Old John Beilein Article - 2010
This seems like a perfect opportunity for a history lesson.
As you remember, John Beilein was on the hot seat to start his fourth year at Michigan.
He had one season of success in his first three years, but that was with players recruited by the former coach.
HIs third year was supposed to be good, but at the begining of 2010 ......
Michigan may very well have been the most underachieving team in the entire nation, and it has now lost its two most talented players.....
Yeah, but what about that NCAA berth, you say? Well, Beilein rode a tandem of stars with very little around them ... and they were both recruited by Amaker. So you have a coach who has only had success based on using two players, and he didn't recruit either one of them.
To start his fourth year, things looked BLEAK. Article here.
Of course, Michigan is a current Division 1 team which is supposed to be competing in a power conference.
And the coach who was supposed to be turning this program around is entering his fourth season.....Basically, Beilein is not the answer Michigan thought it had last year at this time. The sooner the administration realizes it, the sooner it can begin to rebuild the program. Again.
Interesting? And, isnt it supposed to be easier to turn around a baskebtall program quicker (kids play earlier, etc.)?
If you are looking for an example of a football coach who looked lost after three years, look no further than Pat Narduzzi heading into his fourth year:
Pat Narduzzi, Michigan State defensive coordinator: Offense was hardly a problem for the Spartans in 2009. At 29.7 points per game, they ranked second in the Big Ten in scoring. However, the Spartans allowed 26.3 points per game, which ranked in the lower half of the conference. They weren’t much better last season on defense. The root of the problem has been a porous pass defense, one that allowed a league-high 267.6 yards per game. The Spartans have the offense, led by quarterback Kirk Cousins, to make a run at a league title, but questions remain on whether the defense improve enough to alleviate some of the pressure on the offense. If the defense can’t, head coach Mark Dantonio could be looking for a new defensive coordinator.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:08 AM ^
Nuff said.
A site called "Fire Pat Narduzzi". Classic.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:13 AM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 10:41 AM ^
I'm not dogging the OP for his choice of articles. It's just that HP sucks dockey balls (that article is just one of billions of examples) and there actually is/was a fire Pat Narduzzi site. That's funny to me.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:48 PM ^
for mis-spelling his own first name, however.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:42 AM ^
Those sentiments were echoed at ESPN, which considered the original piece well-founded, but maybe a little too harsh.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^
that Beilein cemented himself here was the dismantling of VCU in the tourney. Tournament was a little shaky prior to that point. Making it in is good but for a program with a lot of althletic department funds and resources it has to be a staple 7/10 years to do at least that.
February 25th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
I thought that moment would have been the conference championship with a bunch of nobodies and an underrecruited freshman PG that he recruited in the toughest basketball conference in the nation.
February 25th, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
Beilein was not under any kind of pressure entering last year's tournament. That's crazy talk.
The 2011 season, with the sweep of MSU and demolition of Tennessee in the first round of the tourney, took him off the hot seat for good. He's never given us reason to put him back on since.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 10:21 AM ^
Beilein learned how to coach in the fall of 2010. He was terrible, but now he's awesome. That's exactly how it works.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:41 PM ^
Not to mention Jimmy Chitwood pulled the whole, I play, coach B stays, he goes, I go card...
February 25th, 2014 at 12:54 PM ^
"I think we should vote again!"
February 25th, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^
If anybod wants some extra lulz, read what The Only Colors (MSU fansite), had to say after the game at the Breslin last year
February 25th, 2014 at 10:30 AM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^
We should all definitely email him that article, with the subject line 'Hey stupid, look at how stupid you were'
February 25th, 2014 at 10:41 AM ^
Done and done.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^
Already got a response from him. Judging by the response I'm guessing quite a few other people emailed him...
February 25th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
Just emailed him. haha. God I love the internet.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:54 PM ^
Yea, looks as if he sent out a mass reply to all the emails he got. At least he didn't go into a rage defending himself.
February 25th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^
Damn! I was kinda hoping for a email with a lot of rage. Either way, it's always nice to see mistakes come back to bite people in the ass.
February 25th, 2014 at 1:03 PM ^
What did he say?
February 25th, 2014 at 1:23 PM ^
He hasn't responded to me yet, but when he does I will be sure to post it. If email makes it to Bolivia that is.
February 25th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
"I regret nothing. Except the part where I stopped using facts to troll (can't argue with facts!) and started trying to prognosticate the future to troll. Also, I regret the bit where I said Beilein wasn't as good as Painter or Crean. So... I regret... some things. Congrats on the win(s), wouldn't mind another shot at you guys in the BTT (or, dare we dream, the final four, or something?)."
