mitch's production even more spectacular.

On to UF; E8 here we come.

GO BLUE! 

Muttley

March 30th, 2013 at 2:16 AM ^

and wasn't keeping track, I would have guessed that Michigan was down 12-15 points at halftime.  But somehow it was only six.

Besides being tied for the first 18 seconds of the first half, and the last four of the second half, we trailed for the entire regulation.  What a plucky group of guys.

Blue boy johnson

March 30th, 2013 at 3:05 AM ^

Withey comparison. McGary dominated Withey, especially in the 2nd half. I think Withey made one shot in the 2nd half and hardly got any rebounds. McGary was pushing Withey farther and farther away from the basket as the game moved along. Offensively McGary put in a shot off the glass with his right hand with Withey guarding him, then in OT, Stauskas hit McGary in the post with M down a basket, McGary faced up and buried a 7 foot baseline jumper over Withey to put M up a point. Moments later with M up a point, Trey missed a running left hander, McGary grabbed the board and put in a left hand banker over Withey. McGary outplayed Withey decisively

joeyb

March 30th, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^

I think it was pretty even. Withey had several blocked shots against McGary. There were also potential assists to McGary that Withey stole. Many of McGary's points came either while Withey was guarding someone else or on a putback when Withey had his back turned. I'd say that it was pretty even on the night.

allintime23

March 30th, 2013 at 7:50 AM ^

Bill Self had endless timeouts and somehow we still did it. Seriously it felt like every time we pulled within five there was. Media timeout or he called one.

SC Wolverine

March 30th, 2013 at 8:14 AM ^

I give Beilein huge amounts of credit for not crippling our offense in an attempt to shore up our defense.  He believed that if they turned up the intensity and made corrections, the starting five could be effective.  And when they turned it up with 2 minutes left they started getting the stops.  But if Beilein had reacted to the problem we would have lost the game.  He knows that we are a scoring team and he relied on us to score enough.