Interesting Tweet from ESPN's National Recruiting Director About Beilein's Motives
Not sure how to embed a tweet, so here's the link and the text:
"Had coffee with John Beilein in Atlanta during the live period. He loved Michigan, but was frustrated with the new NBA draft rules. Roster continuity was an issue with his good players. The FBI situation also had him questioning much about the college game."
So what some people were guessing about Beilein is apparently true. And I guess you can't really blame Beilein. It must be really frustrating trying to coach a clean basketball program right now and also have your best players jump to the NBA the last few years, regardless of whether he thinks they're ready. This might be a hot take, but I think it even could be possible that a guy like Jordan Poole could've been a straw that broke the camel's back
Uh, I think this has been stated about 10x already, but thanks for the info.
It's been speculated about 100 times already by people here on the board. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time it's been substantiated by somebody who would actually know it to be true.
Thanks OP.
I think this or something like it was the source for the speculation? But this is a pretty concrete tweet. It makes sense, and it seems telling that Beilein is actually saying this to a guy in the media that follows recruiting.
Woj's original story basically said the same thing.
Stepping back from the M-centric view, I think the game is at somewhat of a turning point. There is just so much corruption, and no punishment, that the floodgates are going to open one way or the other. Either we start paying players, or schools (even those that previously followed the rules) will have no choice but to pony up whatever it takes.
I am at the point where I applaud this move by JB, because it may be just the thing to start a conversation about fixing college basketball(please ?).
It just sucks, because he is the best coach I will probably ever see at Michigan.
you just nailed what I am thinking...this blows HUGE but this should be a fuckin wake up call
A fuckin' wake up call to whom? College basketball? John Beilein leaving for the NBA will be forgotten by just about everyone except us within a week or two. It will have no impact on the direction of college basketball. Or is it us who needs a wake up call? If that's what you mean then it is truly depressing because it suggests we have to join the win-at-all-costs crowd and to hell with the rules.
I’m in Brian’s camp on this one. Run a program free of criminal and academic impropriety, everything else is free game.
Wellp
Absolutely can't blame him.
He's a great coach and (by all accounts) human being, so very happy for him.
Sucks for us.
Here's the deal: pro is better than college.
Yes, college may be better than pro for some coaches, but the jobs themselves are more prestigious in pro.
He has his chance to coach in the pros and he's taking it. He's more than earned it, and he is the best head coach in Michigan basketball history
In terms of job security, pro is absolutely not better than college. Beilein had a golden ticket to coach for as long as he wanted to at Michigan. I won't be surprised if he's fired from Cleveland within two years.
Name checks out. The NBA - where Coach of The Year is collecting unemployment checks within 36 months. 5 years ago wouldve been the time to go. I think these two early departures were too much along with the pouting. If he is going to coach might as well coach players that he gets a say when they go. I have been saying for years the NBA execs keep going after his players when its actually him and his system they want/need. Good luck coach.
So I was right all along. Who knew?
Cant fault him at all. Everyone around you is paying players and you wont. Coupled with no player loyalty because it's all about $$$. Hard to compete in that environment
Incredibly difficult to perform when the deck is stacked against you.
If this is true - and I suspect it is - then he needs to come clean about all of it. If he's leaving college basketball because of draft rules, then he needs to explicitly explain what it is about them that he doesn't care for. Also, if he's leaving because he's questioning the college game, he needs to explicitly state those questions and spell out what's bothering him so much.
Does he have to do this? Certainly not. Should he? Absolutely. Nothing gets fixed until it's shown the light of day. If he cares as much as he's said he does, he should try to help fix it by opening some of the blackout curtains hanging over the sports' windows...
He's leaving to go to the NBA, not to ditch the college game. However, the NBA can be more attractive when elite status in college is impossible to achieve ethically.
Maybe difficult but not impossible. Duke is an elite program that wins without cheating.
While I agree, Beilein does not seem like the type of guy to do this
I know... I would be hugely (bigly?) surprised if he did. But I sure hope he does!
IMHO, it would be good if Beilein makes such disclosures. But if he does so, and no changes are made, does he burn chances for returning to the college game if NBA coaching doesn't work out?
At his age who gives a shit...has enough money to retire and support his family generations to come. Go out blazing, two fingers up, call out the shit..fuck the system
He is 66. I could think of very little work I would embrace that closely at that age, especially given his compensation.
This is a great take. The coaches have been protecting each other's asses for years, even the clean ones, because nobody wants to burn bridges and because there is already so much hypocrisy from the NCAA. I would love to hear Beilein just dismantle the NCAA as a swan song. Call the fuckers out by name as the corrupt toothless stooges that they are. They'll punish a kid like Mitch McGary and arguably ruin his career, and yet they'll let the thugs get away with murder and keep their jobs. Fuck the NCAA!
I really hope he does some interviews where he says that part of his reason for leaving was the frustration with the corruption in college basketball. The cleanest coach in the game left because of all the cheating. That says something about something
Here's the embed:
I don't know that Beilein could be that ignorant of what is going on--he has been in the sport for decades and has been involved with high-end recruits--but perhaps he has simply lost patience with the open disregard for ethics in the sport.
