Big Ten Basketball 2020-21 Discussion (Part 1)

MSU scholarship crunch I’m sure is what killed the momentum there

Hopefully MSU can be hurt by the scholarship crunch (including having to leave a spot for Emoni even when he likely won’t reclass) like we were when that Langford/Battle stuff went down

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If he is indeed low 20s than he’s looney for coming back. I assumed he was hearing late firstcat best most likely second.

Waiting for Izzo to retire is Fife’s plan.

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I would give JB coach of the decade because he had so much more work to do. From 2011-2020, MSU won 264, we won 251. UM won 18 NCAA tourney games and had 8 first round picks, MSU won 17 tourney games and had 5 first rounders.

On the last point, sure, those shots were miracles in some sense. But they nevertheless went in. I mean, Chris Jent had a shot to beat Michigan in 1992, but he didn’t. I’ll take the Final Four and title game appearance all day long. No other college fans from any other part of the country know or care who won the Big Ten in any given year, but they usually know which teams played for a championship.

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If Bo Ryan didn’t retire, I would say he was the coach of the decade. That being said, Coach of the Year usually goes to the team that had the biggest turnaround. So if you go by that rationale, it would probably be Beilein.

But when you’re talking about a coach of the decade, you’re talking which coach won the most games. Izzo deservedly won that imaginary award BTN gave out

It’s hard for even my very biased self to talk myself into John Beilein deserving Coach of the Decade over Tom Izzo, particularly after the final chapter of their decade-long rivalry ending with one of JB’s best teams losing three straight times to MSU, followed by an abrupt departure when it seemed like the programs were both finally on even ground.

Izzo was great the entire decade from start to finish and is still going. Matta, Ryan, Beilein all could have had their own claim at it at various times but in the end…didn’t.

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I think Izzo and Beilein each had a strong case and you can’t really argue with Izzo winning it with that resume. What stands out to us and adds to our bias, is how they entered the decade. In the ten years before this “award” Izzo won 244 games, made the tournament every year, made four Final Fours, won three conference titles, and won a national title. So he was already at his peak and running an elite program before Beilein showed up.

Meanwhile, what Michigan fans know about Beilein, is that he showed up after two other coaches had struggled. In the previous decade Michigan won only 154 games, won an NIT, made one tournament (thanks to Beilein), and generally was no where near the program that MSU was.

In other words, Izzo sustained success while Beilein built it from the ashes of a once great program. Both are impressive…we’re biased to Beilein wildly exceeding expectations over Izzo maintaining them.

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FWIW the reason why I think getting to the final 4 especially the championship game would be better because you get to see your favorite team play extra games with good endings.:wink:

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That’s all fair. In my opinion, being the best coach the decade before doesn’t disqualify someone from being the best coach the next decade. If John Beilein were to miraculously stay on for all of the 2020s as Michigan’s coach and have the same success as he did in the 2010s, I doubt most Michigan fans would think he shouldn’t be Coach of the Decade because he had already built the program years prior

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No Karim Mane for MSU.

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Wow, you’re pretty fast! Literally just saw this like five minutes ago!

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This was pretty expected given Langford coming back, Henry likely staying. Called it two nights ago though :joy:

Oh, I agree. And I’m not trying to argue that…I just think that exceeding expectations gives you the perception of accomplishing more than meeting expectations. Besides my general dislike for his antics and some of the off-court rumors, I have no issue with Izzo winning this meaningless award. He’s an all-time great.

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Silver you are slipping up.:wink:

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Personally and I know I’m biased but I don’t see how coach b wasn’t the coach of the decade. Two finals appearances, numerous big ten tourney championships ( I think more than Izzo and most in the conference , no? I might be wrong there though).

Most tourney wins by any big ten team and if I recall they were in the top three in the country or tied for most tourney wins I think. In the end that is what matters most, no? It’s what everyone is playing for . It’s not like it was all just hot finishes too, they were consistently in contention for the regular season crown even if they trailed state and possibly others for decade total ( I have to go back and check the numbers) his overall decade record in conference and overall has to be top three as well. I can’t imagine he trailed izzo or anyone else by many total wins.

I don’t give him anymore points or the edge due to where he got the program when he arrived and where it ended. In some respects that does play into coach of the decade I suppose as voters certainly consider and count these things when voting coach of the year but imo for coach of the decade we can’t use that or take that into consideration, even if he did more with less ( which he certainly did, particularly early on). If we did use this as part of a barometer then coach b should have won with easy imo.

For this particular award I think you just gotta go with how the programmed overall performed. Even then give me coach b. I would not have traded their decade for ours, not even close. Give me two runner ups , elite eight, two sweet sixteens, two reg season big ten titles and two big ten tourney titles.

In half of the decade his teams went to the second weekend of the tourney. Very impressive and hard to do.

I’d also add he put the most guys in the nba of anyone in the big ten ( pretty sure) and he created the most first round picks and when you account for where the players were ranked comparatively it’s clear his development was ahead of izzos.

I’m very happy with Juwan but I’ll always be sad coach b didn’t see it through and end his career here. I figured he had about 4-5 years left minimally and he was finally breaking through imo to the next level of recruits. Kids were finally seeing his value and genius and the top 40 kids were going to start to come in that 2020 class. I’m convinced he lands rahim, zeb, Kessler and I’m sure one or two other top 75 kids would have followed. He was going to get one titie possibly more over the next five years imo and he would have certified Michigan’s dominance in the league for a half decade at least.

Once again coach b was overlooked and undervalued and it’s a shame , the man deserved to get recognized for what he was the last ten years. The best coach in the big ten and besides jay wright the best coach in America since 2010.

Go blue

End rant

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MSU won four this decade. Also won four regular season champs(5 if you count the 2010 season). Michigan won 2 of both.

If you go with who was overall more successful as you said, I don’t see how it’s not Izzo. I believe that Beilein won 1 more tourney game this decade, but if the tourney doesn’t get cancelled Izzo likely passes Beilein.

Basically it comes down to if you think winning 2 final four games outweighs 5 or 6 more conference titles.if we had won one of the championship games I think that would be enough to potentially give it to JB. But since we lost I don’t think so

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The part about Izzo overtaking JB in tourney wins if the 2020 tourney doesn’t get cancelled - that’s a little unfair since JB isn’t even coaching at Michigan anymore.

I’d give the nod to JB because at the start of the decade, the Michigan program was so far away from being a Final Four contender, while MSU was already a top program. Doing what JB did, to me, is just much harder than doing what Izzo did. In the same vein, I would say a guy like Tony Bennett was a better ACC coach in the decade of 2010-2020 than Coach K, and I don’t even know the breakdown of which team won the ACC more often. I just think what Bennett did - when you consider where he started and where he finished - is more impressive.

It is a bit unfair but it’s also something to consider if one guy coached every year in the decade and the other didn’t their impact on the decade itself is different.

I’d give the nod to JB because at the start of the decade, the Michigan program was so far away from being a Final Four contender, while MSU was already a top program.

If that’s the criteria you have then I guess I can’t disagree. It’s not how I would vote on it but that’s ok. Viewing it that way basically eliminates Izzo from contention because in prior decades he built his program, and that’s considering things that happened before the decade which goes against the idea of an all decade team

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