C.J. Lee on Beilein, Michigan Experience
We learned earlier in the week that C.J. Lee would leave his position as Director of Program Personnel to join (Beilein protégé) Mike Maker at Marist, as Maker's assistant coach. C.J. Lee was in the unique position of watching the program rise from the doldrums of the post-Amaker/Ed Martin era to its current stature.
Today we have an ARTICLE from Brendan Quinn replete with C.J. Lee insights on the program and on Beilein in particular. It's worth your time to read, but here's a quote to whet your appetite, relaying Lee's observations on how Beilein has changed over the years:
“There isn’t a noticeable difference in him, but he says it to me in personal conversations all the time, ‘I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t been willing to change and listen to others,’” Lee replied. “That’s what stands out. He keeps learning and continues to develop, which is crazy. I mean, he’s 61 years old and keeps getting better.”
It will surprise very few here that Beilein was instrumental in getting C.J. in front of Maker for this opportunity.
Coach Beilein brings things to the table that you don't often find in major college sports. Pitinio, Calipari, and others might give you a better chance at a national title, but I would consider a trade of Coach Beilein for one of those guys for exactly zero seconds. The value of the MBB team will go beyond wins and losses for at least as long as John Beilein is around.
Gotta give Calipari props, though, he brings things to the table that Beilein could never dream of, like NCAA violations...
I don't think it's Pitino and Clapari giving the better shot at a national title. If they were at Michigan and could not run an NBA farm team under the guise of a college team, they would not do nearly as well as Beilein has done.
Awesome article, thank you for posting.
I imagine Lee will be very successful as an assistant coach. Hopefull one day he can return to Michigan and join their coaching ranks.
It wasn't long ago that CJ and David Merritt were key pieces to our rag tag tournament team - no offense to those guys in particular - but just 5ish years later we've made consecutive Elite 8's, we're just churning out NBA players, and the expectation is to compete for the Big Ten title and make the tournament every year
I'm not sure anyone dared to dream Beilein was going to take the program this far when he was hired on as a 'system' coach who 'couldn't recruit'
I never disliked Beilein (how could you?), but I thought he was a system coach who would give us an occasional Kevin Pittsnogle-player, but mostly live and die by the three. I figured that periodic tournament appearances would be the top-end result, and that we would be looking to move on to a more storied coach. Happily, I was wrong as wrong can be.
Beilein has proven to be visionary with both his recruiting and the Xs and Os, and also appears to be one of the most fundamentally decent coaches around. He not only wins, but does it in an honorable way. I couldn't be happier with him as a coach for Michigan.
That's not entirely accurate as former assistant Mike Jackson left to join Painter's staff at Purdue. He wasn't fired and, actually, Beilein was not at all happy that Mike left. That said, current staff is indeed great.
Can Beilein coach offensive lines?
Zak Irvin should suit up at DE. He's massive looking. LeVert looks nothing like he did two years ago:
The Big 3 got after it today! #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/kpt6MrmXmA
— Jon Sanderson (@CampSanderson) July 18, 2014
I halfway expect next year's team to somehow be made up largely of high school juniors.
Great article. Thanks for sharing that!
I've found that John Beilein probably embodies the very basic philosophy that was put forth back in the wild west days of Continuous Improvement - "everyday, a little up". He has made measured improvements over time to turn Michigan from a program that was stagnating at a level below its own expectations and turned it into an increasingly self-perpetuating power. I don't know that there are many coaches nowadays that can claim that they fundamentally changed a program like Beilein.
Whet your appetite... learned something new today
Strip away the history of some schools (UK, UNC, Duke, IU, UCLA, etc.) that are going to help any coach in America. Strip away the reputation of coaches (Coach K, Roy Williams, Izzo, Cal, etc.) which are earned, but says more about your past than the present.
Take away those two things and Beilein is the BEST coach in America.
Now of course in reality you can't take away those things, they're earned and should be accounted for...but what I'm saying is if you put Beilein at UNC and give him the reputation of Roy Williams. He's a better coach right now than Roy Williams at UNC with the reputation of Roy Williams.
Those guys can recruit, demand respect and win off of their institutions and reputations, and rightfully so...take nothing away from them. But give me Beilein every day of the week. You put the same mask on every coach in America and put them all at the same school with the same talent and I'm better Beilein's got the best program over time. (I'll take Shaka second - great coach).
Beilein has built a foundation and a playing style that is going to be around for a VERY long time. It'll be nice to (hopefully) see Jordan take over for him once he finally decides to retire (which I hope is never).