February 25th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^
A surprisingly eloquent response. I guess he has foot in mouth syndrome. He didn't even mention injuries once, which seems to indicate that not everyone associated with MSU uses that excuse. Thanks for posting!
February 25th, 2014 at 2:32 PM ^
Glad our discussion could be much more cordial this time around.
February 25th, 2014 at 3:31 PM ^
Me too. I honestly didn't realize it was you when I first posted, but occasionally I suffer from stick-up-ass syndrome. My apologies for yesterday's exchange.
February 25th, 2014 at 9:43 PM ^
This thread brought an MGoTear to my eye. Way to hug it out guys.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:38 AM ^
"four years and a 7-1 streak". I'll take 1 year and 3-0 since that post. Too bad he closed the comments.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^
This paragraph is the best:
If you're a UM fan after that game, I don't know, have patience and hope. Enjoy the last month and a half or so of Trey Burke, he's a hell of a player. Maybe you guys can beat MSU by 20+ in Ann Arbor. Maybe you don't choke away your Big Ten title shot this year. Maybe after the 2014 season, if you've won three straight in the rivalry to claw Beilein up to .500, and a Big Ten Title or two, maybe an Elite Eight, or a Final Four (or a Sweet Sixteen), we can revisit the subject. Maybe. But man, not today.
Well now...
February 25th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
So, I guess we can revisit the subject.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
What a fucking shitbag.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:54 PM ^
I couldn't have said it better myself.
February 25th, 2014 at 4:17 PM ^
After reading his response, "fucking shitbag" seems like a bit much.
This is why I don't do Twitter.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 10:46 AM ^
Meyer had been on the staff but was promoted. Alexander and Jordan were new. Change was good.
This was a delicious outtake of the article:
Maybe after the 2014 season, if you've won three straight in the rivalry to claw Beilein up to .500, and a Big Ten Title or two, maybe an Elite Eight, or a Final Four (or a Sweet Sixteen), we can revisit the subject. Maybe. But man, not today.
February 25th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooolllll
February 25th, 2014 at 10:33 AM ^
So your telling me there's a chance
February 25th, 2014 at 10:40 AM ^
Lo, he finished ninth on the Big Ten in his second year and then improved to a seventh-place finish in the conference in his thirdly year. A disappointing turn, to be sure. But fear not! All coaches improve and achieve the highest levels of acclaim given only time and patience. Onward, Ellerbe!
February 25th, 2014 at 10:47 AM ^
The point is clearly that you ave to have patience to figure out if you have an Ellerbe or a Beilein.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:58 AM ^
Ellerbe had little experience and no track record of success.
Beilein had a great deal of experience and a solid track record of success (albeit at WVU).
Would that help the analysis?
February 25th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 1:22 PM ^
In hindsight it seems surprising that we gave Amaker that long, but if you look at his yearly progress, it wasn't that strange.
2001-02 - 11-18 (5-11) record, about the same as the previous year's.
2002-03 - 17-13 (10-6) - a big improvement over '02. Banned from the postseason.
2003-04 - 23-11 (8-8) - just missed the tourney but won the NIT championship
2004-05 - 13-18 (5-11) - the year of all the injuries and Horton's suspension. Hard to evaluate him that year.
2005-06 - 22-11 (8-8) - an unequivocal disappointment. This should have been a tourney team. Lost in the NIT final.
2006-07 - 22-12 (8-8) - also a disappointment, led to his dismissal. Lost in the NIT second round.
You could have made the case for firing Amaker after year five, but probably not before then. He did improve the program from where he inherited it, but then it plateaued at the NCAA bubble level.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
What is interesting to me is that people were willing to run a coach who had won about 5 out of every 8 games he had coached across three programs before Michigan out of town during that 15-17 season, and indeed at various points after that when we would slump.
Admittedly, it is hindsight now, but I did get a chuckle out of the statement in the one piece that said we would not have been any worse off (at the time it was written) if we had kept Tommy Amaker. I think to myself, "Perhaps not worse, but sure the ceiling is so much higher with Beilein and here we are getting a look at how good we can be with the right pieces in place, right pieces like John Beilein."
February 25th, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
I remember conversations on the board where people were questioning whether he was the right guy or not.
February 25th, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
The bottom line is even when you think you know what's going on, you don't. It might work, it might not. Like with Beilein, only time will tell.
February 25th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^