Why John Beilein is 1st on Michigan's basketball Mt. Rushmore
I recall a post 4 or 5 years ago ranking Michigan basketball coaches. Everyone agreed that Beilein was up there, but some thought that Fisher, Orr or Strack (all great coaches) had done as much or more. As someone who has had tickets since the late 90s I think that this article does an excellent job of summarizing how far we've come. The 2009 tournament bid was a revelation (Crisler was half full for the televised announcement), and back then the idea that we'd be finalists twice in 5 years was something that no one would've thought possible.
In any case, this article puts what Beilein has accomplished in the last decade in outstanding perspective and I think is worth a read:
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/basketball/john-beilein-michigan-…
I'm only 24 but am pretty confident Beilein is and will be my favorite Michigan coach of any sport in my lifetime. I love Harbaugh but I can't think of any coach who's done more with less hyped recruits than Beilein. And most importantly, he shows such charisma and upstanding values that are so rare in today's college sports.
April 16th, 2018 at 10:14 PM ^
As a young fan myself, I'll second that. John Danowski, Duke's lacrosse coach, is one of the only other comparable coaches I can think of. He had to take over after the scandal in 2006, after which he won three national titles and went to eight consecutive final fours. But, he hasn't made the final four since 2014 and he's on the back nine of his career. But this year, they're a top five team again, so we'll see.
April 17th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
April 17th, 2018 at 11:22 AM ^
I think he recruits very well, but let's make it clear that we NEVER beat the "blue blood" programs for a star (and given our player development, I'm perfectly OK going for 3-4 year players). And in basketball where 1 player can make a huge difference, it's impressive we've racked up so many wins without the 1-and-done's. While other teams have fallen flat on their face with their 5 stars and McDonald's All Americans (Looking at you, Izzo).
April 16th, 2018 at 10:00 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 10:12 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
Ed Martin didn't show up suddenly when Fisher was hired. And if not for a rollover accident, we may never have heard of him either.
April 16th, 2018 at 11:38 PM ^
So, if he inherited the mess, he inherited the team. And I find it hard to believe that he “just has no idea” about Ed Martin while he was and assistant coach. Everyone involved in Detroit basketball knew who Ed Martin was. Steve Fisher doesn’t deserve the whitewash you want to give him. He was a cheat, and deserves to be remembered as the guy that ruined UM basketball.
He knew who Ed Martin was. They were in the same locker room after games when Fisher was the head coach. Point I'm making is that Frieder was the one to let the boosters into the locker room and we likely wouldn't know Ed Martin's name if not for the rollover accident.
But you're letting Tom Goss off the hook if you only blame Fisher for the mediocre basketball from 1999 until Beilein's arrival. Ellerbee was a terrible hire. I get the interim title for one season, but he never should've been given the job full-time.
Tom Goss helped ruin UM basketball just like he tried to ruin the Big House with the stupid "halo" around the stadium.
Fisher was in deep with the bball program long before he became head coach. My God, man, use your brain! Aside from 'inheriting' the '89 team, he recruited the Fab Five (and Louis Bullock and Robert Traylor, et all). And if you don't think he knew who Bill Martin was and what he was doing, then you also believe that Rick Pitino didn't know anything about hookers.
But you are absolutely correct about the rollover. If not for that, Fisher would have made sure that we had no idea who Martin was, or what he was doing...
I'm just saying that he wasn't the one to originally give Martin access to the players in the locker room.
April 16th, 2018 at 10:59 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 11:32 PM ^
lol wut
Fisher can be blamed for the Ed Martin scandal, but it wasn't his choice to hire Ellerbe as his successor.
I have to upvote this because its technically correct. But you brought Brian Ellerbe into a thread about John Beilein. You deserve all of the negs! (So I downvoted...)
April 16th, 2018 at 10:23 PM ^
And away we go.
April 16th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^
April 17th, 2018 at 12:15 AM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 10:04 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 11:01 PM ^
On all counts. FWIW - one of my fraternity brothers was the team manager from 79-81 so I got to go into the locker room and on the court when the team wasnt practicing. His assessment was Frieder was the "real" HC and by then Orr was basically just a figurehead and a head coach in name only.
Those were fun teams that never got the signature win they needed to get invited to the final 48 (16 less teams got to go back then)
Mike McGee
Thad Garner
Tim McCormick
Marty & Mark Bodner
And yes, Beilein would be Head Coach #1 in my book too.
I also go back to the Orr days, and will not hesitate to place Beilein at #1 all time...
April 16th, 2018 at 10:15 PM ^
He has won mutliple B1G titles in both regular seasons and tournaments. He has won with less and beaten rivals mutliple times. He did it as a clean coach in profession that is pretty much dominated by dirty recruitings. You never have to worry about players getting in trouble or team turmoil because JB emphasize characters as well as cohesiveness of the team as a puzzle pieces.
