Lindy's picks Michigan basketball to finish 7th in B1G

Submitted by Maizen on

http://www.umhoops.com/2016/09/09/michigan-picked-finish-seventh-big-ten-lindys-sports/

Lindy’s Sports preview magazine picked the Wolverines to finish seventh in the Big Ten this season.

The magazine bluntly questions Michigan’s ability to improve defensively.

“Who’ll get better on defense so opponents don’t shoot 51 percent on 2-pointers again?”

 

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atticusb

September 16th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^

Hey, don't you know that you're NOT ALLOWED to criticze Beilein's program.  He's awesome.  I mean, we did well in the tournament a few years ago, so shut UP!

/s

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Maizen

September 16th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^

Too many people would rather hold Beilein to the standard established in the Amaker/Ellerbe era instead of his salary peers in today's college basketball. Beielin will make $3.37 million dollars next year, which places him 6th in the country behind Calipari, Coach K, Bill Self, Roy Williams, and Tom Izzo. 

How Beilein compares to recent UM hoops coaches:

Johnny Orr - .649

Bill Frieder - .687

Steve Fisher - .692

John Beilein - .606

 

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ChiCityWolverine

September 16th, 2016 at 12:20 PM ^

To be fair, he came into a terrible situation. Throw out his first season, which was not his fault at all and that number rises to .639, the man deserves at least that. It is fair to say, though, that the LeVert/Irvin/Walton era has been a failure. Caris couldn't stay on the court, and neither Irvin nor Walton developed into more than solid B1G starters. Factor in Kam Chatman, major bust recruit, and the assumed core of 2014-2016 massively underachieved. 

The 2016-17 classes should define the third act of Beilein's tenure as UM's head coach. If those groups can play better defense and recapture the offensive magic of previous teams, we should be an annual B1G and Sweet 16 contender again. Whether the fresh blood (including the final scholarship that hasn't been handed out yet) or new assistants can help make that happen or it remains to be seen. 

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Maizen

September 16th, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^

Terrible situation? He inherited a team with Manny Harris, DeShawn Sims, and Epke Udoh that had gone 22-11 and 22-13 the previous two years before he arrived.

Beilein made it a terrible situation by shoving his system down the current rosters throat. Udoh decided to leave and that was that.

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ChiCityWolverine

September 16th, 2016 at 1:34 PM ^

That group lost pretty much all the leadership of previous teams (Lester Abram, Dion Harris, Courtney Sims, Brent Petway), instead passing the reigns to freshman Manny Harris who was a headcase volume scorer. Obviously talented, but Manny had a TON of growing up to do. Sophomore Sims was uneven and in his first season as a starter. Sophomore Udoh was an incredibly athletic rim protector, but too raw to be much more at the time. Later a high draft pick, but that was all for potential and turned into a bust. 

Sure, he had more talent than 10-22 suggests, but that team was destined to be a mess whether it was Amaker, Beilein, or John Wooden. The bounceback in Year 2 with freshmen Douglass and Novak despite the loss of Udoh was well worth bottoming out for, and not entirely a first year coach's fault. 

 

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CorkyCole

September 16th, 2016 at 1:33 PM ^

Best criticism with perspective I have seen yet. Appreciate your take on the situation. Actual analysis.

Don't just tell me Beliein sucks because the team was a fringe bubble team the last two years. That is not an argument. That is a very broad perspective with no in depth analysis. You aren't telling me why Beilein won't improve or what he did wrong. You're just telling me the results of the season - this is borderline ESPN crap. In fact, I believe even ESPN has done a better job than that.

Look at Kentucky a few years ago. NIT team with the talent Calipari recruited. What happened? His best player missed 3/4 of the season.

Beilein is not Calipari in any measurable way possible, but that is evidence that a young team with your star or stars hurt can devestate your season. That is the last two years at Michigan. If the team does not improve to a Sweet 16ish team this year, then I'd say let the criticism rain. He needs to show improvement. To not see WHY Michigan failed to meet expectations the last two years, however, takes no analytical work whatsoever and is extremely lazy.

Beilein has his weaknesses, but he also has his strengths. The key is improvement. And honestly health. Irvin should be closer to where he was before he hurt his back, and it still blows my mind that Freshman Walton was better than Junior Walton; I must believe that he had a similar setback with his injury in his sophomore year as he was TERRIBLE around the rim last year while he showed a lot of skills in that area his freshman year.

I'm not banking hope on La Bamba for next year, but if that somehow does happen we could soon see another swing back towards elite status. That is the one guy that has truly been missed the last two seasons. The new staff seems to be pretty solid with recruiting, and they are getting a lot of the guys they are targeting for 2017.

This is another long stupid post by me. I just seriously hope that our fans have an open mind with this season and support this team. If success rains again, I will not be surprised. I just hope the "Beilein sucks" crowd can suck up their ego enough to enjoy that success and admit that they were wrong if it does happen. If this season is another failure, I will probably be a lot closer to looking for a change as well. I just want to see what a healthy Beilein team looks like again.

