JOHN BEILEIN CONJURES UP THIRD LOSING SEASON IN EIGHT YEARS AT MICHIGAN

(July is "Beilein Month" - - - originally published on 3-16-15)

The curtains have closed on the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team for this year, wrapping up their third losing season in the past eight years. All three bad seasons included losing records in the league and overall. All three years included watching the post-season from the living room couch.

We maintain our assertion that UM finished 15-16 this year, and we have exhaustively made our case to that point in the past two weeks. There is simply NO WAY that a contest with Hillsdale College should be counted as a regular season game.

Apparently, the experts agreed. Remember, it's USA Today that publishes the Sagarin Ratings, not exactly a shabby second-rate media outlet. The NCAA knows that Michigan's final record this season was 15-16.

In fairness, this should stifle the wild claims

about the old apple-picker being Hall-of-Fame material,

much less being "better than Izzo".

Beilein is a good coach. He's had some great seasons and some stinkers, at every place he ever worked (except Richmond). He took a big chance in his current job on some great players who were not likely to succeed in college, they left him in the lurch, and he got caught with some injuries. He had plenty of time to create his program, and he did it in a way that emphasized risk, and he got burned by his risk-taking (on player selection). Plus, some guys apparently don't really want to play their whole career for him.

Coaches have a lot of things to consider when offering scholarships to high school players. Immediate impact versus long-term stability is one such issue. Beilein rolled the dice, won some of his gambles, but ultimately has crapped-out.

He will likely have some success in the future, but when that day comes, could we please tone-down all of the "Beilein-is-God" rhetoric? I mean, it's not like he's Jim Harbaugh, right?

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