He literally had to build the program from scratch. Granted Tommy Amaker did a nice job of pulling them out of probabtion and into a team that makes the NIT bid, he couldn't get them over the hump which is NCAA tournament. JB build them up and made his program into a National title contender which is amazing considering the expectation when he first inherted the program.
He is the winningest coach in Michigan Men's Basketball history. The only thing left to do is to win the National Championship.
April 16th, 2018 at 10:21 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 11:12 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 11:21 PM ^
he's referencing B1G Tourney Championships? I personally have a hard time believing Coach B. won't have a National Championship before he steps away from the bench.
And he'll also have a court named after him as well...
April 17th, 2018 at 10:05 AM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 10:24 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 10:44 PM ^
I love listening to Beilein's press conferences... man is so genuine and humble to a fault... i am always struck by how he never fails to mention the University of Michigan and how he always thanks fans during these tournament runs.
add to that, he's a heck of a coach... and his integrity is beyond reproach.
He has a lifetime role at Michigan imo, in whatever capacity he feels comfortable at.
April 17th, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^
I agree. I love how he puts the University out front and uses that as one of the primary motivating factors for his team. It's about Michigan first. It has trickled down and become a pervasive philosophy entrenched into his players. Watch a Mo interview.
April 16th, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^
April 16th, 2018 at 11:58 PM ^
I love Coach Beilein. And I think most of his players do as well. Great teacher, great character, great preparation, great coach.
I've said it before, but I remember the wildness and lack of control under Bill Frieder. And also what happened under Steve Fisher. And of course, wandering in the wilderness after that. I'm thrilled at what coach Beilein has done for the program.
Honestly, I'd love to see Jim Harbaugh do the same kind of thing.
I think Harbaugh is on his way to doing that. Last season was an aberration, but we didn't hear about any turmoil in the locker room when things went bad. And we didn't see any, either. Like Beilein fixing his assistants every now and then, Harbaugh appears to have done the same. Lets hope he sees similar results to what Beilein experienced!
I was just entering my Michigan fandom in the early 90s (vaguely recall my dad freaking out in '89), and enjoyed the Fab Five, but with all the trouble that followed that era had a sour feeling.
Then after all the false hope of the Amaker years, Beilein and his basketball teams have been a constant source of joy and pride. Even in the injury plagued years, his players showed improvement that was at least encouraging and hopeful.
I remember when he was hired and a good friend of mine (a Sparty) kept giving me point after point about why he couldn't hack it in the Big Ten (Too finesse, 1-3-1's a gimmick, doesn't rebound). Man it sure has been fun seeing how wrong he was and to watch Beilein do it all with class, humility and enthusiasm.
Here's to many more years, I hope.
April 17th, 2018 at 12:17 PM ^
...look there's no doubt JB IS now the greatest BB Coach of the last 20 years, and will be remembered as legend as he should be. There is no better or classier coach in the land and I was one who didn't support him before the plane slid off the the runway and the team started winning but comments about the amount of joy being comparable to 89-93/94 are plain silly.
If you think that the last 5 years 2 improbably runs and finals appearances brought more joy than the 1989 championshipa and the FAB 5 then you are a complete moron.
Those were glorious days and what happened after that frankly had nothing to with coaching. There was an element that got into Michigan and many other schools, which probably exists today 10x but isn't being checked, got exposed and yeah that screwed things up a lot but these teams aren't nearly as fun and any who says that or negs me for it go right ahead you are voting for your own status on the mount Rushmore of sports idiots.
As Jalen Rose said no one even remembers the starting players for the teams they lost to but they are making documentaries about those teams. No one outside of Michigan will remember the starting 5 of our teams either. And by the way Steve Fisher always had class. I don't care if he got caught up in a scandal that he inherited or not and there's a reason he went on to make SD ST an overacheiving ranked program after he left Michigan.
The 1989 Michigan team wasn't ever as exposed dirty and gave us way more joy (as a student celebrating on the streets of Ann Arbor in those days I have pictures which I can show you about that) than these sort of fluky runs the past few years. I can give you the soure taste of the fab 5 but if you think this was "more fun", you weren't really paying attention in 1989 or 92/93 when you said you started following the team.
No Doubt he's the savior of the basketball program and will hopefully cement his legacy with multiple NCs someday. Great man. Great coach. Does it all with extreme class. But "more Joy" than the 90s. You seriously have no idea.
for the entire profession, at least at the college level.
My friends are expecting this comment, so I'm gonna go there again. Orr was up there too. I find it to be incredibly interesting to hear Beilein say that he pulled action from "the old Johny Orr offense."
April 17th, 2018 at 10:22 AM ^
Belien has returned Michigan to National Blueblood status and the future looks great..What hes done since arriving is Amazing...Hoping hes around for 20 more years