John Beilein has struggled for years to get his Michigan Basketball team to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) and this season looked like his best chance to get there. Unfortunately for his Wolverines, they missed out on the NIT yet again.
Beilein came to UM with a rich tradition of success in the NIT, winning the whole enchilada in his final season at West Virginia. It was that championship that opened the door to Ann Arbor for the old apple farmer, and he was determined to get back to the promised land for his new employer.
But alas, Beilein missed both tournaments twice in his first five seasons at Michigan, and only made the NCAA Tournament in the other three, compiling a 2-3 record. He also came up empty last season. (That unusual two-year-run took place between a first-round exit and the most recent empty post-season.)
So it looked like this was the make-it-or-break-it season for Beilein. The lack of senior leadership combined with unexplained injuries and an unprecedented "retirement" by a walk-on player seemed to be paving the way back into the NIT. Beilein covered his tracks well with the hot start to the league schedule, but made sure to lose most of his games on the back-end, setting his team up to dodge the Big Dance.
Tragically, the Wolverines slipped by Northwestern (in overtime) and Indiana (on a last-second shot) to force the NCAA Selection Committee to put them into its tournament.
Thus ends any chance of a repeat NIT Championship for Beilein, at least for this season. But for the old apple farmer, hope springs eternal, and after all, THERE IS ALWAYS NEXT YEAR!
---------
Tweet ****** The purpose of this web site is to expose the mainstream media bias that consistently portrays Michigan in a favorable light under any and all circumstances. We present current facts and review historical records to show that UM is not all they are cracked up to be. This process involves information that is negative by nature, offered as a counter-balance to the biased picture we all see on a regular basis in the mainstream media. These negative facts may involve Wolverine teams, players, coaches, administrators, and/or fans. We are here to prove that Michigan is NOT AS DIFFERENT as they want us all to believe.
I thought you might actually give Beilein a little credit for his coaching performance this season. John lost two senior starting guards and still made the tournament (granted by the slimmest of margins), but I think it deserves a tip of the cap.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Bill. It may not have Beilein but the team played above my expectations.
ReplyDeleteMaybe right, but one of those "senior guards" was a walk-on. I notice that Kenny Goins has been injured for several weeks, yet MSU won the conference tournament. Izzo for Coach-of-the-Year for winning without Goins?
DeleteMaybe UM got lucky against Northwestern, or maybe Indiana "blew it" (ask their fans). Or maybe it was because Louisville self-terminated and SMU was banned this year, creating two open spots in the tournament.
Or maybe St. Bonaventure actually should have been selected with their #29-RPI, or Monmouth, or several other teams that were actually snubbed by the Big Dance (ask their fans).
Heck of a coaching job by Beilein to put on a full-court press with starters as soon as Crean and Izzo cleared their bench in blowouts, that made those games look a lot closer than they were.
Michigan was preseason #24, and they've slipped into a Play-In game. You're tipping your hat before they play Tulsa. Do you think the TV people would rather see Monmouth vs Notre Dame or Michigan vs Notre Dame in The Big Apple on Friday night?
BILL DUNPHY HAS A SOFT SPOT FOR MICHIGAN. WE DON'T.
No soft spot, just more open minded than the people that run this site.
DeleteBeating Indiana on a last second shot or not (whether the Hoosiers blew it or didn't), does it really matter? Was the Spartans win against Michigan in football any different?
It's okay to respect a rival, even if you don't like them.
Talking with BILL DUNPHY is like getting caught in an endless spin-cycle of a washing machine...rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, ad infinitum...
DeleteFor the record, I doubt that Bill has ever met a more open-minded person than me in his lifetime. But this web site is not purposed to display our open-mindedness; it's designed to counteract the pro-UM bias that permeates the mainstream media. Those who consume too much of the M-4 are prone to say things like Beilein deserves a tip of the hat for finishing in 8th-place and lucking-into the play-in round. We counter that sports media narrative through satire and statistics.
