14 Months Ago: The Fire Beilein Threads.
As we approach John Beilein's second Final Four, I thought it would be fun to review what people thought of the Beilein regime up to February of 2017. Note: Some of the stuff looks really stupid. Some of it was dead on, and we know this because the problems people complained about got fixed, often in big ways. In these linked threads you'll find embarrassing mistakes, but also accurate analysis of problems that Beilein subsequently fixed.
Names are not used in this post because we all say dumb stuff, and quotes shouldn't be held against posters today. I've actually deleted most of the highlights because I think it's mean-spiriited. Just a sampling is preserved to give people the general idea.
Two Years Ago:
The story actually starts with a mediocre 2015-2016 season whose highlight was a Kam Chatman three to beat Indiana in the B1G Tournament and a First Four win in Dayton. In March of 16, Brian posted a mailbag with a bunch of critical talk about Beilein. Here's a highlight:
Emailer:
What are the odds of replacing Beilein with someone who runs a clean program, fits culturally with the university, and achieves more success on the court? I put it at about 10%. That's not a chance worth taking for someone who may be marginally better. But the only thing that would satisfy these guys is if we were dominating the Big Ten. So then you need to consider the odds of getting the coach who runs a clean program, fits in culturally and consistently out-performs Izzo, Crean, et al. I put those odds under 1%.
Brian:
I don't think that's clear yet. I do think we're going to see an offseason shakeup and hopefully a defensive specialist brought in. I am still resigned to the fact that Beilein's peak is likely to have already passed and that we'll probably be gunning for a Sweet 16 or two before he retires, not a title.
Well, Brian hit one out of two. Defensive specialist: Check. Ceiling: not so much.
Fire Beilein
Now we move to 2017, and a thread posted on January 11 after that loss to Illinois entitled: Fire John Beilein. It was a disastrous game that prompted the famed Maverick Morgan "white collar" quote that transformed Derrick Walton into a killer.
Key quote from the OP: "Your team is no longer watchable."
i realize Beilein needs to go, but he ain't getting fired, warde seems too slow to react.
Ohio State 70, Michigan 66
We visit the nadir of the Beilein regime, a loss to a mediocre OSU team playing out the end of the Thad Matta regime. A highlight from the game story thread:
Starting to feel like the basketball version of the hoke regime
Last, but not least: The Fire Beilein Snowflake Thread from the same day:
is there anybody leftWho thinks he shouldn't be fired?............ (crickets)
And:
It's time for Warde to get off his fat keister and do something. Beilein shouldn't be allowed to finish this season. Absolutely inexcusable to lose at home to this god awful OSU team with your tournament lives on the line. This team takes on the identity of its coach: soft, uninspired, boring
Ah, the memories.
In January 2017, Ace didn't do a game recap after the Illinois loss. Instead, there was a post titled "John Beilein Hot Seat Possibility" that ended with "his recruiting and defensive coaching may lead to a change sooner than anyone could've reasonably expected not so long ago." The recap of the ensuing Maryland game concluded that “this team so rarely puts it all together that it's becoming harder and harder to hold out hope for a strong run through Big Ten play.”
his recruiting had been in a slump and his defensive coaching was/is terrible, which he has been saying to anyone that will listen this year.
What everyone underestimated, understandably, is that a 65 year old guy that is notoriously controlling of every part of his basketball programs would have the humility and awareness to recognize his own shortcomings and make a nice hire last year to shore up those shortcomings, and then make an absolute home run hire to not only shore up his shortcomings but literally carry the team this year.
Beilein is an offensive genius and that's never been in doubt, but more impressively, he's proven be a really good leader by surrounding himself with capable people and enabling them to do their jobs.
It's just a lot more common for someone that late in his career to double down on what he knows/what he's used to. For someone to be as adaptable as Beilein (which he's also credited for his success) at this point in his career is remarkable.
Agree that Beilein's adaptability at 65 is really impressive.
March 28th, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^
I think we'll see a similar series of mea culpas with Coach Harbaugh. I simply don't understand how people can lose faith and support so quickly.
Maybe age provides more patience or perspective, or maybe i'm just patient by nature, but I have always been a huge supporter of both Coach Beilein and Coach Harbaugh even through the challenging times.
A somewhat disappointing season (or even two) is not enough for me to call for someone's head. Programs with constant turnover rarely succeed, and IMO it's ridiculous to expect championship runs every year.
Part of the fun is the journey. It took Coach B awhile to gain his footing, and he had a brief hiccup. Overall he's been fantastic.
I feel the same about Coach Harbaugh - at most, last year's team underperformed expectations by a game or two, in a year where our two best qb's were injured.
Sure, we'd all like to see more wins against our rivals, but without some really unfortunate calls and bounces his record against OSU and MSU would look decidedly different.
I feel that all our highest profile programs (football, hoops and hockey) are in a great position for sustained success, led by terrific coaches who do things the right way.
Consider me satisfied.
It really had the feeling of pushing Lloyd out the door 10 years earlier. I forget what mid major coach we were convincing ourselves was better than what we had.
March 29th, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^
We get so crazy and hot blooded over an 8 win season after two ten win seasons. We can be our own worst enemy.
It's universal.
Even Alabama ande Ohio State people get on Saban's and Meyer's cases after a loss.
I also assume your view is the majority of fans, not the minority.
Not only does MGoBlog represent only a small portion of the fanbase, but the people who post comments are only a small portion of MGoBlog readers. Those who come to post after a loss represent a smaller portion still.
the way people talk about Harbaugh, I don't feel like this fanbase deserves the success that is going to come to the fotball program going foward.
