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!!!
Sorry I ever doubted ya coach.
I was not part of the fire Beilein crowd. Just lost faith in making it to the NCAA.
Thank you Maverick Morgan
as charged...begging for Forgivness
One of the top 5 minds in basketball on the offensive side of the ball - at any level. He's up there with D'antoni (the real one) and Popovich when it comes to offensive schemes. He also is self aware enough and identified his shortcomings as a coach on the defensive side of the ball and has hired staff to address these issues.
He will not get dirty in recruiting so if this is your gripe, its "fair" as we will not recruit elite 1 or 2 and dones. With low to mid 4* guys that stay for 3-4 years we will continue to make the tourney and have some deep runs every few years.
I always knew the guy could coach, but the lack of recruiting is frustrating. You can see how good we are when we have the horses. Walton was pretty high recruit. I would love to see Coach B with the horses but he just has too much integrity to get dirty.
Great last 6 weeks of the season. It has been a great ride.
I've been a big fan of his since his hiring, but I'll confess that I did waiver briefly this season after the OSU game. Not that I wanted him fired - I think he's earned the right to coach to the end - but I didn't have a lot of confidence in the direction of the program at that instant. Thankfully the team set me straight with its destruction of MSU right after.
I am one of the guilty. I thought it was time for him and Michigan to part ways after the season. I know that I did the best with the information I had earlier in the season. But what I now know is that my best wasnt good enough to formulate an educated opinion. I am now aware of my deep ignorance.
but it wasn't too many weeks ago I wasn't sure they'd even make the NIT. Me dumb.
I (like many) gotta confess too. I also doubted Belein because of his standstill-no-rebounds-three-point-reliant offense. I don't know what it is, but I'm SUPER EXCITED that those problems went away!
I love John Beilein. And I never wavered.
For the record, John Beilein is very clearly a man of faith. For me, as a Pastor, this resonates. But I especially love that he is not judgemental, nor in your face about spiritual things, not like Tim Tebow. Here are several links about Beilein and spirtual things:
Michigan Coach John Beilein opens up about his Catholic faith in interview with Jesuit website
The Jesuit Post sits down with Coach John Beilein
And it isn't just Beilein. Jeff Meyer, the lead assistant coach, is also a man of faith, who was thrown under the bus before he came to Michigan. He is a very good assistant coach. It was interesting that faith came up in several subtle ways this week.
- Beilein referenced how he relies on his faith after the plane crash Wednesday.
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Derrick Walton, Jr. multiple times referenced his faith in the CBS interview after today's victory:
"God is good, that’s all I can say. We came through a lot, had a lot of trials and tribulations. All I can say is God is good. We’re here for a reason."
Why is this relevant? Because it is clear that this is a high character team, with a high character coach. Beilein is a humble and gracious man. The team reflects his spirit.
I would love to see this team win the whole thing. But I especially love that they win the right way, and don't make tons of ethically challenged decisions.
Don't want to turn this thread into a religious one, but thank you for posting this. Very interesting reads.
March 13th, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^
You're right that threads on mgoblog can't be solely "religious." However, with "confession booth" in the title, and Beilein's Catholicism, and the public faith life of several Michigan players, it was too obvious of a connection.
There were other comments made by the team as well. For instance, from the Freep on Walton, after he knelt on the court:
“God is good, I’m a firm believer,” Walton said on Sunday afternoon after Michigan’s 71-56 victory over Wisconsin. “I just wanted to thank Him. I wanted to share that moment with Him.”
DJ Wilson is another outspoken man of faith. His twitter account says. "believer. Michigan Basketball." He tweeted, "let your faith be bigger than your fear, cause where God guides he provides!"
Zak Irvin is another one. This is from a Freep article:
His faith always has been the avenue from which he handles adversity – forced to the junior varsity team as a high school freshman, overlooked as a Mr. Basketball favorite as a senior, getting limited minutes early at Michigan, then the back injury. Irvin doesn’t have many tattoos, but the inside of his wrists reveal everything about his perspective. In cursive writing, one reads “Let Go” and the other “Let God.”
Obviously, what we care about is how well they play basketball. What they believe is completely secondary for the purposes of this blog and for sports fans. But their faith is a reflection of strong character, and makes them easy to cheer for.
Hmm, I seem to recall you being pretty down on him and the team, too...
I never said "Fire Beilein" but I was looking elsewhere for another coaching option after OSU. The season seemed over then.
30 point win over Indiana looked like a fluke after that game. And then we destroyed MSU.
