The MgoBlog Confession Booth: Beilein
On this beautiful Sunday, I must confess that I have sinned. Earlier in this year I doubted Beilein and thought that it was time to consider going in another direction. Since then Michigan basketall has been fantastic in so many aspects, and I now realize that I was wrong. Anybody else want to share their Michigan confession in the MgoConfessionBooth? Also, Go Blue! Big 10 Champs!!!
Look at scumbags like Calipari and Pitino recruiting, and Izzo berating his team and throwing players under the bus. Beilein - no dirt, never shits on his players.
As a coach - An absolute savant on the offensive side of the ball - this was never in doubt and every coach in the game acknowledges this about him. He also has the self awareness to know that he needed help on the defensive side of the ball and went out and hired to do just that.
"Fire Beilein" because we are not Duke or Kentucky was just so misguided, idiotic, entitled and ignorant of both our recent and further past tradition and actual performance and historical success in basketball. We were never a blue blood and we aren't going to recruit fab 5 style after being the 1 program to actually get busted and punshed by the NCAA for doing so.
If Michigan was never a blue blood, then Duke certainly wasn't one either.
In fact, Michigan won its first National Championship (89) before Duke did (91).
And for everything Duke Basketball did in the 60 and 70s, Michigan Basketball had an equal accomplishment. In fact, Duke and Michigan were almost mirror copies of each other from the 70s to the late 80s/early 90s. Look it up.
Duke became solidified as a Blue Blood under Coach K in the early 2000s.
Did you all know that Michigan is 12-1 in Sweet 16s and 6-1 in Final Fours? The problem is that we're 1-5 in National Championsihp Games.
Contrast that to say UConn who is 4-1 in Final Fours and 4-0 in National Championship Games.
examples. Yes, what coach K did at Duke is incredible. When I think of blue bloods I am referring to Indiana, Kentucky, UCLA....and now Duke has become one.
I'm saying the sense of entitlement to be a top 5 program in hoops is absurd as we have never been that.
Indiana, Kentucky, UCLA, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas come to mind as great programs through out my life time.
Something lit a fire under this team this year. After the first illinois game or the home loss to OSU they just have been great. These guys deserve this, Go Blue
...can be a nouveau riche like UConn.
I don't care about blue blood status. UConn has won 4 NCAA National Championsihps in the past 20 years (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014).
Meanwhile, blue blood KU has 3 NCAA National Championships in its enitre history. KU can keep dominating the Big 12 (used to be Big 8) but I bet those fans would trade those conference regular season championships for another National Championship.
March 13th, 2017 at 12:36 AM ^
In my opinion, a college basketball blueblood is a program that has won multiple titles under multiple coaches, and is a consistent winner. Duke is on pace to be a blueblood, but until Coach K leaves and someone else wins there, Duke is a great coaching job rather than a blueblood program. If it matters at all, Michigan has only one title, and I'm sorry, that isn't good enough to be called a blue blood.
My blue bloods:
-Kentucky
-Kansas
-UCLA
-Indiana
-Michigan State
-North Carolina
-Louisville
I'm sure I'm missing somebody
Yes, they have two titles under different coaches, but the entirety of their success has been achieved by only two people: Magic Johnson and Tom Izzo. Johnson was only there two years and certainly didn't build a "program", he just won a title. Izzo has done big things but he's a bit in the Jim Calhoun at Uconn stage.
There's no gaurantee they can or will be able to bring in a top-notch coach to replace him. And that's how a program becomes a blueblood. You have to be a place that can give a coach the money and a chance at a legacy such that you can get the best ones available. It's TBD whether MSU is that place. I think they probably are because they seem to have the fan and institutional support, but it's still not for sure.
"I'm saying the sense of entitlement to be a top 5 program in hoops is absurd as we have never been that."
I agree.
...but we should be consistently in the top 10-20 programs range.
We should not regularly finish behind schools like Wisconsin - who is way less of a blue blood program than Michigan.
Do we have your permission to hang a banner now?
Criticism was justified but it went beyond that. Once you (not you in particular) start going after a guy's job and questioning his competence, that's not just being critical. Im most happy for Coach B and Zak Irvin because they're perfect examples of why fans are supposed to SUPPORT their team through slumps and not just bitch about how hard it is to watch. There are ups and downs in sports for every program, we need to appreciate what we have.
Forgive me for I have sinned too...
Belein's actions when the plane crashed show him for the man he is, to say nothing about his coaching since turning this thing around which was excellent.
We beat Purdue twice and Wiscy twice. At this point we are at the top of the B1G.
We are lucky to have Beilein.
A bunch more games to win.
Go Blue!!
I disagree strongly when anyone thought a change should have been made. The last two years he lost his best player (Levert) an All-American type player, 1st round NBA talent and he lost his two best guys in 2014-15. Take a guy like that off a team and watch them struggle. Take Walton off this team and this team probably don't make the tournament. They may have struggled a bit early in those years but I wouldn't bet against a Beilein team improving later in the year like they usually do.
