What timeline would you prefer? Should Arizona, Indiana, and Maryland get credit for success 15 years ago? And MSU and UConn are top 5 programs regardless of timeline.
Arizona hasn't been to the Final Four since 2001. Indiana and Maryland haven't been to the Elite 8 since 2002. Florida has been to one final four since 2007.
MSU has been to 7 Final Fours since 1999 - more than any other school (Duke and UNC have been to 5 each). And UConn has won 4 titles since 1999 - more than any other school (Duke has won 3). Both of these schools are top 5 programs nationally.
That is an extraordinarily diverse group of programs that you've decided to compare us to, and Michigan has been equal to or better than just about all of them under Beilein.
You have literally no facts to back this nonsense up. I and others like me have spent plenty on the basketball program over the years. The fact that your arguments always devolve into this plutocratic bullshit shows how delusional you are. If you truly do pay for season tickets (not like their is any evidence of that, either), please just stop. It doesn't seem to bring you any pleasure
"The first head-to-head recruiting battle between John Beilein and Tom Izzo was over Draymond Green. Green turned down the opportunity for ample playing time in Michigan's sparse front court, and is now playing only 9.3 minutes per game for the Spartans. Many recruiting analysts thought Draymond was headed to Ann Arbor before a late Michigan State offer swayed Day-Day to the green and white. It's hard to interpret that as anything more than a statement from Tom Izzo – stay out of my backyard."
Except Beilien has vastly, vastly outperformed the program's accomplishments from the two decades prior to his hire. Michigan basketball has literally not been this successful since Bo Schembechler was the football coach. You do realize that firing Beilein is just as likely to lead to the program getting worse as it is to getting better, right?
I've seen people suggest that Michigan needs to get to the Sweet 16 every single year to meet their baseline expectations, so even beating ND and losing to Kenpom's #6 team, WVU, would be considered disappointing. A portion of this fanbase just loves to be unhappy
It's totally legitimate to knock Michigan's recruitment at the 5 position, and I think that has been Beilein's biggest flaw as our coach. I will say that Jordan Morgan and Jon Horford both developed throughout their careers, and I think that the current grouping of centers (plus Teske and Davis) will develop. I think Wagner has a ton of upside and is an exciting prospect.
The problem with low ceiling bigs is that the guard play has to be elite, and Michigan's guard play has been good-not-great the last two years; injuries and attrition have played a factor. But Beilein has developed a bunch of talented guards while at Michigan, so this is something that will absolutely get better. Additional depth is going to make the guards a lot better next year.
And the defense has been bad, but that is because Michigan's currently got some bad defensive players. This is correctable and is not a reason to fire a head coach. The defense 3 years ago was bad, but the offense was elite to the point that it didn't matter much. I don't think that we have nearly enough data to say that Michigan's recruits will perpetually be soft and bad at defense (they only need to be average defenders to win with this offensive system).
And people use the disasterous half-decade (at least) in which Michigan's players were getting paid as some sort of bar. Like we should be disappointed about 2 Big Ten titles, an Elite 8 appearance, a national championship appearance, a Big Ten player of the year, and a national player of the year. Now that is beyond pathetic.
EDIT: And before you tell me that Michigan's now headed in the wrong direction, who thought in 2010 or 2011 that we were on the cusp of achieving all of the above? People act like Beilein and staff identifying six draft picks plus Spike Albrecht was a fluke. If Xavier Simpson or Ibi Watson or Mo Wagner blows up, Michigan's future may be as bright as ever.
Alternatively, if Gentry is really that good, he can transfer and still find success. Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton both played in junior college. Joe Flacco transferred to FCS. Nick Foles played at MSU and Arizona. Russell Wilson played at NC State and Wisconsin. As much as it pains Uncle Rico, the best quarterbacks are not sitting on the coach because the coach didn't give them a chance. They are starting in the NFL.
Ekpe Udoh was a lottery pick. Tyson Chandler was a lottery pick. Pretty much all guys 6'10" and above who can rebound, block shots, and run an effective pick-and-roll are lottery picks. Expecting Beilein to outrecruit Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, MSU, OSU, UCLA, Arizona, etc. for the one or two guys a year who have that skillset is asinine.
