Hey, don’t shoot the messenger:
Michigan athletic director Bill Martin has said the school now has the money for a basketball practice facility. How much will that help bring U-M hoops back to prominence?
What? Does the University of Michigan really have a basketball program? You’re kidding! Seriously, this is well overdue.
Now, when recruits come to visit Ann Arbor, Crisler Arena doesn’t have to be the quick stop on the campus tour. At MSU, the academic center and The Breslin are two gems that blow most of the country – let alone the Big Ten – away when it comes to on-campus facilities. There’s no way that U-M has been able to compete with anything that the Spartans have on the basketball side; most of Michigan’s men’s basketball recruits have flocked there because of its legacy.
However, the Fab Five stuff is becoming an old relic, comparatively speaking. All MSU hoopsters have to do is point to the recent successes, their own recruits and the stability of the coach (Tom Izzo) and U-M is buried deep in the dirt. Then, the mention of the facilities is the coup de grace.
I know, I know. Michigan fans don’t care about basketball anyway. They’re more concerned with the real money sports. Like baseball.
happy birthday my cutie!
A new practice facility won’t bring Michigan Basketball back to prominence but John Beilien can. He took Richmond, Canisius, and West Virgina to the tournament so he sure can take Michigan to a tournament. When you get a new coach there will be a transistion priod almost anywhere. When the coach that leaves the program like Amaker and takes 5 starters with him and leaves the program with barley anybody how do you expect them to be better than 10-22.
Grant, did you see this?
Please note, both articles come from UM-friendly sources. These aren’t diehard Spartans writing these things.
I’m not sure Udoh would have even started next year with 7 foot freshman Ben Cronin coming in.
Also from the second column:
MSU has a 7-footer who’s collected splinters in his rear end for two years already because he isn’t physically ready to play Big Ten hoops, so if Cronin is your starter, expect him to be abused regularly. None of those stops on Beilein’s resume were in as bad shape as this…and none of them were playing Big Ten basketball, either. He hasn’t exactly set the recruiting trail on fire yet. It’s OK to be optimistic, but it’s better to be realistic. Signed, The Wet Blanket
Actually all but one of the stops where similiar. In His first year at Canisius he went 10-18. He started of good at richmond. When he went to West Virgina in his first year he went 14-15. If you look back at who he has won with he has recruited mostly 3 star players and one or 2 four star players. That is why he is known as the best teacher in the NCAA.
He’s gonna have to be. Those turnarounds weren’t in Big Ten country, and they weren’t with one of the top programs in the country right up the street to recruit against. Teaching 2 and 3-star players ain’t gonna cut it there. He’ll need some 4-star recruits, and he’s gonna have a hard time getting them in Izzo country. Is he younger than Izzo?
Izzo is two years younger than Beilien. Beilien has coached three more years and has 250 more wins than Izzo. The Big East has been stronger than the big ten the last couple years. Part of the reason Beilein came to Michigan was because their are better players in this area than in West Virgina, plus Amaker recrutied good players at Michigan he just could not coach them.
Amaker recruited good players? Really? Are any in the NBA?
Your facts are wrong on career wins: Izzo’s career record: 304-129, all of it at the top level of the game. Beilein: 303-197, much of that compiled at the rinky-dink level. Three more years of coaching, against weaker competition, and he has ONE more career win? Pshaw.
Can he turn UM around? Maybe. I’m not putting him down, just speaking the truth.
Game. Set. Match.
We both were wrong. According to the NCAA Beilein only has 198 more wins than Izzo. It says Izzo has a record of 278-121 and Beilein has a record of 476-275. Part of the reason that michigan has only 1 player in the NBA from last year’s team and 2 in the developmental league is because Amaker could NOT COACH.
Grant,
Tom Izzo has 305 career wins. You were citing an old source. Izzo’s 300th win back in February against Iowa was greeted with much fanfare.
No bother. I’m sure there are plenty of high school coaches out there with more career wins than Tom Izzo.
When John Beilein wins a Division I NCAA Championship, takes a team to four Final Fours in seven years, wins four Big Ten titles, wins two Big Ten Tournament titles, four National Coach of the Year awards, a Big Ten-best 11 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and gets grown men to fork over $23,000 thanking him for his services, we can start comparing resumes.