If a team like Ohio St decides to let Matta go at the end of the year is there a reason why should Beilein still be coach? Matta has a much better track record of success we could compare resumes but Matta would outpace Beilein by a large margin. Would this just mean Ohio St only accepts a certain standard and Matta hasn’t met that?
Probably should fire Crean too, right? Nevermind that he won the Big Ten last year. Let’s just fire everyone.
I don’t think Matta should be fired, the only way I could see something happening there is because of his health.
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Beilein isn’t going to be fired. This year or next.
The question is where does Manuel want the program to go from here, and what are his expectations? Monitoring a growing apathetic fan base is not exactly ideal.
We now have top facilities and a top ten paid coach. That wasn’t always the norm.
JB needs to reinvent himself on the recruiting trail and start bringing in kids that are college ready to compete in practice and contribute in games. Instead of developmental projects just giving the starters an occasional blow. There are major Frosh all over the B1G performing at real high levels this year.
This is Michigan and if your head coach is not competitive in attracting college ready talent then the writing is on the wall. You can pursue all the elites you want. Only thing that matters is getting some talent that can play.
This constant whining about our defensive ineptitude falls squarely on the shoulders of the recruiting philosophy of the head man.
Until he evolves in his roster construction, I wouldn’t count on it changing that much. This will be the fourth straight year we’ve finished in the 80s ( or worse ) on Ken Pom.
It remains to be seen what/if Teske and Matthews can bring on the defensive end next year. This years unit is what it is, and there is limited time left to change it.
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Agreed. I also think our inability to get any feedback from Warde on basketball is a reflection of the University’s collective expectations. I imagine we’ll hear from him eventually after the season with a quip about all programs having a post season review, blah, blah, blah…
This phrase has no meaning with regards to basketball.
I would work from the obvious variables, rather than introducing new or conspiratorial ones. My thought–and I would love to see Dylan or someone at UMHoops ASK Beilein–is that Beilein’s offense often worked really well because it was not necessarily super complicated but required time to master. So Beilein, for better or worse, spent most of his time on it in practices. This was a trade-off that some of us thought perfectly fine when Beilein came along (others questioned it), though people argued whether he could succeed in the Big Ten with it. Personally, I hated Izzo’s lunchpail teams/style, and the B1G style in general.
This year might have LOOKED like a good year to intro greater emphasis on D, because there were a lot of returning starters. But in fact Beilein is trying to get more of the scoring through the low post positions; this is working but requiring adjustments. You have x number of practice hours, can only divide them so many ways. Defense also may require more practice energy than offense, and you have guys who play 38 minutes.
Michigan, excepting a couple of games, has kept the starters in because the games were close. Posters here complain that Teske and X haven’t gotten minutes, but if we were blowing games because they were in. . . Beilein’s responsibility is to win.
So–here is where it’s legitimate to ASK: what compromises has Beilein had to make, given the expressed desire to put greater emphasis on D? Are they backing away from Donlon’s schemes? Practicing D less than they’d like to? How HAVE the team’s circumstances impacted what they do in practice? Etcetera. Inquiring minds want to know.
(Would also love to hear knowledgeable posters write about the degree that the D approach has changed to fit Donlon’s packline schemes. Another good subject for an article here.)
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So Beilein DOES get asked about Donlon in today’s meeting with the press (on the front page here), and with his (to me) usual intelligent candor says that little has changed, Donlon is coaching and teaching D as at the beginning of the season and that–perhaps–the team is still over-thinking it and absorbing the philosophy, still to completely get it. Period.
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For 3+ million a year, I’m pretty sure ( This is Michigan) is going to have real meaning after next season.
The salary again? No one outside of Michigan cares what we pay our basketball coach. If Coach B made $200,000 I don’t think any fans would be saying “this is a horrible B1G start, but at least we got Coach on the cheap!”
The performances in conference play have not been good enough. Period.
The only way the salary should be an issue is if someone can show that other areas in the program have been starved as a result of having to pay Coach’s salary instead.
Exactly. The Michigan coach, whether it’s JB or anyone else, is going to be paid a lot of money. It’s not like we had an opportunity to hire another really good coach for $1 million, but we instead gratuitously decided to pay JB $3 million instead.
Whenever JB is no longer the coach, we’ll be paying the next guy as much or more. And that’s especially true if he’s a big name hire.
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Agree that a M coach is going to be paid handsomely, but I think the recent contract extension may have been a bit gratuitous. It’s not like he was going to jump to UCLA.
The contract extension was incredibly generous. Being the Michigan coach didn’t always come with such guaranteed salary and perks. Ask Orr and Frieder.
The question is why was such an astronomical buyout needed to be included at that point in time? It’s not obligatory.
The salary will never be the impetus for change alone. But it is indicative of some semblance of expected results.
If those results continue to trend negative and the arena is continually half full, who knows?
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Dude, that was 35 years ago. Times have changed significantly.
Michigan is a fairly high profile job. It’s not Kentucky or Duke, but it’s not Iowa or Butler, either. Coaches taking that job know they are going to be expected to win, and they are going to want to be compensated like it. Whenever JB leaves, the next coach is going to be someone we have to lure away from another program - whether it’s a Gregg Marshall, or Tony Bennett, or Chris Mack, or whoever. We’re going to have to pay that guy very nicely to make a move.
If you go catch a women’s game it’s $5 and cokes and hot dogs are a dollar. Great if you have kids.
I have no doubt Chris Mack would jump for a 300% raise.
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I think people are forgetting that Beilein himself was stolen from a mid tier Big 12 school…
It’s clear they’re still thinking. They aren’t instinctive defenders. They are lacking in the spatial awareness or ‘dogged’ attitude necessary to defend well. Given that they picked Beilein and UofM they probably want to be perfect. Defensively it’s about forcing the other team into a mistake before they catch yours, not perfection. Early success could have been due to some coaching on principles and less emphasis on being right every time. Sometimes more work dulls the knife.
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I expect Beilein back next year and am fine with that. Especially given that his buy out decreases after that. It’s better than losing, but paying someone to not coach stinks. Replacement also doesn’t guarantee improvement.
We all want a Michigan victory today that’s a given. Vegas somehow still seems to love us though.
We are favored by 8.5 points today against Nebraska. With Morrow being out and us having yet to cover in any B1G game thus far, who would you take today and why?
Nebraska simply because we never cover and I don’t trust the mental psyche of this team enough to beat anyone by 9. I think we win the game though
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I will be very disappointed if we don’t see a change in the starting lineup today or some other strategy shift (zone?), but I don’t expect it to happen. Continuing to do the same thing game after game is likely to produce the same results.
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