I think this is pretty spot on, except I would swap the Purdue and Maryland games. Purdue shot really well from 3 against us at Mackey, and we shot really well from 3 yesterday. Bring both of those numbers back to Earth a bit and Michigan almost certainly loses at Maryland, but keeps the Purdue game a lot closer. Plus a hopefully healthy LaVert should help against Purdue
A good way to think about this is that there is a difference between compromise and accomodation. With the first, both parties sacrifice something in order to come to an amicable understanding. This is an important part of all relationships and is essential to resource management in general. You prioritize the important things, and in exchange, give up some of the things that are less important to you.
Accommodation means that you give up what is most important to you in exchange for things that are less important. This seems like compromise, but eventually, a person's inability to access the things that they deem most important will wear on them, so instead of an amicable understanding, you just push off the initial conflict (aka, the negotiation about each party's values) until later. And when things build up, people eventually blow up.
But has a top, uncommitted recruit ever both committed and enrolled early at a school that had no head coach? We've seen just about everything else in recruiting, so it wouldn't be a total shock, but that sounds pretty unlikely.
What if Georgia then settles for Schiano as their coach? Would Nauta really take that risk just to stay close to home? Could anyone face such dire consequences as accidentally committing to Greg Schiano???
Truly, the team should feel comfortable hanging its hat on this special teams unit. It was a major advantage against both Northwestern and Michigan State (until the final play). Michigan can expect to neutralize some of its weaknesses thanks to its special teams, and that's valuable.
You have vastly underestimated the special teams advantage that Michigan had in this game. As Brian alluded to, Bill Connelly's win expectancy against Michigan State was 68%, meaning that a team that performed as Michigan did against Michigan State would be expected to win 68% of the time. State had 3 scoring drives all game and missed no field goals; Michigan had 5 scoring drives. State was able to accumulate more yards from scrimmage because they were faced with a major field position disadvantage the entire game. That was due to special teams.
EDIT: Michigan State also ran 14 more plays than Michigan did, which at State's rate of 5.15 yards per play, would result in 72 additional yards from scrimmage.
What Michigan has done for you lately is go to the National Championship, go to the Elite Eight, have a NPOY, have a Big Ten POY, won two B1G titles, and sent five guys to the draft. All of that has happened in the last 3 seasons.
I don't live in your hypothetical future world where Michigan is a disappointment. In the real world, less than a decade ago, Michigan was an AWFUL basketball program that hadn't hung a banner since George H.W. Bush was president. Beilein has changed all of that. You are suggesting that we hold him accountable for seasons that haven't happened yet, which is asinine.
Michigan won it's first Big Ten championship in 26 years, and won a second two years later
Michigan ended an eleven-year NCAA tournament drought
Michigan had one national player of the year and another Big Ten player of the year
Michigan went to the National Championship game where it lost by 6 points, with much of the final moments hanging on a clean Trey Burke block that was called a foul
Michigan has sent 6 players to the NBA draft, and is likely to send a 7th player this year
Michigan has had the best Big Ten record over the last 4 years
Michigan has done all this despite playing in the nation's best conference the last two years and competing with elite coaches like Tom Izzo, Thad Matta, and Bo Ryan
Despite all that, the brats in the Michigan fanbase want more, more, more!
And people wonder why our football program has been toxic for almost a decade...
Nobody ever said Michigan was an elite team. OSU has lost three times, none to elite teams, and Nebraska is as inconsistent as teams get. It is not going to take an elite-level performance to beat either of these teams at home.
As far as "power" running games go, OSU ran for a whopping 35 yards (.9 per carry) against Michigan State, so stacking the box seemed to work just fine. Nebraska managed 190 yards rushing against Michigan State, but on 58(!) carries. That's 3.3 yards per carry. Using your logic, MSU proved that each of those teams needs a passing game. So, again, what makes losing to these teams a foregone conclusion?
