"Fire this coach!": A Michigan Basketball tradition

I personally can't justify calling for a coach to be fired for two bad seasons with significant injuries for extended durations to major players.  That said, this team does need to change its mindset if they want to be competitors in the B1G this season and next.

I agree that you can't fire Beilein at this point. With that being said, I have this bad feeling that the program has plateaued under him. With the level we've been recruiting at, I just don't see how we'll be able to regularly contend for big ten titles going forward. I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see us competing with the elites going forward

Losing in the round of 32 in consecutive years with Big 10 champions is a terrible look.

John Beilein should not be fired. However, there are two issues that have cropped up consistently during his tenure that should be given a long, hard look.

1) Team defense. Good defensive teams under Beilein are the exception and not the rule. I have no idea why his teams seem to struggle so much and with such consistency on that end of the floor. Some of that can be explained by his penchant for sacrificing size for offensive efficiency (which explains are usually poor rebounding numbers), but there still seems to be a serious lack of improvement in that department. The biggest weakness is generally our bigs (save for parts of J-Mo's career and 5* McGary). In my opinion, that's both a coaching and recruiting issue.

2) Late and contested recruitments. Beilein has a keen eye for talent. It's not a coincidence that he ended up with 5 NBA players on one roster from a smattering of guys who were high 3*'s or low 4*'s when he first spotted them. But even with the greatest eye for talent, it's very difficult to have a consistent hit rate when you're grabbing guys two years or more before they graduate. It's obviously preferable to grab guys later in the process when you've seen more development. But Michigan just isn't in a position to do that, even when they've established relationships with recruits, because we can't seem to win late battles for guys. Granted, you're going to lose more battles than you win against the Duke's and Kentucky's of the world. However, he just can't seem to close when a kid wants to slow things down due to increased interest. Some will scream "bagmen" for every recruit who goes through that process, but I think that's a cop-out.

I agree with your logic, but IMO what has become so frustrating about Coach B's tenure is that the issues that hold the program back seem to remain unchanged.  Never playing good D or any D in this years case, constant lack of quality bigs, autobench pilosophy, and shooting 400 3's a game.  I wouldn't have a complaint if any of these things were ever improved upon.  Still agree we could do a million times worse (and did for about 20 years). 

It's not so much the losing as it is the way they're losing. All 7 losses this season are by at least 11 points. Last season, there were 8 losses by double digits (and that's not counting the OT losses to MSU or Illinois, which, how do you lose twice in one season by 10+ in OT?).

Combine the tendency to get blown out with the obvious recruiting issues, and it's tough to see a team capable of contending for conference championships anytime soon.

Dave Srack (Bill Buntin-Cazzie era) has attended many games and watched all that I could, in my subjective opinion only Steve Fisher was a better coach. In Fisher's case though I give him an asterisk because even if he did not knowingly countenance Ed Martin, he was at least grossly negligent with respect to oversight of Martin's contacts with the team.

I am Ok with not being Kentucky, or the equivalent if it entails digging down in the dirt and mud with them. Recruiting can almost always be better, but given the sel-imposed constraints, I think it has been very much acceptable, and I also give some credit for the fact that we did seem to be in the last 2 or 3 for a few bluechippers that went elsewhere.

I think a staff shakeup is necessary at this point. We need guys with recruiting chops, and Bacari is not getting it done molding the big men.

I agree that it would be insane to fire Beilein, but I do think the basketball program's struggles this season and last season should be an indication of which direction we should go in when he decides to call it quits. The only way to build an elite program that wins on a consistent basis is to recruit a core of physical big men, slashers, and versatile guards and play great defense. Beilein's system is being exposed as gimmicky.

What has Bacari ever done. He can't recruit or coach big men.

There's no question Beilein has been an overwhelmingly net positive for this program and the university community as a whole.

But at the end of the day, nice guy and clean program only goes so far. We can have both and still recruit the kind of personnel you need to compete in the Big 10. Beilein isn't doing that. The problem with a system coach is the system is great when it works, but infuriating when either it doesn't or you don't have the personnel to run it (whether through injuries or recruiting). 

Michigan has been dominating big man-averse for all but about one player for the last 15+ years. It's infuriating to watch when we get overmatched by a team like Michigan State because there's absolutely no physical presence inside. The game doesn't exist solely on the perimeter.

I'm not saying fire the guy, but there have to be some serious questions about personnel, system, and ultimately, the progression of the program's success. At some point, hanging our hat on the Trey Burke tournament only goes so far.

Orr's 1977 team went to Elite 8, losing to UNCC after beating Dick Vitale's UD team in sweet sixteen. I also am of the opinion that Beilein's seat should not even be warm based on what he has done.

We are not an elite basketball program, and, aside from a 10 year period between 1985 and 1995 we have never been able to sustain a run at the highest level for more than three to four years. There's one traditionally great program in the conference, IU, and one with a historically great coach who has been able to sustain greatness for two decades, MSU.

We have losing records, all time, against half of the original Big Ten.

In this, Beilein has actually managed to sustain a good program for a while, one whose accomplishments stack up with the best coaches in the history of the program, especially having to deal with a decade long tournament drought caused by one of the largest scandals in the sport's history.

History usually repeats itself for a reason. I don't believe we're as well set up as we think we are.