Big Ten Basketball 2020-21 Discussion (Part 2)

I’m not considering Stephens as a serious candidate until I see swim lanes.

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I feel like if Beilein were 5 years younger, IU fans would be much more behind him coming. They probably fear going through another coaching carousel in 4-5 years. Which is understandable when they’ve cycled through Davis, Sampson, Crean and Miller in the last two decades.

That said, if they look at him as some worst-case scenario they are crazy. You could do a LOT worse than a few years of John Beilein.

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The subscriber ‘ask me anything’ is NCAA-focused. But do you not think that the good old boy network that is college coaching, with its inflated salaries, fails to sleuth out promising young coaches? Or that’s there’s enormous pressure on ADs, esp. at the more prominent bball schools? I could be wrong. . .

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On what basis would they need to wait “years and years”? Michigan hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in a decade, and Beilein did it in year 2. They hadn’t won the conference in 22 years, he did it in 4, and the year after that, he played for a national championship.

And, as noted elsewhere in this thread, the Beilein of today with two Final Fours would likely recruit better than the Beilein that walked into Michigan.

I think it would be reasonable to assume one down year to install his program, but Indiana is too good for that after missing the tournament for five years?

I think there are some reasonable fit questions, and obviously his Michigan track record doesn’t guarantee success elsewhere, but the notion that it should be expected to take “years and years” coming from a Michigan fan kind of blows my mind.

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I think so little of what Archie did at IU that JB would instantly be a huge upgrade and get them to play coherent basketball. But…yikes that roster is no good and does not fit. I think JB would be a massive upgrade in the coaching department but not sure they would see the results right away given what they have.

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the Beilein of today is going to get legit neg recruited over why he got fired in Cleveland and questions about if he is racist.

I love him to death but think there is little chance he could recruit at a high level for the class of 2022.

He is old. Should probably enjoy retirement with his family.

I’m not following exactly what you are saying and how it pertains to Drew. Yes, a guy like Richard Pitino getting (another) job is insane and there are young coaches who don’t get good opportunities.

I just don’t understand what Drew’s situation at Baylor or being a candidate at IU has to do with that.

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Hiring practices are always interesting. If you take a chance and whiff your job (as AD) is more likely to be in jeopardy. Plus I’m doing your due diligence you call Billy Donovan or some other good coach and ask what they think. They recommend people they know. So lots of good OL boy networking, but who you know is more important than what you can do in most hires.

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Since “recruiting at a high level” has always been such a prerequisite for John Beilein…

he is a great coach. But he is old and likely wouldn’t coach for long. I can see the reluctance of IU fans to sign up for a rebuild that will be over before it becomes dominant.

I have said all along I think he’s a poor fit for IU specifically. The fanbase would be way too impatient with him. But I don’t see recruiting/potential negative recruiting as something that anyone interested in Beilein should be worried about. If you’re looking for someone to “win” recruiting you don’t hire Beilein. You hire Beilein to go to the National championship game with a starting lineup of a PG who can’t shoot, a SG who literally no one recruited, a transfer, a freshman, and a German no one ever heard of before you found him. And a 6th man literally out of D3.

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I don’t know how to embed Twitter Links, but I did see that Cody Zeller gave Beilein an endorsement yesterday

EDIT - Ignore as apparently its a parody account and not actually Zeller? I don’t do Twitter

You just have to paste the link in, the board does the rest of the work. Really nice and easy.

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EDIT - Just realized this is a “parody account”

That can’t be Cody Zeller because my mother says I’m The Big Handsome.

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Sorry aherm but that’s actually not the only person she calls that

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The goal at Michigan might have been to make the tournament after that long drought but just making the tournament isn’t an achievement that would suffice at IU. Winning the conference is valuable and worth praise but Tom Crean won 2 in his first 7 years, after his 8th year he was gone.

I don’t think it’s some lock the Beilein would recruit better because of 2 Final Fours. Beilein still had some huge whiffs recruiting wise after going to the championship game in 13. That doesn’t make him a bad coach I just think the presumption that he would recruit better (when one of the reasons he left was because he was tired of players leaving early) would yet to be determined.

These were Beilein’s last 2 recruiting classes Iggy/Johns/DDJ/Castleton/Nunez/Bajema. Iggy was great for a year but the remaining list of guys aren’t good enough to carry a program to long term success.

Or do you believe that Indiana is immune to recruiting whiffs because Beilein would be there?

Remember fans weren’t happy with Beilein in year 4 being 1-6 in the conference going to MSU. That win didn’t save his job but it did buy him some time. A decade later. a decade older at 68 he’s not going to be able to survive that at IU as we have seen with Crean or Miller.

Another area where it might not matter to us but with Beilein being fired by the Cavs and the reason he got fired I don’t think it will be easy to recruit because there will be some people that have questions about that and rightfully so.

Well, it wasn’t just that game but the fact that we turned our whole season around, made the tourney, and nearly upset Duke.

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Beilein turns teams around plenty quickly. He never spent more than a few years at any one stop before Michigan. If he coached at IU for 4 years I pretty much guarantee they make the tournament twice at least. That’s enough to not be fired considering the state of the program when he took over.

And yeah Beilein’s early classes at Michigan were dreadful. He’ll recruit 100x better than that at Indiana. And the assistants are just as valuable there as anything and JB knows that.

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I don’t think it’s just easy peasy like that. Crean went to 3 SS in 7 years. Would he be able to do enough in 3-4 years to satisfy Indana?? Crean took over a worse situation than what Beilein would be walking into.

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