Beilein's strengths/weaknesses

Geez those jerseys were awful today

Agree 100% MattD. It looked like the players had their jerseys tucked into their hiked up boxers with sagging micro shorts.

If Beilein’s “recruiting game” was on par with Kansas and Kentucky, you would need to be concerned about him landing the program on probation.

All last year, it was fairly obvious Cliff Alexander was a kid that was, well, untouchable for some schools. And lo and behold, look what’s happening right now.

Coach B is a great coach and he gets the most out of the talent he recruits, that being said he has been here for 7 years and we still have a small team excuse is burning my nerves. I’m tired of that excuse he recruits that way and we will continue to have small teams. To many big men misses in evaluating. McLimas , Biefieldt god bless him bc he works hard but he is slow and not athletic. Donnal I am not sold on him , Smotz was a wannabe wing playing center . There is no reason guys like Zak Irvin should be checking Frank Kamisky or Zach Novak checking Day Day or Blake Griffin.

Coach B is a great coach and he gets the most out of the talent he recruits, that being said he has been here for 7 years and we still have a small team excuse is burning my nerves. I'm tired of that excuse he recruits that way and we will continue to have small teams. To many big men misses in evaluating. McLimas , Biefieldt god bless him bc he works hard but he is slow and not athletic. Donnal I am not sold on him , Smotz was a wannabe wing playing center . There is no reason guys like Zak Irvin should be checking Frank Kamisky or Zach Novak checking Day Day or Blake Griffin.

It’s going to be a 6’6 - 6’8 wing/SF type guy at the 4 spot as long as Beilein is around

…and yeah…just about anyone guarding Kaminsky (B10 POY) or Griffin (NBA All-Star) are going to be bad matchups haha

Coach B has a great system! The ability to create a spread offense, develop the players and win has been great. But my thoughts are that he can’t recruit the top recruits. If he can’t get a good recruit after the run he has had the last 3-4 years then its never going to happen and thats my only criticisms(other than the inbound play calling).
He either has inept recruiters or maybe he just doesn’t relate or entice the players but it is appearing to be a problem. You can’t always catch lighting in a bottle.

Playing a wing at the 4 is fine as long as he’s as talented as GRIII and presents as big of headaches for the other team defensively. The issue isn’t playing small, it’s not having the talent for the mismatch to result in net positive for us.

As you say, it’s not necessarily a problem overall itself having your 4 be more like another SF/W rather than a PF. We’ve run incredibly efficient offenses that way. But we’ve been doing it with inexperienced teams that weren’t that great on defense and, more importantly, the guys we’ve had playing the 5 have been average, role-player types. If we were getting 30-35 minutes a game from a high quality, physical big like a Kaminsky or a Payne, playing smaller and less physical in the rest of the lineup wouldn’t hurt us so much.

I don’t mind a 6’8 4man but 6’6 and under no thanks

Playing a wing at the 4 is fine as long as he's as talented as GRIII and presents as big of headaches for the other team defensively. The issue isn't playing small, it's not having the talent for the mismatch to result in net positive for us.

Just do not agree that GR3 created any sort of mis-match on the offensive side of the court. Our offense did not showcase his athletic ability other than the occasional fast break or cut along the baseline for a dunk.

As you say, it's not necessarily a problem overall itself having your 4 be more like another SF/W rather than a PF. We've run incredibly efficient offenses that way. But we've been doing it with inexperienced teams that weren't that great on defense and, more importantly, the guys we've had playing the 5 have been average, role-player types. If we were getting 30-35 minutes a game from a high quality, physical big like a Kaminsky or a Payne, playing smaller and less physical in the rest of the lineup wouldn't hurt us so much.

True but in the absence of that long physical player it has to be done by committee and some additional length at the 4 sure would come in handy.

Playing a wing at the 4 is fine as long as he's as talented as GRIII and presents as big of headaches for the other team defensively. The issue isn't playing small, it's not having the talent for the mismatch to result in net positive for us.

Just do not agree that GR3 created any sort of mis-match on the offensive side of the court. Our offense did not showcase his athletic ability other than the occasional fast break or cut along the baseline for a dunk.

Towards the end of last season he did. The Texas game comes to mind.

Furthermore, just because our system fails to showcase his athletic abilities doesn’t mean GR3 couldn’t create a mismatch. That just means our coach wasn’t inclined to utilize the mismatches GR3 had in his favor.

GR3 repeatedly abused UA in the pinch post after coming off a curl action from the weakside. JB simply failed to utilize that mismatch the rest of the year…which is rather perplexing

Furthermore, just because our system fails to showcase his athletic abilities doesn't mean GR3 couldn't create a mismatch. That just means our coach wasn't inclined to utilize the mismatches GR3 had in his favor.

GR3 repeatedly abused UA in the pinch post after coming off a curl action from the weakside. JB simply failed to utilize that mismatch the rest of the year…which is rather perplexing

Don’t really understand this argument. GR3 did a bunch of work on the baseline and in the high post. I’ve showed his shot chart here, but Michigan ran a ton of pin downs for him there and he did a very good job with them as a sophomore.

Not to mention, U-M had the best offense of the last decade last year. Whatever Beilein was doing on offense was working and Glenn used as many possessions as Caris and just a few less than Nik.

Not about possessions, but rather the type of possessions for GR 3 as an individual player. Should have used him much more in the pinch post with his back to the basket rather than just an elbow jump shooter. He could’ve dominated that area of the floor if allowed the opportunity

Don’t think Glenn was ever effective with his back to the basket. Best facing up around the elbow and attacking off a couple dribbles or shooting in the mid-range. And that’s how he was used quite a bit.

Exactly - just because you catch the ball with your back to the basket doesn’t mean you can’t turn and face - because that is exactly what he did against UA. He was not used frequently in that manner at all. He was used almost exclusively as an elbow shooter on the strong side vs coming off the curl from strong to weakside at the pinch post area

But Dylan’s point still stands…it was literally the most efficient offense of the past decade. Picking nits in that seems…pointless. At best.

But Dylan's point still stands...it was literally the most efficient offense of the past decade. Picking nits in that seems...pointless. At best.

You and Dylan are arguing on behalf of team offense, to which I have no argument. I was responding to the contention that GR3 didn’t create a mismatch as an individual. 2 very different things…not really nitpicking

Not necessarily in the high post, but look how well he gets to the basket facing up in these clips. Usually via a mismatch with a bigger defender.



Watching those clips makes you realize how much U-M misses him. He could do a lot and make it look pretty easy.