E-Mail,
Texts and Tweets
First, yes, I was stunned when I heard the news on the
radio as I was driving to work. I wouldn’t
have believed it if you texted it to me and I would have gone to the internet
to confirm. You could have told me Izzo
was leaving and I would have more readily believed that. And yes, I’m still a little numb today.
What
did Michigan Lose?
Have a look. Anyone
who doubts what Michigan accomplished under Beilein is either crazy or has a
very, VERY poor recall of Michigan Hoops History. You can see the Frieder, Fisher, Ellerbe
and Amaker eras all happening before Beilein.
McCartney and Fisher were good, but not Beilein Good.
EVERYONE has feelings about EVERYTHING Beilein and wanted
to get stuff off their chest. I’m going
to try to include them all:
No successful NBA coaches from
college? How about Stevens at Boston and
Donovan for OKC? Granted, Donovan has
been flirting with the hot seat for a couple of seasons, but Stevens seems like
the real deal.
Okay, sue me. I
forgot about both those guys and they both had fairly successful careers
(Butler and Florida – Donovan 2 NC’s) before bolting for the NBA. Again, I didn’t say Beilein wouldn’t be
successful, it’s just going to be really, REALLY hard in Cleveland – without LeBron.
Can Beilein actually be REPLACED? He’s tied with Calipari, Coach K and Roy
Williams with 18 Tourney wins since 2013.
That’s the most in the country. He
also had 278 victories in 12 seasons at Michigan. Take out the losing seasons and you’re
looking at an average in the mid 20’s.
There’s not many programs that can say that.
Confirmation….
Well jeez, when you put it that way…Wait – Izzo’s not on
that list? LOL!!! Yes, JB is going to leave a big hole. I don’t think anyone is going to really
appreciate that until he’s actually not on the sideline twitching his lips and
yelling at referees. Or recruiting crazy
shooters that shoot from anywhere. So replacing Beilein? Maybe next to impossible. Finding someone that’s close? Good Luck…
Where do I sign the petition for Chris
Beard?
Good question. His
name has definitely come up more than any other active coach in all the
Michigan twitter accounts and fan sites.
But I just read that TT dumped a new contract on him that will make
Beard one of the top 10 paid coaches in the NCAA. So, I doubt he’s really looking that hard…But
then again, who knows?
Should Warde call Jay Wright? Do you think he’d leave Villanova?
Warde should absolutely call ANYONE and EVERYONE as
Michigan is seen as a pretty good gig, has been running a clean program and if
you’re any kind of recruiter, should be easy to come in and pick up where
Beilein left off. Wright has always been
a guy I thought would be a great coach to cheer for and get behind when things
are not always going perfect. Wright
is only paid about $2.6M annually at Villanova and Michigan could easily open
up the cash register and beat that.
Wright supposedly turned down the UCLA job for double his current
salary, $5.2M, so you might need to at least match that offer. But I personally think Michigan is a better
gig than UCLA RIGHT NOW. Again, it doesn’t
matter what I think. Someone has to ask
Wright what HE thinks… Add you can go ahead and add Tony Bennett (Virginia) to
that list, but I doubt he’ll ever leave Virginia and the ACC. And
Bennett is extremely well compensated.
Is any of this Warde’s fault? Are you laying all of this at the feet of
Beilein? Beilein had to fight HARD to
get raises for his assistants just to get them on par with the other assistant
coaches in the B1G. I’m going to lay
some of this on Warde for making things miserable for Beilein for too long. If a guy is happy, he’s not looking.
Hmmmmmmm. Great
point. Michigan just had one of the
greatest runs of basketball ever in the history of the program. Warde should have been bending over backwards
making sure that entire staff was happier than pigs in poop. I have heard rumors that Beilein had to go to
the mat for the assistants and getting them raises. I guess we can partially blame Warde. But I think we’ll REALLY be blaming Warde
depending on who he hires as the replacement.
As far as Beilein looking, if you read his comments, he wanted to see
what it’d be like at the next level.
Izzo has looked, they’re all looking.
John just decided to pull the trigger.
Michigan’s hoops future has been in a
downward spiral since the 3rd loss to the Slime (LNU). What a disaster! Although we should be able to attract a very
good coach. Still, we must wonder WHY we
seem to have such difficulty with stability and if his leaving is related to
player turnover?
I
wholeheartedly and emphatically disagree with the first part of that response. Michigan has NOT been in a downward spiral since
that 3rd loss to the Slime.
They won 30 games and made the Sweet 16 last season in what was supposed
to be a re-building year! Michigan’s defense
has improved tremendously was great throughout the B1G and NCAA Tourneys. And I think the overall talent has maintained
the status quo, it just hasn’t developed fully.
The team they lost to (Texas Tech with Michigan shooting a
miserable 1-19 from the 3-point line) almost won the entire Enchilada! I guess if you want to point at that game and
call it a “downward spiral”, you can. I
call it a bad day from the 3-point line.
Yes, Michigan is losing some talent with Brazdeikis, Matthews and Poole
bailing. But they’ve still got some
talent on the bench and coming in next season.