If our passing game is inconsistent, what does that make Nebraska's and Ohio State's? You're crazy if you think losing to Nebraska and Ohio State at home is a foregone conclusion.
Michigan will have 5 home games in 2018 while division rivals Iowa, Nebraska, and Michigan State will have 4. Even numbered years could be good to Michigan in the future (and odd numbered years not so much).
6 of those 21 guys are already gone (as are two of the six 4 star guys). So that class now consists of four 4 stars out of 19 players (21%). But, a lot of those 3 star guys have done well thus far, including Jibreel Black, Carvin Johnson, Jake Ryan, Courtney Avery, Stephen Hopkins, and Will Hagerup. It is certainly not a doomed class
State fans are claiming he committed to Michigan because State's defense is just too good (he wouldn't play early there). They seriously have no clue what losing all these recruiting battles means for their future
The University of Michigan School of Journalism competes for journalism recruits about as well as the University of Chicago football team competes for football recruits.
I think EDSBS needs more Michigan beating Florida. Lloyd Carr being carried out on the players' shoulders. TIm Tebow with turf in his helmet. Adrian Arrington dominating the young Florida secondary. A simple reminder that SEC speed < Big Ten speed
Huh, I've always assumed the name Cub was bear related. I didn't know the letters actually stood for something.
Also, I believe TCF no longer goes by Twin Cities Federal as they are now much more of a regional/national brand. In Minnesota, as one would expect, they have quite a few branches, many outside of grocery stores (and some inside Cub too, haha)
Recent Comments
Arizona hasn't been to the Final Four since 2001. Indiana and Maryland haven't been to the Elite 8 since 2002. Florida has been to one final four since 2007.
MSU has been to 7 Final Fours since 1999 - more than any other school (Duke and UNC have been to 5 each). And UConn has won 4 titles since 1999 - more than any other school (Duke has won 3). Both of these schools are top 5 programs nationally.
That is an extraordinarily diverse group of programs that you've decided to compare us to, and Michigan has been equal to or better than just about all of them under Beilein.
Stop upvoting yourself, it's embarrassing
Icarus. You all need to read about Icarus.
I could go at this with you all day. You are an absolute character
You have literally no facts to back this nonsense up. I and others like me have spent plenty on the basketball program over the years. The fact that your arguments always devolve into this plutocratic bullshit shows how delusional you are. If you truly do pay for season tickets (not like their is any evidence of that, either), please just stop. It doesn't seem to bring you any pleasure
A great quote from Dylan Burkhardt from 2009:
"The first head-to-head recruiting battle between John Beilein and Tom Izzo was over Draymond Green. Green turned down the opportunity for ample playing time in Michigan's sparse front court, and is now playing only 9.3 minutes per game for the Spartans. Many recruiting analysts thought Draymond was headed to Ann Arbor before a late Michigan State offer swayed Day-Day to the green and white. It's hard to interpret that as anything more than a statement from Tom Izzo – stay out of my backyard."
http://mgoblog.com/content/rivalry-renewed
Most of those guys flamed out for one reason or another. See AC1997's post earlier in this thread
The fact that you have repeatedly compared Beilein to Hoke and Rodriguez shows how incapable you are of looking at this situation objectively
Except Beilien has vastly, vastly outperformed the program's accomplishments from the two decades prior to his hire. Michigan basketball has literally not been this successful since Bo Schembechler was the football coach. You do realize that firing Beilein is just as likely to lead to the program getting worse as it is to getting better, right?
It's been clear all season that 93Grad has a crystal ball, and the outlook is bleak
If Michigan fails to make the playoff, the negative Harbaugh talk will start this season.
I've seen people suggest that Michigan needs to get to the Sweet 16 every single year to meet their baseline expectations, so even beating ND and losing to Kenpom's #6 team, WVU, would be considered disappointing. A portion of this fanbase just loves to be unhappy
It's totally legitimate to knock Michigan's recruitment at the 5 position, and I think that has been Beilein's biggest flaw as our coach. I will say that Jordan Morgan and Jon Horford both developed throughout their careers, and I think that the current grouping of centers (plus Teske and Davis) will develop. I think Wagner has a ton of upside and is an exciting prospect.