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WorldwideTJRob

September 16th, 2016 at 1:46 PM ^

Noel missed the season and they were an NIT team, correct! He also came back the next year and won 30 something odd games in a row. Coach B lost his best player and we didn't even qualify for the NIT. Crean lost one of his best players last year and won the B1G title. Caris is a good player but most seem to forget we were getting clobbered by good teams in the out of conference schedule even when he played the last couple years. I think Beilein can coach but his recruiting is what has let him down recently. He has failed to get an impact player since the McGary class.



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CorkyCole

September 16th, 2016 at 4:31 PM ^

Last season we were also playing with a recovering Walton and Irvin along with the loss of our back-up PG who probably would have played near starter's minutes.

The season before we were without Caris again, Walton was hurt basically all year, and McGary was robbed of eligibility. Not to mention Horford bolted (which can partially be credited against Beilein).

We don't recruit enough 5*'s to be able to sustain those kind of injuries/turnovers and be able to recover from it. Yes, Beilein should be able to recruit better in order to reach that elite status, but I personally don't want to be the next Kentucky waiting for sanctions to smash our school back to the stone age again. While that still will probably never happen to Kentucky, Michigan isn't the kind of school to put up with that crap - we would send ourselves to the stone age if we were doing the kind of stuff Kentucky and Ole Miss are getting away with.

Michigan State is the kind of program I feel our basketball program should strive to be. Excellent coaching, consistent solid recruiting classes (and maybe the rare super elite class), and complete consistency with the success of the program. I think Beilein is more susceptible to inconsistency because of the fact that a lot of the guys he picks up are more project kids, and with injuries and quick turnover that just can't breed consistent elite success. That doesn't mean Beilein should be canned right now. A lot of bad luck (even bad recruiting luck) has plagued this team the last two years, and I think because of his successes that he should be given that opportunity to find success again.  If he can't, replace him. I think recruiting success has picked up in the 2016 and even 2017 classes, and like I said earlier, the 5* that is now showing up at our doorstep has the potential to be a game changer. Maybe the new staff can get him signed and sealed. I think we need to give the new staff a shot to see what they can do. That's all I'm saying.

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jmblue

September 16th, 2016 at 4:42 PM ^

The last two years have been unsatisfactory, but the injury toll has also been beyond the norm.  To have multiple guys suffer season-ending injuries is uncommon in this sport.   Not sure if there is something going on with our S&C program but I can't expect us to keep losing a couple guys a year for the season.

 

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CorkyCole

September 16th, 2016 at 1:49 PM ^

While true, that is probably because it is a lot easier to find reasons why the last two years were below expectations than why Beilein does in fact not know how to put a good basketball team on the court.

The problem is most of the Beilein haters were still Beilein haters when he had success. He plays a different style of basketball that is completely unlike any other successful Michigan team that stepped on the court, and some people just can't stand his style. Those individuals are a lot of the people who step up on these message boards and say "See how terrible Beilein is" as soon as it's apparent that this team is no better than a bubble team. That happened the year after the elite 8 season, and obviously it's more prevalant now with last season not being a complete turnaround from that.

That is where I have most of my issues. If you can't enjoy success because you don't like how the guy likes to play basketball, that is just absurd and egotistical. And it's an extremely similar comparison as to why Rich Rod was hated by some the moment he was announced as the new coach - there are people that did not want to see that style of football in the Big House. The only difference between those two is Rich Rod failed from the start and Beilein took a failure and turned it into a success story. (Beilein was criticized at the start of his career here as well). Now that he's failing again, however, it's easy to bring back the pitchforks and torches.

Sorry to bring up Rich Rod, but that is too easy of a comparison. They played a different style from what Michigan people were used to seeing, and so the criticisms come that much faster.

I wouldn't even argue that a lot of Michigan fans have this perspective that basketball and football should be played one way, but it is a thing for some people and that can't be denied. A lot of people just don't like change. Those individuals tend to stick out more and have a louder voice at times. And sometimes that voice just gets plain annoying.

I will add that it is understandable why we should all be disappointed in the last two years, but I see a lot more evidence as to why that happened that tells me that may not be an indication of the future of this program under Beilein. Therefore, I am not ready to give up hope on Beilein.

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Stringer Bell

September 16th, 2016 at 11:48 AM ^

Seems fair. Maybe a bit low, but it looks like we're definitely below MSU, Wisconsin, Indiana, and probably Purdue, and could easily finish below OSU and Maryland. I'd say anywhere from 5th-7th seems like a safe bet.

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ChiCityWolverine

September 16th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^

Feels like another bubble season, which makes 7th sound about right. The two X-factors for UM will be Wagner and Simpson. If Wagner takes a big step forward and/or Simpson is a high-level B1G player as a freshman, the ceiling could rise a bit. 

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