Can Coach Beilein Survive Another Season Like This?

Submitted by MGoVoldemort on
First, I want to preface this by saying there isn't a man coaching any sport in collegiate athletics that I hold in higher regard than Coach Beilein. My son has attended basketball camps in which Coach has been present, and the way he works with the kids, and the way in which he carries himself impressed me immensely. He's everything still good and pure about college basketball. That being said, I have to ask the following question: with UM's resources and built in advantages, do you think Coach Beilein can survive another season in which the team misses the NCAA tournament? Here's hoping that discussion never has to happen next year.
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somewittyname

March 6th, 2016 at 1:01 PM ^

No it was absolutely Amaker. He took us from historically bad to teams about the same as this one. He would have made the tourney Horton's freshman year without postseason ban. He came close a couple other times. It was time to move on, but we needed Amaker to bridge the gap between off the charts horrible to big ten championships. He also turned recruiting around from Avery Queens and Josh Moores to Udoh, Manny, Deshawn Sims.

Joined: 05/15/2009

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jmblue

March 6th, 2016 at 12:33 PM ^

Let's not get revisionist here.

Amaker was decidedly mediocre.  His best season was his second, when he posted his only winning conference record, and might have made the tournament if we weren't banned.  At that point we seemed to have a ton of momentum as a program.  But then the next four years we were 8-8, 4-12, 8-8 and 8-8 in Big Ten play.  There is a reason "Amakeresque" exists as an adjective to describe hideous offensive play.

What is disturbing about these past two seasons is that we've looked Amakeresque frequently.  We had been a program whose teams didn't beat themselves and valued the basketball, but that hasn't been the case lately.  And the defense has fallen off a cliff.  Not sure if Beilein can turn this ship around.

 

 

 

 

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The Barwis Effect

March 7th, 2016 at 7:56 AM ^

The only revisionism taking place here is this narrative that Beilein inherited some sort of a black hole. You and I agree on Amaker--he was terrible. But he did restore U-M to a perennial 20 win team and tournament contender. Beilein was not brought in to rebuild from the ground up, but to finish the turnaround process Amaker had already established.



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Wolverine Devotee

March 6th, 2016 at 11:49 AM ^

I think we should be a little more patient and understanding of a guy who made Basketball matter here again. 

Naturally there was going to be dropoff with 3 guys on one team leaving for the NBA. Two of them being guys Beilein didn't plan on leaving that early. 

 

Joined: 06/29/2009

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Stringer Bell

March 6th, 2016 at 12:12 PM ^

Who? Both McGary and Robinson seriously contemplated leaving after their freshman years so no one should've expected them to return for a 3rd season. Michigan fans are the only fans that I see using early departures as an excuse. Literally every program deals with them.

Joined: 11/06/2014

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TIMMMAAY

March 7th, 2016 at 9:01 AM ^

Keep nursing that grudge, man. I wasn't  wrong to call you out when I did, but if you insist on feuding over it forever, that's fine too. Your comments were trash, and you got what you deserved. I see you're out of Bolivia now, maybe you can keep it that way? I doubt it though, since you don't seem to have learned anything in your time there... 

Joined: 09/08/2008

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UMxWolverines

March 6th, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^

What kind of argument is this? I'm 21 years old and I never actually saw us play in the tournament until 2009. This team looks exactly like I remember Amaker teams to look. Amaker also won 20 games 3 times so I don't understand the argument "Remember what we were before Beilein?!" Uhhh...this? Also we have contended for the Big Ten title 3 out of Beilein's 9 seasons...I guess that's every year huh?

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bacon

March 6th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^

Since 1948, Michigan as a program has been to the tournament 25 times (21 after vacating appearances), final four 7 times, and has one national championship. We've made the finals 6 times and 2 of those are vacated. Beilein has made the tourney 5 times and has 2 elite eight appearances and 1 runner up appearance. In 9 years, but it's still not like we were a historically dominant basketball team. I know there were extenuating circumstances behind the absence from the tourney between 1998 and 2009, but let's not get too carried away with thinking how great the Michigan basketball program has been. Historically, we're #40 in NCAA tourney appearances.

Joined: 01/04/2009

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bacon

March 7th, 2016 at 5:57 AM ^

Is there a program that aspires to be middling? I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to be better, it's just that our history shows that Beilein's coaching tenure is about as good as we've been outside the fab five era and I'm not sure that if we roll the dice on another coach that we should expect to get better. It's not like football where we have a tremendous tradition of being a top ten program. It's more like Cal getting rid of Jeff Tetford and expecting to take a step forward (which they did not). Guys who can truly improve your program like Bo did in football are rare.