I'm not coming down on you obviously as I have no idea what you said but it's more towards those suggesting to fire him which was beyond ridiculous. The respect that he gets for how well he does his job from those that follow the game speaks volumes.
I follow who I feel are two of the biggest CBB experts around, guys who bet big and follow all of CBB very closely. They eat, drink and sleep CBB. Every time I've heard both of them talk about Beilein thru the years they mention how he's one of the best coaches in the game. Keep in mind these aren't the kind of guys who praise winning coaches only like a Coach K or Calipari either. In fact they claim watching those teams play is a disgrace to the way the game should be played and how any competent CBB coach could coach those teams to high levels as they just win just by having better talent. They both say you can see the impact Beilein has and how well coached his team is.
Michigan is damn lucky to have a coach like this!!!
being called out by that Illinois player did it. It's one thing when a bunch of fans yell that stuff. But when your competitor mocks you in public? That's another. It seemed to light a fire in them
Let's not play into this narrative too much. Derrick Walton was a great leader even before the comments. All year he had been busting his ass out there.
The team started playing togther, Beilein unleashed Wagner, Robinson went through a defensive renaissance. A lot of good things happened to help them start ringing up victories.
that called out Duncan for being a terrlble defender, Walton for taking plays off, and DJ for being soft. All three of those things were true and all three have changed dramatically. My one knock on Beilein has always been his inability to motivate guys to play hard. He's not a rah-rah guy so for all the good, he's not really a motivator. He's always depended on players to self-motivate (Jmo) or leaders to motivate others (Zack Novak). These external factors, and Donlon stepping up there (STREET FIGHT), seemed to have made a big difference. But the seniors really reacted and pulled everyone up.
And I have a say, I'm impressed with Duncan Robinson's defense lately. It used to be awful. It is now...neutral? Maybe even to the positive side with the right matchup? The fact that he isn't a liability out there has allowed us to go small when the matchups dictated against Purdue and Wisconson in the second halves and we dominated with that lineup of DJ at center and Duncan on the wing.
"I'm not sure what set off the fire in their ass, but I'm sure as hell glad it did."
If the lack of leadership earlier in the year was attributable to JB, then why wouldnt the improved leadership be? These are the things that would balance out the fairness in judging his performance.
I had written off the Dance this season after the osu loss but felt JB definitely deserved another shot to return next season to get back to the tournament. So happy to have been wrong. Never give up!!! Most of the mgoblog fan base had given up on these kids. The game threads 6 weeks ago were a ghost town. Tumbleweeds.
Can't wait for Thursday (or Friday).
A little over a month ago. Yep, I was wrong.
I confess that I think he's a dignified leader with the self-awareness to know whether the program is headed in the right direction. I said it when things were sideways and I say it now.
His players improve and he outperforms expectations - which probably were too high over the past couple years.
I was wrong. Coach Beilein deserves all the credit for this unreal turnaround.
March 13th, 2017 at 12:34 AM ^
I too confess that I have never wavered in my support of Coach Beilein.
A great teacher, a clean operator, a dignified representative of our great university, a man of outstanding character - and a damn fine hoops coach too.
I will, however, also confess there was a stretch there that I just couldn't face the negativity on this board, and didn't actively defend him here.
After a very long period where our hoops program was lost, he's returned us to prominence, and made Michigan basketball a ton of fun.
Thank you, Coach Beilein!
Today I raise my fist in victory but also hang my head in shame for thoughts I had about Beilein earlier this season :/
I also think impure thoughts about Coach Beilein.
Er...
I will have a heaping helping for dinner. Perhaps with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Most fun I have had watching basketball since the 90's. Something special about this team.
and sin no more.
:)
and sin no more.
:)
I confess, I was impatient with Coach. He's earned much more room than I gave him. I still wish that he'd go after higher rated recruits.
I wish he'd recuirted:
Mo Bamba
Luke Kennard
Devin Booker
Tyus Battle
Josh Langford
etc.
TJ Leaf
March 13th, 2017 at 12:50 AM ^
Coach B has gotten some very highly rated guys. McGary, GRIII, Irvin, and Kameron Chatman were all five star guys. McGary and GRIII were huge hits, Irvin has been a very very good player (although not quite elite), and Kameron Chatman was a huge miss (sometimes it happens). But while three of the four were really really good, three of the four also left early, and that is the common theme for almost every five star unless you are Michigan State and somehow able to hold onto most of your top guys for four years. It is really hard to build a sustainable program recruiting those types of players and it is often a very sketchy business recruiting them. I do think Coach could maybe pull in an occasional five star every 1-2 years, but I mostly think his recruiting stategy has been pretty good in getting lower top 100 guys and some late blooming three stars.
Belein hasn't even had a top 25 class in over half his years at Michigan.
1 top 10 class.
3 top 25 classes.
Great post OP