Get a clue, Bill. What other coach has had a beloved walk-on "retire" with eligibility only to openly consider "un-retiring" to return to a team that has over-signed too many players? Beilein is a strange dude, that's for sure. Good offensive mind, but little else remarkable about him in any positive sense.
"it's designed to counteract the pro-UM bias that permeates the mainstream media."
DeleteExcept that's not what you do here. If your objective really was to counter your alleged "blue-wall," you would counter it with truth, even when that truth goes against your hatred of a team. Instead you provide the same biased opinions that you seem to hate from the "blue-wall."
Dump-the-Chumps is a "Spartan Fox News" page, just hate and rhetoric. I mean you can't even compliment John Beilein without a backhand attached to it.
I had hopes that this site could become a new enjoyable forum. RCMB simply has too many users, and it's no longer fun (for me). I miss the CBS days, where for the most part users could have civil conversations with each other, regardless of they root for.
Rinse and Repeat eh? Maybe I'm just trying to help you evolve.
CBS? I joined CBS in 2006. My first day I posted a compliment on the UM boards and was immediately subjected to personal insults and disparaging remarks made against MSU by 20 different individuals.
DeleteAh yes. Those were the good old days.
I'm not saying there weren't jerks, but I enjoyed it more. Mlive was always a favorite spot of mine too, but not anymore.. Like I said, I had hope for this site, but that hope has faded.
DeleteIf MLive rolls another penny to take over my computer, I will seriously consider quitting it.
DeleteYes, sometimes we vent on here. Often our choice of humor is sarcasm. But on the whole, everything is factual.
Bill, I can sympathize with your wish for a new, enjoyable, civil (etc) forum, and this web site can serve that purpose for anyone who is as tired of the M-4 as we are. From my standpoint, the M-4 is basically "FOX News Gone Wild" with a pro-UM agenda. Sadly, the pro-UM bias extends even beyond the media.
DeleteBut it's not a web site that will likely provide equal interest to MSU and UM fans alike. We have talked about a different web site, not to replace this one but to offer a more balanced alternative, but we just haven't been able to put that one together. Personally, I wouldn't mind having such a web site. If you can get it started, send us the address and we can contribute according to the parameters of your forum. I've seen writing by all of the other authors on this web site, and I know they can be flexible. On this site, we take certain angles. On a different site, maybe different angles. We're not actually the automatonic clones you may think we are.
Unlike the creator of this web site, I don't think "the rivalry" is fun, I don't wish it to continue as it is, I hope it gets better in the future. But from my perspective, there is little chance of improvement while the media perpetuates tired old stereotypes, albeit not so blatantly these days. We point out only the tip of the pro-UM iceberg on this site, though much more could be written about and reported on. Until the popular perception of Michigan as "the Almighty" comes back down to earth, the chances of a turnaround in the tone of "the rivalry" are low.
While what we do here is not sufficient, it is necessary. People have to lear to see Michigan for what it is; another old midwestern university that does some things pretty well, and stops doing anything it can't be the best at, and acts like they are the center of the universe with all of their money and political influence. It would seem that the 20 years differential in the founding dates of the two largest state universities would eventually be recognized as no longer significant. Certainly by some point later in this century people will see little difference between 1835 and 1855.
And if the media stops slobbering over UM, and their people quit acting like the bluebloods, we will frankly have very little to write about. Until then, we will sling the appropriate arrows at the appropriate times.
So Bill, with all due respect to you, please feel free to visit this web site or not, and please feel free to start up the new one or not, but above all else, please Bill, if you ever write another comment on one of our articles, please begin by saying you understand everything we have been telling you and that you will not be expecting us to change the general direction of THIS WEB SITE.
I have to wonder if the selection committee noticed the UM opened the season with a win versus Division II rival Northern Michigan?
ReplyDeleteI wonder what kind of RPI was given for that, SOS, whatever.