Not absolutes at all, we’re simply stale with no immediate hope in sight to be anything more than mediocre under Beilein.
You couldn’t have proved my point better! 
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Local scouts? I seriously doubt Beilein wants or needs their opinion. It’s well known he prefers to avoid the entourage drama and deal directly with head coaches. It would not surprise me at all that he gives them the cold shoulder. He probably sees them as sycophants and leaches, which many of them are.
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He also has the second longest tenure behind Orr. Regarding Beilein’s comments on effort last night, I’ve heard many, many coaches say that when their teams underperform. Crean said as much after the recent Nebraska loss. Beilein also wants more physicality from some players. I would have thought that you, of all people, would welcome that. Instead, you say it’s disgusting to point it out.
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Based on his recruiting results (or lack of) he might want to start soliciting opinions
He probably doesn’t need their opinions, just needs to stroke their egos a bit.
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I hope MAttD spends as much time setting people straight about who JB is as a person, as he spends time conveying the negative, and by his own admission wrong, opinions people have about who JB is as person.
Expressed and “held” opinions are influenced by politics and money more than proximity to the truth. I certainly don’t believe that the south east Michigan basketball community is somehow immune to the influences which corrupt opinions.
I don’t think Michigan missed out on Josh Jackson because Beilein didn’t listen to independent local scouts.
It also matters watching where recruits ultimately sign. Not offering a kid who has Michigan as his dream school doesn’t mean as much when that kid ultimately signs with a MM or lesser power 5 school.
Let me set it straight - I see JB personally probably more often than most non-staff members. I think he’s a pretty nice guy.
However, I can see the where some don’t necessarily care for his personality.
Not just that anymore, his evals are not what they used to be in my view. Davis and Watson in the 16 class are headscratchers for sure.
Local scouts could’ve told him that, and he definitely could’ve used those opinions. Michigan taking Davis is the ass of many jokes in the local scouting community
They sound like admirable folks.
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See that’s the thing, at the end of the day basketball is a sport, not a charitable endeavor where perceived character really means much of anything.
Coaches, much like scouts, get compensated to be correct about basketball related items. Unfortunately for John Beilein, his 2016 recruiting decisions were not correct as it relates to both Watson, and especially Davis. The sad part is John Beilein is compensated MUCH more than any of us local scouts, but his decisions last year were worth pennies. I’m sure John Beilein has forgot more Xs and Os than I’ve ever known, but his evaluation skills have been suspect for a few years now. I think the 17 class is his best job evaluating (and landing) in quite some time. Let’s see where his eyes are in 18
Are we even in the 20-30 range as a program at this point? We certainly should be, but the results over the last few season and this year don’t bear that out.
“Michigan taking Davis is the ass of many jokes in the local scouting community”
Making the jokes at the expense of 17/18 year old kids is not very professional.
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And by “not very professional” I mean it’s a pathetic display of professionalism.
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The ass of the joke is Beilein, not Davis.
Making “Michigan taking taking Davis” the ass of many jokes is not very professional.
I’m not claiming it is, simply saying that in the professional world, professionalism is defined by the quality of your work rather than the perceived quality of character. In other words, folks get paid to perform a task, basketball in this particular scenario, not being nice. And it should be that way
Depends on where you’re drawing the line, but over the past 10 seasons (counting this as season 10), yes Michigan would be in that 20-30 range, IMO — 6 NCAA bids w/a 7th projected this season (by Bracketologists), 2 Sweet16s, 1 Final4.
Currently rank Top15 in number of active NBAers…which counts a decent amount in program rep.
If you look this season and last season only, it gets a little fuzzier but cross-referencing last year’s NCAA seed (11+) with this year’s projected seed (9/10) and whittle out teams that tanked last year or are tanking this year… eh, probably just outside Top30 combined performance.
But I would argue a program rep is more than the current and immediate past season?
If you look at just this senior class, then likely 3 NCAA trips with an Elite8 appearance and likely 85+ wins from a Power Conference…that’s probably closer to the 25-30 range. And again slight bump upward from results for having more current NBA guys than similars like Pitt, Cal, Arkansas, Ohio St, Clemson, A&M.
Shoot, Florida, which I would consider a Top20 program, has missed the NCAA Tourney the past two seasons (after making a Final4 run when these Seniors were Freshmen) and is trending as a 4-5-6 seed this year.
The task of basketball scouting can be performed without making “Michigan taking Davis” the ass of many jokes.