That Beilein’s influence lives on is without doubt; that Howards acheivements are not lessened by that fact is also without doubt. Successful people all stand on the shoulders of giants.
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Dylan was the only person who was able to take a Geocities idea and turn it into a business that lasted into the 2020s.
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I’m pretty sure I remember checking out UMHoops back when it started. It was nice because otherwise there wasn’t much in the way of Michigan basketball discussion. The Scout basketball forum was pretty quiet
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C’mon now… Geocities was more around '99 or 2000. UM Hoops has always been at least up to par on modern web dev!
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It’s been a great outlet for me, especially the years I lived out of state, and I don’t think anyone covers all things Michigan Men’s Basketball as comprehensively as you have.
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Welcome back Wayman. We all missed you.
I think Tobie Smith???, think that was his name, did a good job covering UM basketball on the Rivals board, back when Tom Beaver was still there.
Bry and Dot have always been focused on bball, granted neither were fans of the Beilein hire, remember the “baller” discussions, the first few years. But winning cures all.
UM Hoops has been the best coverage by far.
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Yes, it was Tobie Smith, I believe.
I had a geocities Michigan hoops page that used to show up in the top 5 results for something like “Michigan basketball.” I did a couple other websites as well, but I gave it up around 2000. Sometimes I wonder where I’d be if I stuck with it, but I don’t have anything approaching Sam Webb’s charm and I was too young to figure out how to really monetize traffic, so now I just have a lame ol’ professional career. I think I had one phone call with Dot and exchanged a couple emails back then, but I was like 18 and pretty intimidated, so I didn’t really follow up with him haha.
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My favorite Tobie quote was that when it comes to recruiting you should not worry about the ones you don’t get but instead worry about the ones you do.
Seems appropriate given the massive emotional swings we have seen in hoops recruiting in 2020.
Feel like I’ve heard somebody else say that a lot too…
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Or someone recently scarred by the Brian Ellerbe recruiting.
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Go blue baby! Juwan is the truth!
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Beilein wasn’t number one on my list, nope.
Jay Wright, Pitino, Matta, Hewitt were. Leaders and Best right?
Then when I realized that UM wasn’t going to shoot for the sky, Jamie Dixon, Lon Kruger and Sean Miller were my top three.
Then when I realized that they weren’t in play:
I hoped that UM would at least speak to: Beilein, Hobbs, Grant, Stallings, Lowry and Kampe. There were people on the committee that actually liked Kampe most but knew he would be a tough sell. Of these I probably preferred Grant the most but didn’t know any of them well enough to express a firm preference. I just wanted UM to consider them and let the committee do its thing. Well kinda anyway cause I wasn’t entirely impressed with the committee.
Once he got the job, Beilein got my full support. But as is the case with fans who take comments and draw inappropriate conclusions, I did often speak to his teams not emphasizing rebounding and defense. And guess who evolved?
Anyway I showed more interest in UM b-ball and coach Beilein than a goodly number of folks who find a way to now call themselves fans.
In the spirit of an accurate record.
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Man that group turned out to be full of duds LOL. We really did get lucky to pick Beilein. Props to the much maligned Bill Martin. I wasn’t super pumped about the hire at the time as a 14 year old
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Martin didn’t take anyone but Beilein seriously. No telling who would have been the hire had he not been interested.
He did though interview Lowry and Stallings.
There was an article on the athletic about how he immediately honed in on Beilein even before interviews. I’m glad he had his heart set on Beilein and no one else.
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Martin just hated WVU.
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Many moons ago I asked you (while the search was going on) if you were confident in the search committee.
You said “absolutely not”.
I’m eternally grateful that JB bailed us out in countless ways. The outcome surpassed even the highest of expectations.
Final rankings update from 247.
While five-star prospect Caleb Houstan remained at 11, fellow five-star forward Moussa Diabate moved up three spots to No. 12, four-star guard Kobe Bufkin moved up four spots from No. 44 to No. 40, while fellow four-star guard Frankie Collins cracked the top 50, moving up to No. 48 from No. 51.
Michigan’s class is rounded out by Isaiah Barnes (down three spots to No. 111 in the Composite) and Will Tschetter (up three spots to No. 142).
I still think Barnes is being slept on a bit. A guy with his size, athleticism and shooting ability should be at least around 75-80. I get that most of these players really weren’t seen and scouted much this year though aside from the guys who played on ESPN.
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