With respect to LNU: The Slime was supposed to be very good this past season
and we all knew beating them would require Michigan’s best game. For the first time in a long time, this team
didn’t have a go to guy on offense and lacked the precision from the 3-point
arc. However, I do agree that Beilein
was probably tired of guys like Mo, Brazdeikis, and others coming in for a
couple of seasons and then bolting to the NBA. So, yeah, in today’s modern NCAA basketball,
I think coaches all get tired of losing their superstars. I don’t think it’s just Beilein. But Beilein was definitely staring a
re-building season or two before getting another shot at a NC. I do think if we started letting players make
a little money while they’re in college, we’d see a lot more of them hanging
around. If Poole could have signed his
picture making the “Shot” in the Tourney against Houston for $20 a pop, I’m
betting he’d still be a Wolverine.
You think Yaklich is ready? He wasn’t even the interim Head Coach when they
went to Spain. Saddi was the guy. Yaklich is a MAC or Con USA material before
any power 5 job. I don’t think he’s
ready for the Michigan job. But what
about someone like John Brannen – too bad he took that Cincinnati job…
Again, great point.
I forgot about Saddi Washington being the interim HC when
Beilein had his surgery. I’m
just afraid this thing could get worse before it gets better. If Yak and Saddi were loyal Beilein guys –
are they going to be looking for better gigs also? They are rumored to be awesome recruiters and
everyone is always looking for that ability in coaches. That’s my major concern. Can the rest of the band be held together or
is this going to turn into a free-for-all with Michigan coaches bolting for
everywhere? I like Brannen. He did great things for WKU and will probably
be successful at Cincinnati. And while I
like a lot of mid-major coaches, I do think Michigan can shoot higher and land
a Power 5 guy…
What about Harbaugh’s Brother In
Law? LOL!!! Tom Crean…
Tom
Crean (who’s married to Joani Harbaugh) is currently the head coach at Georgia and I
get the impression that they like him there – a lot. Michigan would be a step up, but Crean has
probably had his fill of B1G Hoops after his experience at Indiana. Still, maybe worth the phone call as Crean
was a victim of injury plagued teams while at Indiana and was the superstar
coach when he was under Izzo and then subsequently the Head Coach at Marquette
(who he took to a Final Four). While
some of you may laugh at the idea of Crean, I wouldn’t be that upset about that
decision.
You said you always liked Tim Miles and
he’s looking for a gig. Or is that
shooting too low?
Actually, Miles, in a weird way, makes a little bit of
sense. Michigan is still (ahem) a
football school and will always have the 2nd fiddle be the Head
Basketball Coach. Even though Beilein
was doing everything in his power to change that. But Miles was also a basketball coach at a
football school, so he gets that piece of it.
And again, he was another victim of transfers and injuries. But he seemed to recruit okay – to LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
of all places, that cannot be the easiest place to recruit basketball players. Right now, he’s the associate director of
basketball operations at Creighton. However,
I’m not sure. I’ve got to think about
that one. And yes, it might be shooting
a hair too low.
I’m not thinking Michigan is the greatest
job in the world like everyone else seems to think. Michigan is a football school and if you’re a
coach that follows Beilein with 1 or 2 bad seasons where you don’t make the
NCAA’s or, heaven forbid, the NIT, people will want you gone. I don’t care what your pedigree is. See: Tommy Amaker.
Well, as I mentioned in the Miles comment, it’s
going to take a guy that can handle being at a football school. But yes, I agree it’s not Duke, Kentucky,
UNC, Indiana or a true blue-blood.
But still, I would think that most coaches would at least have the
discussion and visit Ann Arbor to see what the place looks like (if they haven’t
been there before). And yes, Tommy
Amaker was everything you’d want in a coach and that just didn’t work out. Manuel has his hands full.
I just read this article that has a
list of coaches that could replace Beilein.
It includes some of the guys you mentioned but there’s a couple of other
names in here worth considering: LaVall
Jordan and Juwan Howard.
I also saw this article yesterday and the Jordan and Howard
mentions were eyebrow raisers. Jordan is
a Beilein disciple and was the heir apparent before taking the Butler job. I still think he’s maybe too young, but
again, what do I know? Juwan Howard, on
the other hand, is currently an assistant coach for the Miami Heat and comes
from an era that a lot of Michigan Basketball fans love reminiscing about but
would also rather forget. I don’t think
Juwan was ever accused of anything (unlike Weber) but still, Howard may be too
much of a throwback for some Michigan fans that have enjoyed the 12 seasons of
Catholic School that was John Beilein.
I’m still pissed. Beilein lied to me at a Charity Breakfast. He said the only two jobs better than
Michigan would be an orphanage and prison.
The reasoning: orphans don’t have
parents and the prisoners don’t have pissed off alumni!
Very true. I can
still remember during the Caris LaVert injury season all the people (and
alumni) that wanted Beilein GONE! I
couldn’t believe what I was hearing but everyone thinks you can’t have a
rebuilding season or have a down year due to injuries and you have to be in
there every season battling for a championship.
Maybe we should get the smartest
basketball main in the world…knows everything, second guesses every action,
play and coach….Dan Dakich!
That, would be hilarious.
I think Dan has hung up the whistle or he’d already have a gig
somewhere.
Are you drinking yet?
No, not yet. Let’s
see what Warde does and then maybe it’ll be time to open up a bottle…
Hey – Pitino Sr. is still available!
If that were to ever happen, it will be the last time I
watch Michigan Hoops…