The problem with low ceiling bigs is that the guard play has to be elite, and Michigan's guard play has been good-not-great the last two years; injuries and attrition have played a factor. But Beilein has developed a bunch of talented guards while at Michigan, so this is something that will absolutely get better. Additional depth is going to make the guards a lot better next year.
And the defense has been bad, but that is because Michigan's currently got some bad defensive players. This is correctable and is not a reason to fire a head coach. The defense 3 years ago was bad, but the offense was elite to the point that it didn't matter much. I don't think that we have nearly enough data to say that Michigan's recruits will perpetually be soft and bad at defense (they only need to be average defenders to win with this offensive system).
And people use the disasterous half-decade (at least) in which Michigan's players were getting paid as some sort of bar. Like we should be disappointed about 2 Big Ten titles, an Elite 8 appearance, a national championship appearance, a Big Ten player of the year, and a national player of the year. Now that is beyond pathetic.
EDIT: And before you tell me that Michigan's now headed in the wrong direction, who thought in 2010 or 2011 that we were on the cusp of achieving all of the above? People act like Beilein and staff identifying six draft picks plus Spike Albrecht was a fluke. If Xavier Simpson or Ibi Watson or Mo Wagner blows up, Michigan's future may be as bright as ever.
What exactly is the decision that Manuel is going to have to make regarding Beilein?
Alternatively, if Gentry is really that good, he can transfer and still find success. Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton both played in junior college. Joe Flacco transferred to FCS. Nick Foles played at MSU and Arizona. Russell Wilson played at NC State and Wisconsin. As much as it pains Uncle Rico, the best quarterbacks are not sitting on the coach because the coach didn't give them a chance. They are starting in the NFL.
It sounds like you want Michigan to recruit guys like DJ Wilson, Mo Wagner, and Jon Teske.
Ekpe Udoh was a lottery pick. Tyson Chandler was a lottery pick. Pretty much all guys 6'10" and above who can rebound, block shots, and run an effective pick-and-roll are lottery picks. Expecting Beilein to outrecruit Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, MSU, OSU, UCLA, Arizona, etc. for the one or two guys a year who have that skillset is asinine.
I think this is pretty spot on, except I would swap the Purdue and Maryland games. Purdue shot really well from 3 against us at Mackey, and we shot really well from 3 yesterday. Bring both of those numbers back to Earth a bit and Michigan almost certainly loses at Maryland, but keeps the Purdue game a lot closer. Plus a hopefully healthy LaVert should help against Purdue
I thought the ball had left his hand, but I was watching on a 12" black and white Magnavox with antenna
A good way to think about this is that there is a difference between compromise and accomodation. With the first, both parties sacrifice something in order to come to an amicable understanding. This is an important part of all relationships and is essential to resource management in general. You prioritize the important things, and in exchange, give up some of the things that are less important to you.
Accommodation means that you give up what is most important to you in exchange for things that are less important. This seems like compromise, but eventually, a person's inability to access the things that they deem most important will wear on them, so instead of an amicable understanding, you just push off the initial conflict (aka, the negotiation about each party's values) until later. And when things build up, people eventually blow up.
But has a top, uncommitted recruit ever both committed and enrolled early at a school that had no head coach? We've seen just about everything else in recruiting, so it wouldn't be a total shock, but that sounds pretty unlikely.
What if Georgia then settles for Schiano as their coach? Would Nauta really take that risk just to stay close to home? Could anyone face such dire consequences as accidentally committing to Greg Schiano???
Truly, the team should feel comfortable hanging its hat on this special teams unit. It was a major advantage against both Northwestern and Michigan State (until the final play). Michigan can expect to neutralize some of its weaknesses thanks to its special teams, and that's valuable.
You have vastly underestimated the special teams advantage that Michigan had in this game. As Brian alluded to, Bill Connelly's win expectancy against Michigan State was 68%, meaning that a team that performed as Michigan did against Michigan State would be expected to win 68% of the time. State had 3 scoring drives all game and missed no field goals; Michigan had 5 scoring drives. State was able to accumulate more yards from scrimmage because they were faced with a major field position disadvantage the entire game. That was due to special teams.