March 29th, 2018 at 12:15 AM ^
A subplot here is the "Why won't Warde do anything?" ranting that also was frequent during that time (and still occasionally surfaces).
Manuel's only had one major decision to make thus far - Red's replacement as our hockey coach - but he absolutely nailed it.
"Names are not used in this post because we all say dumb stuff, and quotes shouldn't be held against posters today."
link was tbecause I saw the author's username. I knew it'd be an even-handed diary.
These threads are very reactionary and often wrong. JB runs a great program on many levels, I think some just forgot that. Teams rarely are at the top year in and year out, if they are you are likely looking at rules violations that just haven't come to light.
I am would be happy to have JB as Michigan's coach for another decade as long as his performance is good, and by that I mean similar to his overall record and standings that he has had in his tenure here, not just that he must win the B10 every year...that is band wagon thought processes going on.
Thread. Funny, it was controversial at the time. Great men like JB just went on doing things the right way. Can't wait for the next 5 years of Beilein Ball and M Hoops.
But you didn't do it a month earlier . . .
March 29th, 2018 at 10:14 AM ^
I'm patiently looking forward to the day we can do a similar diary for Harbaugh (and the other coaches he has picked up, i.e. Pep and Jim). All of those people can eat crow.
March 29th, 2018 at 12:03 PM ^
I hope the day comes as well...
I wish the day had come already.
March 29th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
We had a coach who can listen to the fans calls of 'Unacceptable!' and 'Inexcusable!' and make the required changes. We have those fans to thank....
/s
I signed in just to upvote this!
Here's the bottom line on John Beilein: since he's gotten his Michigan program up and running, with all of his own players, his teams have been raising banners almost every year. The two exceptions have been when we were hammered by injuries.
Exclusive diet of humble pie this year
With a side of crow
Wondered when this thread was coming
to admit they were a little ...something. Mr Yost, Stringer Bell, The Dirty D, M-Dog, Uncle Leo, Clarence Boddicker, That Gucci Guy, YoOoBoMoLloRoHo to call out a few of the most vociferous of the anti-Beilein crowd. See him at one of the open practices, tallking with paraplegic wheelchair bball players at the Army v. Navy fundraiser, giving his time for Chadtough, runnung bball camps during the summer ...the man deserved better than the trashing and calling for his head after a few bad losses.
I wouldn't hold my breath on some of those guys.
I have seen Stringer Bell issue a few mea culpas. Pretty sure uncle leo has as well. They're good contributors and if they called for Beilein to be fired, that was wrong, but they weren't wrong to be frustrated.
Also, this is a message board of nerds. John Beilein wasn't hurt by any of their comments, don't worry.
March 31st, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^
I definitely had my issues with Beilein's recruiting / system approach. I own that.
Here's a typical comment:
But I was wrong in not seeing how well (and quickly) that John Beilein could develop that talent, and then ultimately put it into a syatem that became more and more multi-dimensional - defense, post play, driving to the rim - as the talent caught up.
His ability to adapt well into his 60's like an aggressive young coach caught me completely by surprise. I still can't quite wrap my head around it.
Whatever complaints I had at the time are certainly not relevant now.
March 30th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
in regards to tolerance for mediocracy in bball, mine's high. Elerbe was coach all 5 years during my tenure as an undergrad. There were a couple fun games I attended (We beat Indiana at home, which was fun and taunted Dane Fife for not going to Michigan like his bro). I had high hopes for Amaker, but NIT bids just sucked, and I didn't like his offenses much.
So Belien making the tournament won him huge points for me. Ont top of that, his teams were fun to watch.
The other thing that helps is due to work and kids I am pretty much one sport at a time, so don't pick up basketball until January, so I avoid these bad games to watch (mostly) and these arguments.
Criticize someones else work.
Let the Coaches Coach. Period.
Be thankful M has great coaches.
March 30th, 2018 at 10:23 PM ^
Many folks on this blog can be quite petulant at times when it comes to our beloved Wolverines. But that's just par for the course as a sports fan. We live and die with our teams. Any clear eyed observer of M football should have seen a rebuilding year coming last season, and when Speight got injured the season predictably went off the rails. I'm fully expecting a big turnaround in football this year, even if we aren't able to achieve all of our goals due to the absurd difficulty of the schedule. When we get back to the pinnacle of college football, and believe me, we will get there with Harbaugh, it will be all the more sweet due to the struggle along the way.
March 31st, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
I think we can all recognize that fans are typically idiots and reactionary about a lot of things, and it's good we are mostly ignored.
I know that I had my issues with Beilein's approach:
It's a high variability system (Beilein's system). You can get hot and go on a nice tournament run, but it's just as likely that you have a cold game and you are done. When those 3's are not falling, there is nothing to fall back on.
Then, damn if he didn't go and address those issues head on.
We're in the National Championship game and the 3's have not been falling. Even worse than I ever could have imagined. And we're missing free throws to go along with it.
On paper, the underpinnings of Beilein's system have completely failed this tournament.
Yet here we are playing in April.
He does have something to fall back on. The team is getting it done on defense and in the post and slashing to the rim. All the areas that have been significant Beilein team weaknesses.
I would have never thought that could happen. I give all the credit in the world to Beilein for being able to re-invent himself and his teams when he needed to. I never saw that coming.
He's not Coach of the Year for nothing.
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