Dick Vitale bought me ice cream as a kid at the 2009 Final Four so I am in his debt. He also loooooooves Beilein. I don’t think there’s been a broadcast that he’s done of ours in 5 years where he hasn’t said Beilein should be in the Hall of Fame.
I appreciate his enthusiasm as his commentary doesn’t annoy me as much as some (and I get why it could) and there’s only about 3 color commentators who offer any valuable info anyways so anyone saying he gives less than most CC’s probably isn’t correct.
You probably don’t remember some of Dickie V.'s trades as coach/GM of the Pistons.
Chris Ford for Earl Tatum (Al McGuire said he was the black Jerry West)
ML Carr and the two 1st round draft choices that became Robert Parish and Kevin McHale for Bob McAdoo who played 74 games for the Pistons and was then cut. Parish played 946 games for the Celtics, McHale 971, and Carr 373. 2,290 games to 74.
Dickie V. coached 94 games for the Pistons going 34-60 before he got fired in early 1979. Shortly thereafter he picked up a gig as a color man on this new network ESPN. The rest is history.
Vitale was the worst GM imaginable, but the Pistons ownership was even worse. They were too cheap to compete with the ABA for players. They had the #1 overall draft pick one year and used it on a 5th round talent, just because they could sign him cheaply. They made someone with no NBA experience coach/GM to save a salary (probably a salary and a half) and he got fleeced.
Vitale did do well drafting his U of D players Long and Tyler, but that was it. I did like his enthusiasm. Might have been his strongest asset.
While I agree in the sixties and early seventies the Pistons may have made some bad draft choices to avoid getting into a bidding war with the ABA (Hawaii’s Bob Nash in 1972 taken #9 comes to mind), they didn’t do that when they had the #1 pick which was twice.
In 1967, the Pistons took Jimmy Walker (Jalen Rose’s father) #1 who, while under achieving for his career did make a couple of all-star games. Walt Frazier or Earl Monroe would have been better choices, but Jimmy Walker was a legit 1st round choice.
In 1970, the Pistons took Bob Lanier, who was the clear #1 choice.
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Only times the Pistons picked #1. Would have picked #1 in 1980, but for our old pal, DIckie V.
I’d place more blame on the people who put him in that position than him. Seems like a Brady Hoke situation where nobody actually made sure he was competent before hiring him. Regardless, if I was around for that it wouldn’t really impact how I view him as a college commentator.
It’s funny, that is how I view Dickie V (I forgive his previous profession and just think of the ESPN character)…but I don’t feel that way about Matt Millen!
A rule of thumb should be to avoid coaches with stupid gimmicks. The whole “short sleeves in cold weather” thing with Hoke was just preposterous and a huge red flag for me.
I know we’re supposed to be aggravated at his OSU nonsense but I still think he is a great kid and we’ll always have the bench mob days. Get well Andrew.
I sure hope nobody here is agitated about that. I haven’t seen anything like that. He played major minutes on a team that competed for a Big Ten title, far more than he would’ve played here. It was an objectively great situation for him and it’s not like we’re giant rivals in basketball either.
The latter. Not getting enough minutes. He’s been heathy the last few weeks now, playing sporadically in either blowouts or when the Lakers are very thin.
They’ve had tons of injuries so he even played at the 4 a little bit. He’s not in the normal rotation whatsoever though.
MAAR is healthy again and has been getting some nice run for the Canton Charge G League team (~19 minutes per game).
In the 21 games he’s played, he’s averaging 5.6 PTS, and a little under 2 assists and rebounds per game. His shooting numbers have been really bad though:
38.8% FG
33% on 3PFG
46.2% on FT
Hoping he can improve. Was definitely one of my more liked players at Michigan over the past 7-8 years.