Walton grabbed this season by the throat and said "this is not how I'm going out".
What an amazing story. I doubted Beilein back in 2011 during the 1-6 start in B1G play and the program turned around with one shot.
What a season. What a roller coaster. God bless this team and everyone on that airplane who was saved by God. That would've been enough for me.
The fact that we not only beat Illinois, BUT ALSO beat 1 Purdue, 4 Minnesota and 2 Wisconsin in 4 days? Unbelievable.
B1G TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS! The banner is coming back!
One of the reasons humans like sports is that they offer certainty in a world that doesn't offer much certainty. We know a player has a lingering injury, we know the ball took a weird bounce, we know refs are humans and make mistakes, we know the coach took a chance that didn't work out. We also know that rival fans are not subhuman cretins. (It was a shock to my system when I joined the Army, to find my best friends were great guys from Ohio, after encountering tOSU fans who invaded Ann Arbor every two years.) Rationally we know that, like life, sports has too many factors involved to draw ultimate conclusions from the results of a simple game. Ultimately, it IS only a game.
However, we invest ourselves in a team, a school, because of our feelings, so it's not entirely possible to avoid the accompanying feelings that can overwhelm rational thought. A game has a winner and a loser, so we FEEL that if WE (aka, the team we root for) win, all's right with the world. On the other hand, losses by our team (not so much "we" anymore) makes us FEEL it's because — whatever our latest theory — players have gotten lazy or cocky or don't care about fundamentals or aren't blue-collar workers like US when WE played defense on our high school team. Or they didn't WANT IT ENOUGH!
Or we lose because refs are incompetent or out to get us.
Or we lose and FEEL our coach is an idiot. A few more losses, he's not even OUR coach any more but the placeholder till we can hire the latest hot coach from Southwestern Northeast State.
But, despite final scores & winners & losers, time teaches us that sports are as uncertain as life, and it's the process that matters. As parents and workers, we try to do things the right way, deal with our mistakes and others' mistakes, and move on, hoping still to keep doing it the right way. That's the same process in sports.
John Beilin, as a coach, as a leader of young men, as a teacher, does it the right way. And, without knowing the young men who wear "Michigan" on their jerseys, I believe that they do it the right way too, thanks to their parents, thanks to their — our? — coaches, sometimes maybe thanks to the same teachers we had, and thanks to their character.
Despite this inspiring win his flaws remain. He is still a weak recruiter and his defenses suck when he doesnt have a good assistant running the D. His strengths remain too. He is a great offensive coach and his teams tend to progress well and improve through a season.
I didnt want him fired before this run and I dont now but his seat was getting warmer and rightfully so.
So for me there is nothing that needs confessing. My opinion hasnt changed a bit.
Despite this inspiring win his flaws remain. He is still a weak recruiter and his defenses suck when he doesnt have a good assistant running the D. His strengths remain too. He is a great offensive coach and his teams tend to progress well and improve through a season.
I didnt want him fired before this run and I dont now but his seat was getting warmer and rightfully so.
So for me there is nothing that needs confessing. My opinion hasnt changed a bit.
Id like to add that this run was fueled by the players not coaching. Walton in particular grew as much as any player in one season as Ive ever seen. Shout out to Zak who looked lost on offense at times but who kept plugging hard on the defensive end.
seriously,
just shut the fuck up.
he's one of the best coach in the country and has a great offensive mind in terms of X's and O's. He identify specific skills to fit his system and find players with room to grow into a quality player. He has a team that can score from anywhere and has any players who can go off at anytime which is more than probably 2-3 teams in the country can say.
He wouldn't have been wrong on choosing between Monte Morris and Derrick Walton, two quality PGs in the country but I'm glad that Walton simply beat Morris to the spot.
If JB can continue to develop Xavier Simpson and bring in Eli Brooks along slowly, they're in good hands at PG position especially when he has 3 PGs committed to his program in back to back to back years.
Point guards tend to make a huge leap forward in their second year under JB. I remember Darius Morris was terrible his freshman year, and the next year he was good enough to declare for the NBA Draft early.
I promise to never again question Sai Beilein again. In public or private. Congrats to Derrick, Irvin, and Mark. Great way to cap your senior season.
Way to go to the whole team and I give Coach B credit...
just wait till we beat louisville!
I actually might go to that game...
They've come a long way this year, and looking back over the last five years I would say this is one of the best runs UM basketball has had. If Beilein is capable of winning a reg season or B1G tournament title 50% of the time as well as peppering in deep tournament runs, who are we to want to fire him for an average first half of a season? For shame.