steve fisher

USATSI/Fuller/Opie Otterstad

Where does John Beilein rank among Michigan's all-time basketball coaches? This was a board question I began answering there until I realized I had written half a column and not written my Tuesday column. Part I explains my subjective criteria and covers Mather, Oosterbaan, Strack and Orr.

So without further ado..

Ado!

Huh?

Show the candidates chart again.

Candidates:

Coach	Seasons	Wins	Avg 30*	B10	NCAA**	AAs	NBA
John Beilein	2008-'14	150	18-12	2	2.14	2	3-8†
Steve Fisher	1989-'97	185	21-9	-	3.00	3	7
Bill Frieder	1981-'89	189	20-10	2	1.13	2	10
Johnny Orr	1969-'80	209	19-11	2	1.25	4	7
Dave Strack	1961-'68	113	17-13	3	1.88	4	7
Bennie Oosterbaan	1939-'46	81	16-14	-	-	-	2
E.J. Mather	1920-'28	108	20-10	3	-	4	-

Chart things:

• Wherever I list a year it means the season that began the fall in the year previous, e.g. 1969 = 1968-'69 seasion
• * Rather than winning % I showed their average record over a 30-game season.
• ** Average number of tournament games his teams would play in. A 1.00 means his team will make the tourney and go out in the 1st round. I took out the play-in rounds.
• † Manny Harris was recruited by Amaker but played his entire career for Beilein. Stauskas, GRIII, LeVert, and McGary at least can be counted as future NBA players. It's too early to say the same for Walton/Irvin but it's not a bad bet either.

Here's Part II. These got longer because now we're into my personal recollection period.

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Maloof is a skateboarding cup.

Bill Frieder (1981-'89)

Career at M: 9 seasons, 189 wins (68%), 2 Big Ten titles

All-Americans: Gary Grant (1988), Glen Rice (1989)

Avg NCAA Tourney: 1.13

Pros he recruited (NBA games): Glen Rice (1,000), Loy Vaught (689), Terry Mills (678), Gary Grant (552), Tim McComick (483), Rumeal Robinson (336), Roy Tarpley (280), Sean Higgins (220), Demetrius Calip (7), and Richard Rellford. [EDIT: Eric Riley (186)] That's 10 11 guys and 4,249 4,435 games.

[Continued after the jump]