Joined: 01/04/2009

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SpikeFan2016

March 7th, 2016 at 11:42 AM ^

This is stupid. 

 

Wisconsin was horrible before the late 1990s and then suddenly went on a decades long tournament streak (that they are going to continue this year despite being in a much worse situation than we are). MSU was not anything close to a perennial top team before Izzo. 

Settling to be middle of the road is not necessary with our resources. 

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snarling wolverine

March 6th, 2016 at 11:14 AM ^

It's possible to both appreciate what Beilein's done and be concerned for the future. We do the same with Red in hockey. JB is 63, so probably not all that far from retirement in any event. Maybe this year will light a fire under everyone and we come back much improved in 2016-17. I'd love to see that, but my faith is a bit shaken.

Joined: 12/14/2011

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remdog

March 6th, 2016 at 11:18 AM ^

I too wonder if the board is being overrun by basketball illiterate 8 year olds.

It's pointless to debate with such a crowd.

We are 2 years removed from a two year run at the very top of college basketball.

We were literally decimated by injuries last year but still made a decent run at postseason play.

Beilein, despite his faults, has done a very good job this year getting a team without its two seniors (including a lottery pick level player pre-injury) to 20 wins.

His recruiting has been underwhelming but he does have a decent class coming.  If they stay healthy, I could easily see this team excelling next year and beyond.

And they aren't quite done yet this year.

Joined: 05/14/2009

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WorldwideTJRob

March 6th, 2016 at 11:35 AM ^

So since we sucked under Amaker we should stick with JB no matter what? That's terrible logic...if you can find better you make the switch. He's been trending down lately and if he has another sub-par season it may be time to look around.

That's almost equivalent to saying we should've stuck with Hoke because he made it to a BCS game, beat OSU, MSU and had a better record than Rich Rod. You strive to be excellent never to be mediocre.



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carlos spicywiener

March 6th, 2016 at 10:59 AM ^

Are you aware that the NCAA sanctions were just lifted 30 minutes ago? Beilein will need a few years to build the program up. Be patient. And the players couldn't have been expected to be better than 145th in the country, defensively, without Caris! I assure you, insane regressions like Doyle, Dawkins and Irvin went through this year are commonplace. And we're Michigan basketball. How dare anyone aspiire to something better than the NIT? We're not a tradional power. I Look forward to more of this. Can't get enough.

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Oh Deer

March 6th, 2016 at 11:02 AM ^

I like Beilein a great deal and have enormous respect for how he trys to run a clean program. With that said, it seems like the common excuses from posters on this site for the disappointing last two seasons typically comes down to injuries and the lack of upperclassmen, correct?

If we assume that is correct, then barring serious injury to key players next year, we should expect a FAR better product than this year, right? Walton, Irvin, and Donnal will be Seniors. Chatman, Rahkman, Robinson, Dawkins and Doyle will all be Juniors.

One last thing. With all of the hand wringing about injuries, we should probably never hear posters here mocking Izzo for his weird guys comments and excuses anymore,correct? The amount of blame being attributed to injuries the last couple years has gotten pretty over the top.

 

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Mwygant20

March 6th, 2016 at 11:02 AM ^

any better with lavert than they are now they still played awfull defense still couldn't inbound the ball and to be honest I feel like the ball moved better without lavert ....and I'm growing tired of having the same issues every year and not doing anything to fix those issues (hoke) (Rrod) got fired because they wouldn't adjust and just kept doing what they were doing .....even when beilein took the team to the national title game we had shit defense only difference was we were unstoppable on offense

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UMICH1606

March 6th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^

He has an expensive buyout for 2 years with his extension. Warde has a lot of respect for Beilein, but also has been an AD at a basketball school. In the end, I am not sure the powerbrokers care enough about the hoops program to drum up 7 million dollars to buy him out. I believe his buyout is gone after 2 years so hang tight until then I suppose.

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Crootin

March 6th, 2016 at 11:05 AM ^

"white boy basketball"

 

Can't win without consistent recruiting.  Caris wasnt' going to suddenly make this team play defense or play 'above the rim'.  I'm sure some low rated plodding center-types will fix that next year though. /s

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