I mean, just a couple of weeks ago the Lester Quinones visit was cancelled, and we saw LSU involved and said, "well, yeah, of course." But when it's Beilein trying to put a team together and everyone KNOWS Wade is dirty and he's getting guys Beilein wants anyway... that's got to hurt. The NBA might be a star-dependent players league but at least everything is over the table.
i think you are right SRJK. beilein finally reached the point where he said, 'forget this. no way to compete in an arms race when i'm/we're unarmed and when i do find a kid that is under the radar, i develop him into a pro and he leaves immediately, thus allowing me to harvest almost none of the developmental seed i've sown'
One can hope that Beilein speaks from his new platform about the college recruiting corruption.. maybe he can go public and be frank about exactly whats going on, now that hes out of it.
He may want to allude to it in an interview, but it really isn't Beilein's job to call this out. Especially now. If you don't have any juice to fix it, then it's a fool's errand to go out bitching.
The only guy on this campus that could and should finally start the frank, painful conversation is Schlissel. The university presidents are the only ones who can legislate any change within the NCAA. If this is not in Schlissel's list of priorities, then don't expect any griping from Ann Arbor, including Warde.
I think it's a mistake to call Beilein ignorant. He knows what's going on, but that doesn't stop some details from being distressing.
I also think the tweet and we are also overselling the most recent events. Beilein was prepared to leave a year ago. I don't doubt he would have if the Pistons had offered. Nothing changed to keep him here.
There are no clean programs. Stop kidding yourself.
There are only programs that are more organized and better at insulating the coaches from the money.
As Michigan basketball fans we should know this. There is a history after all.
mr. fake-hammerstein, i knew mike hammerstein, mike was a friend of mine, and you sir (or madam) are no mike hammerstein. there are exactly zero accounts of michigan hoops program being dirty in what, over a quarter of a century? and the one black mark was by a guy who bought kids for himself as influence, not so they would attend any particular school.
so nice new account. hammer would never troll.
Also that apostrophe implies that somehow Hammerstein (who played in the '80s) had something to do with the year '66 and not the number #66.
I guess Beilein being almost unanimously voted the cleanest head coach in the NCAA is just fake news?
How much money do you think players at Michigan end up with? Hundreds? A couple grand maybe?
LSU, Dook, UNC, Arizona, etc?
I think it was definitely the lack of consequences at Arizona and LSU. College basketball has always had its share of shady characters, but the corruption is so blatant now and yet still not being punished. So understandably, Coach said, "why bother?"
I would guess the opposite. Poole and Brazdeikis were probably more likely to jump to the NBA since they knew Beilein was about to leave. And no, coaching players like Poole, etc. in college is positive, especially compared to coaching highly paid mercenaries in the NBA.
As for the college game in general, it is quite dirty and amateurism is a joke. Beilein never really has a chance at the most elite players who are getting paid to go elsewhere. Beilein's a great recruiter but he's clean and the disadvantages from being clean probably annoyed him. He lost a championship game to a completely dirty team, for pete's sake.
This just makes me scream. When the coach best suited to the game(college basketball) who runs it the way you should(clean) still can’t stand the institutional cluster fuck. You’re game is screwed up royally.
Yes, co-sign. This ought to be a sign for the NCAA of how screwed up things are, but I won't hold my breath.
Good take and I completely agree. When one of the maybe ~6 elite coaches who is running a clean program bolts to the NBA because he can't take it anymore, that's how you know shit has hit the fan and changes need to be made
Likely unpopular opinion but here it goes anyway. I don't want the program to be clean anymore. Pay the kids. Buy their parents a house. Some kids and their families getting money is far from the worst thing in the world. I personally don't think any less of any of the Fab Five for getting benefits from Ed Martin and whoever. As long as we don't allow players to go full Izzo I just dont care if they get under the table benefits anymore.
Pay them kids.
I feel like now is not the best time to do that
Yeah, I feel like maybe Beilein finally threw up his hands and said I quit. I'm sure college basketball recruiting has been dirty for decades. Beilein knows this but he's risen up the ranks. Now he's universally regarded as a top 5-10 coach in college basketball with a stellar resume of tournament performance and putting guys in the NBA and he's getting beat out by effing LSU paying guys under the table. How frustrating is it to work your ass off for decades only to reach the top and realize the new blood slimeballs can build a better roster than you by cheating? It's gotta be infuriating.
Everyone knows it's going on and the NCAA is 100% unable or unwilling to do squat about it. We can thank the NCAA for Beilein leaving
Being frustrated about slimy NCAA basketball while going to work for slimy Dan Gilbert seems a bit ironic, but whatever.
Totally agree but IMO thats the most important piece of this...seems like he doesnt give a shit, didnt matter what team came calling, cavs are a dumpster fire he knows he is going to lose badly, he is working for a guy who is a known ass hole, but he threw his hands up and said "fudge it"...
Plus, he's moving to CLEVELAND.
Poole's Dad got the ultimate revenge here.