MERCHANT vs BEILEIN: FINAL ROUND ACTION

(July is "Beilein Month" - - -- originally published on 4-12-15)

People have been so tickled by the job John Beilein has done at Michigan, especially his great work this past season. Who will ever forget how he took a team ranked #23 in the pre-season poll and finished in ninth-place in the B1G, sitting at home during the entire post-season. What a grand achievement.

So we've been comparing Beilein to Suzy Merchant, the women's basketball coach at Michigan State University. Both were hired the same year, so their careers at UM and MSU are the same length, eight seasons. Sounds good for a comparison, right?

Not so good for Beilein, as he lost in three of four categories in Round One. Merchant has more wins, a better winning percentage, and more NCAA Tournament appearances.

Merchant also took Round Two, a comparison of how the combined basketball team records at each school rank compared to the rest of the B1G conference.

We now move to the Final Round in the Merchant vs. Beilein showdown, a summary of how many losing seasons and how many 20-win seasons each coach has had at their respective school.

John Beilein has had five seasons

with 20 or more wins out of his eight at Michigan.

Suzy Merchant has had seven seasons

with 20 or more wins out of her eight at Michigan State.

John Beilein has had three losing seasons

out of his eight at Michigan.

Suzy Merchant has

NEVER HAD A LOSING SEASON

in her eight years at Michigan State.

It looks like Suzy Merchant should be the one getting all of the attention, not John Beilein. As we've said for some time, Beilein is a good coach, and it's understandable that UM fans like him. But his career metrics at Michigan are not better than those of Merchant at Michigan State.

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