Exit John Beilein. Seriously.
I don't even know what to say man. I have stared at this tweet for five solid minutes trying to figure out how someone hacked Woj's account:
Michigan’s John Beilein has agreed to a five-year deal to become coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 13, 2019
Woj then followed that up with a confirming tweet, but we are all asleep and will wake up in 10 minutes and be like "whoah what a weird dream"
Talks escalated over the weekend, with a deal reached on Sunday, league sources tell ESPN. Beilein informed his administration on Monday morning of his decision to make leap to NBA, and is telling his players now. https://t.co/qH749G3c3d
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 13, 2019
Brendan Quinn has confirmed it as well. John Beilein has left a program he turned into a national power to work for Dan Gilbert on one of the worst teams in the NBA. "Stunned" doesn't quite cover it. I just keep typing the start of sentences and deleting them. Reality is no more I am a salad potato
We're cursed.
Seriously, you look at how we get players who come out of nowhere and then leave early for the NBA. MSU somehow manages to get their 5 stars to stay longer than they should. Izzo has flirted with the NBA dozens of times but never left. And now our best coach of all time won't even finish his career here.
Don't get me wrong, basketball has had a ton of success over the last decade and we should be thankful, but there could have been so much more.
With respect:
I'm not a huge basketball fan, so my impression may be wrong, but...
before Coach B it seems like we were flirting with tire-fire dom. He came in, got us serious success, made us respectable, and did it with a reputation for being clean and having high integrity.
It was nice to watch the FBI probe and not worry. It was nice to go to the finals.
I'm not sure how much more there could be. His was a very successful run by any stretch.
It absolutely was and like I said we should be thankful.
But you think about some of the coaches out there right now (and in past history) who are iconic to their schools. Izzo, Coach K, etc, and you know they're ending their career there. I thought we had that with Beilein.
Just to show how far we've come. There was a massive event at Crisler during selection Sunday because we had a chance to make the big dance finally after 10 years off. Now, we have made multiple runs to the Finals, had multiple sweet 16s, elite 8s, FFs, and competed with the best of the B10. Feel like Red when Andy gets out of Shawshank "I just miss my friend (coach)."
Really don't want to make this about Izzo. However must be frustrating for Beilein running a clean program and seeing how things play out in EL. Here's to John and an our next great coach.
I don't know if anyone shares this opinion, but last year, after JB's bypass surgery, he seemed different. Notwithstanding the game he was thrown out of, he seemed to lack the fire he had before.
He did seem different. I actually think seemed different specifically after the Penn State game where is was thrown out, and after a couple of the ref-show hatchet jobs we endured on the road toward the middle of mid-season play. I can't say that I blame them. He was a coach who deserved more respect than he was getting, and I think it pissed him off, frankly.
There is a confluence of three huge factors and one lesser factor that may have changed him:
1. Do not forget the plane crash. That would remind anyone of their mortality and their lifetime bucket list.
2. The aforementioned heart surgery. Ditto as a mortality reminder.
3. He is 65 years old. Ditto again.
4. Next year he would be rebuilding the starting five, again, as three starters leave.
God bless John Beilein in his future career and life. He deserves whatever he gets. Thank you, Bill Martin!
That is the only reasonable explanation.
We have now seen how recruiting is run with having to negotiate 6 figure payouts to kids. I can't imagine how quickly that has to get old. Don't blame Coach one bit. I wish him all the best and am grateful for all he did for our porgram.
Yeah, I can't really blame him. And the fact that Kansas and Arizona and LSU have not only not been nuked yet but there are guys favoring those schools over Michigan because they're getting paid, had to be a big factor.
When you're running a clean program and having a ton of success and some crap program is willing to just pay a guy out from under you and the NCAA doesn't do anything about it, welp, see ya.
Promote Yaklich to head coach!
Yacklich, Saadi Washington, Billy Donovan, Nate Oats from bama?
Nate Oats is gonna make 2.46m next year at Alabama. Shouldn’t be too hard to beat that, especially with the draw of him coming back home and coaching a top tier basketball program.
I loved Nate Oats at Buffalo, was great there and impressively consistent at the MAC level, which is very difficult (most guys that get promoted get one or two good years and you can't really tell if it's just a great recruiting class, he did it for several more years than that).
That said, he is a very, very different style than Michigan. It would be a huge transition for the program. It may lead to more long term success, but it would be a reset on what Beilein has done.
Nate Oats has the easiest style of basketball to learn and it fits in with what JB's philosophy is. Get to the basket or chuck a 3.
No thanks on Oats he is so easy to scout its sicking. He will struggle at Bama. And Space you are showing your age. The MAC hasn't been good in a very long time.
Wasn't saying the MAC was good (it's solid, but far from a better mid-major), was saying that almost all teams in the MAC go up-and-down depending on roster any given year, while Oats was consistent over 4 years, showing it was more than just roster.
Buffalo was only good for the last two years. His first two years, they were around 140th in Torvik which is worse than Buffalo's 8 year average before he arrived. He inherited a team from Bobby Hurley that was 71st in Torvik and they dropped to 135th (granted, I'm sure there was significant turnover).
Nate Oats resume is barely better than John Groce's when he was hired by Illinois. He's very much just a guy that fits into the one or two years of success at a MAC program mold you mentioned.