EDIT: Michigan State also ran 14 more plays than Michigan did, which at State's rate of 5.15 yards per play, would result in 72 additional yards from scrimmage.
What Michigan has done for you lately is go to the National Championship, go to the Elite Eight, have a NPOY, have a Big Ten POY, won two B1G titles, and sent five guys to the draft. All of that has happened in the last 3 seasons.
I don't live in your hypothetical future world where Michigan is a disappointment. In the real world, less than a decade ago, Michigan was an AWFUL basketball program that hadn't hung a banner since George H.W. Bush was president. Beilein has changed all of that. You are suggesting that we hold him accountable for seasons that haven't happened yet, which is asinine.
Under Joh Beilein:
Despite all that, the brats in the Michigan fanbase want more, more, more!
And people wonder why our football program has been toxic for almost a decade...
Michigan would like to give thanks to Fitz's mom for his fantastic name.
Nobody ever said Michigan was an elite team. OSU has lost three times, none to elite teams, and Nebraska is as inconsistent as teams get. It is not going to take an elite-level performance to beat either of these teams at home.
As far as "power" running games go, OSU ran for a whopping 35 yards (.9 per carry) against Michigan State, so stacking the box seemed to work just fine. Nebraska managed 190 yards rushing against Michigan State, but on 58(!) carries. That's 3.3 yards per carry. Using your logic, MSU proved that each of those teams needs a passing game. So, again, what makes losing to these teams a foregone conclusion?
If our passing game is inconsistent, what does that make Nebraska's and Ohio State's? You're crazy if you think losing to Nebraska and Ohio State at home is a foregone conclusion.
Michigan will have 5 home games in 2018 while division rivals Iowa, Nebraska, and Michigan State will have 4. Even numbered years could be good to Michigan in the future (and odd numbered years not so much).
I hate both those schools. Trojanz 4 lyfe
They would have recruited you if you were the Flying Samoan
Is wearing underwear uncool now? I'm not sure I want an AD who's free-ballin'
6 of those 21 guys are already gone (as are two of the six 4 star guys). So that class now consists of four 4 stars out of 19 players (21%). But, a lot of those 3 star guys have done well thus far, including Jibreel Black, Carvin Johnson, Jake Ryan, Courtney Avery, Stephen Hopkins, and Will Hagerup. It is certainly not a doomed class
Also, The Town is pretty manly (much like The Departed). The Hurt Locker, too. Jeremy Renner is a badass
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Taxi Driver yet. That and Raging Bull and Mean Streets ooze manliness.
Real men watch Apocalypse Now: Redux with their pants off
Delaware Fence?
Peter King linked to them on Twitter, I guess it's making their servers asplode
Edit: I'm slow
State fans are claiming he committed to Michigan because State's defense is just too good (he wouldn't play early there). They seriously have no clue what losing all these recruiting battles means for their future
The University of Michigan School of Journalism competes for journalism recruits about as well as the University of Chicago football team competes for football recruits.
Phil Knight is actually not Oregon's Athletic Director, that would be Rob Mullens:
http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=885642
Knight's (and Nike's) influence over the program is quite substantial, though.
Huh? Where do you see that? I'm as confused by this new system as anybody
I think EDSBS needs more Michigan beating Florida. Lloyd Carr being carried out on the players' shoulders. TIm Tebow with turf in his helmet. Adrian Arrington dominating the young Florida secondary. A simple reminder that SEC speed < Big Ten speed
Huh, I've always assumed the name Cub was bear related. I didn't know the letters actually stood for something.
Also, I believe TCF no longer goes by Twin Cities Federal as they are now much more of a regional/national brand. In Minnesota, as one would expect, they have quite a few branches, many outside of grocery stores (and some inside Cub too, haha)
Cub is a grocery store. It is badass if you are too poor/sensible to shop at Lunds or Byerlys. Do not diss Cub, or bears will eat you
Remind me again how polls do more for competition than actual football games