TB2003 thank you for this. Oats is a fraud and that will be exposed shortly.
It's Patrick Beilein time!!
I hear Ellerbe is available.
I think Ellerbe to Beilein within a six year period was the largest coaching upgrade a program has probably ever made.
I love Yacklich, and I know there is a lot of passion for him because of the amazing work he has done with the defense. But look at his career. Six years ago he was a struggling high school head coach. There was a reason Saddi Washington was the top assistant. While Oakland was also a bit up and down during Washington's tenure there, he was an associate head coach there and was probably on the head coach path (albeit at a much lower level). If the idea is to stay the course in-house, Washington is likely the better choice (though how that may end with Yacklich might not be a net positive).
Struggling high school coach? Struggling high school coaches usually don't get hired as assistants to D1 programs.
There are a several things about high school coaching that matters here: 1) he coached at a public school that wasn't inner city where there's school choice, which means he couldn't recruit and basically had to go with the players he had. 3) he didn't even struggle: he had good teams. His last one went the the regional finals. He had a 64% win pct at Joliet High. Beilein's win % at Michigan? 65%. Would you say Beilein struggled at Michigan?
His success in 6 seasons at the D1 level is staggering. To see the improvement at Illinois State is remarkable and the reason he was hired at Michigan. His success at Michigan speaks for itself.
The key thing to remember about him is that he was hired by Beilein because he's a great teacher, not just an x's and o's guy. He clearly gets his guys to play hard and execute. That's the most important attribute a coach can have.
If they can't get an absolute home run like Jay Wright or Tony Bennett, they should hire Yaklich.
I think Rick Pitino should be available
I'm sure Amaker is putting out feelers...
Thomas Wolfe.
I think we should just connect all the Catapult Monitors to the WOPR.
Christ, Dan Gilbert and the Cav’s...grass ain’t always greener, why Coach B!?! Why!?!
To me it's obviously the challenge and the NBA talent. He wants to have fun with his offensive mind. Now the Cavs are a long way from having that talent. So much be the challenge. This guy is driven; different mindset than most of us.
Yeah as much as people can't believe it based on the state of the team or the Pistons a couple years ago when Beilein flirted with them, usually teams have a coaching vacancy for a reason. If a guy wants to coach in the NBA, you can't just wait for Popovich to retire or something. You're not likely to walk in to a place where everything is set up for you to win.
But you could wait for a good, but struggling franchise to come around like Brad Stevens did the the Celtics
Beilein's 66. If he wants an NBA opportunity, clock's kinda ticking.
And even tho the Cavs are a horribly run disaster, every single NBA job is better than every single college job. It's the NBA.
Maybe the dumbest post ever.
There's only 30 NBA jobs, man.
Do me a favor. Next winter, on a random Tuesday night, flip back-and-forth between an NBA game and a college game. By comparison, college players are shockingly bad. It's like you're not even watching the same sport.
Beilein wants to see how his stuff works at the very highest level of his profession. Which I totally get.
The problem is, you’d have to actually watch the NBA. The NBA regular season is complete garbage.
The NBA regular season is only garbage compared to the NBA Playoffs.
The NBA regular season is vastly superior to any- & everything else.
I'm fairly certain most people would rather coach at, I don't know, Duke than the Charlotte Hornet or the NO Pelicans. It's a bit of a different sport being played between college and the pros, but the assumption that coaching at the "highest" level is the same as playing at the highest level isn't true.
Beilein already knows his stuff works in college--he's had decades of success.
Only one challenge left.
I love Michigan with all my heart, but, with all due respect, when it comes to basketball, we ain’t Duke
I'm not saying UM is like Duke, only that the idea everyone would rather coach in the NBA vs. college isn't necessarily true.
Duke is Duke because of the man at the wheel not because of anything inherent in the school. He's been there since 1980. UCLA used to be 'the school' for Bball, why? Wooden. Indiana? (love him or hate him) Knight. Programs rise and fall when they land legendary coaches. Players and rosters change from year to year, but it's ultimately the coach that steadies that and creates the climate and the sustained success.
Let's call it what it is: a really dumb decision. I love B, but even the best people make bad calls, and this is one. He must have really been dying to go to the NBA to make this one.
He's 66. If he wants a shot to coach in the NBA in his lifetime, now is pretty much the time. Couple that with his obvious frustrations with the bagmen of college basketball and I get why he's leaving. It sucks, but I get it
Not just Dan Gilbert. Apparently, Mike Gansey, one of Beilein's star players from WVU, is the Asst GM for the Cavs. I'm sure that relationship helped grease the wheels.
Hello, double post. Let me just express how I feel about this move.
Obviously Gilbert, a known Spartan, is completely scared of his Alma Mater facing off against Beilein every year, so he did the only reasonable thing and hire him away to his NBA team that sucks anyway. /s
Literally just woke up and got a text from my friend on this. Or is this still some bizarre dream?
Good luck and thanks for everything coach B.
I know you're supposed to say good luck. i wish I could pretend that I want him to do well. But if I'm being brutally honest, I don't. Someone leaves the program like this, I'm wanting them to regret their decision a year or two down the road.
Plus, it's the Cavs.
Sorry.
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