Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery’s take on John Beilein, Jalen Rose’s jab at the coach, Chris Webber’s Juwan Howard endorsement and more …
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Thank you, Fran McCaffery, for saying exactly what we were thinking about head coach John Beilein’s departure. Beilein was truly one of a kind — voted the cleanest coach in the country by his peers recently in a landslide vote yet still winning titles.
McCaffery was stunned at Beilein’s departure, but probably wasn’t surprised (if that makes sense) … liken it to a relationship that ends abruptly with one filing for divorce. Maybe there were signs of unhappiness, but the moment that piece of paper comes, it still hits you like a ton of bricks.
“It’s getting harder and harder the way he does it, the way I do it,” McCaffery told the Des Moines Register of Beilein and the way he operated. “The way it should be done.”
"He didn’t like it there. He loved it there. But our game has changed. I know he’s disappointed in the state of our game right now. The unethical nature of what’s been going on.”
That includes pay for play, cover-up cultures within his own conference, having to recruit his own players like Jordan Poole and Ignas Brazdeikis just to stay another year to hone their skills when it makes perfect sense for them to do so … and now, thanks to the NCAA, competing with agents to convince them, as well.
Beilein said during his last official Michigan press conference he’d be interested to see how many players with agents would remain in the draft compared to those without agents. That was probably rhetorical. He knew the answer.
So does McCaffery.
“Agents signing our players and inserting themselves into the equation — it’s safe to say there’s no agent out there that’s advocating for the University of Michigan. I can tell you that,” McCaffery said.
"I’m not sure some of those rules were for the better. At the time, we all said, you know what? Change is coming. We embraced the change, and we’ll adjust. I’m not sure the change was good. The new recruiting rules. The interaction with agents. The transfer portal. Grad transfers. There are cases when it’s good; but it creates mega-problems elsewhere.
"And if you weigh the collateral damage with some of the changes that were made versus some of the small amount of good ... we probably should make some changes again.”
It won’t bring Beilein back, and it probably won’t matter. The NCAA has proven time and again it doesn’t really care, and guys like Gonzaga’s Mark Few are among those fighting the good fight who have noticed.
"It's not going to do us any good if [cheating schools] beat us, and [the NCAA] takes away their banner four years from now," Few said. "Do something, man. Do it right now. Don't hide behind, 'Well, it takes time.' Not if it means something to you. You should be the czar. ... That's what I'd do if I was the sheriff. And I'd say, 'If you have a problem with this, fine, but if I find anything in your program? Five years. Five years with no postseason, and the coach is done for five years."
Mark Few will most likely never leave Gonzaga, but man, would he ever be the perfect guy to follow Beilein at Michigan.
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The latest head scratchers in this coaching search center around former Fab Fivers Jalen Rose and Chris Webber. Rose offered this on ESPN’s “Get Up” Friday morning.
“The one thing [Beilein] did not do, and it was a different style of recruiting, is recruit McDonald’s All-Americans,” Rose said. "In his entire tenure there, we had a grand total of zero get recruited to the University of Michigan.
"I think Juwan Howard is the guy that could bring that back. He would be a terrific head coach. He would be terrific at developing young talent. He wouldn’t take no mess off of the players. He would own the Michigan market. I think he would be the guy that could bring the program back to where everybody’s standing on campus representing.”
Will all due respect — and noting that Jalen Rose is a great representative of the university — nobody represented better than Beilein’s crew in Ann Arbor. He sent several to the NBA. They had an APR near 100 percent in the classroom, and his players were great teammates (for the most part).
Anyone familiar with the game knows how hard it is to land the McDonald’s guys given the baggage that comes with so many of them … and we know Rose is as familiar with the game as anyone.
So what is it he’s trying to say, exactly?
Given Beilein’s postseason success — he’s won as many NCAA Tournament games as anyone since 2013 and would have had a National Championship in 2013 if not for some bad breaks — who cares if the guys he won them with were McDonald’s All-Americans?
This one is right up there with the argument that folks wouldn’t want Tony Bennett in Ann Arbor because his Virginia teams are too “boring to watch.” We’d watch peach bucket ball if it would bring a national title along with it.
As for Webber and his Howard endorsement …
Sweet.
This from a guy who continues to tout Michigan State’s Tom Izzo as “his guy” and ignoring the Michigan basketball program despite U-M’s success and Jim Harbaugh bringing him back as an honorary captain for a football game last year.
He did it again on a broadcast the other night when he endorsed Howard for the job, as though his opinion should carry any weight. Beilein did everything he could to get Webber back in the family, and Webber wanted no part of it.
"I want every player that ever played here to feel like he's a part of that building, including Chris," Beilein said last year. "We're really looking forward to the day that we get him back here with our team, in front of crowds and things like that.
"Since the day that I got here, of course, there were five or six years where I was limited in what I could say about that era. Since the ban has been off, I've reached out to Chris several times. I continue to do that, and we're going to continue to try and build bridges and just really work at making sure there's a lot of healing going forward."
At least one of them made an effort, so forgive those who don’t fall in the “forgive and forget” category when it comes to Michigan’s former All-American, especially given what he’s said about the program over the last several years.
"Tom Izzo knows how I got to Michigan," Webber told the Michigan Daily. "He knows if he [had been] the coach at Michigan State, I would have gone to Michigan State. If anyone were to ask him, he would tell you. He cried when he didn't get me in, and I cried when I didn't go there."
And when Dan Patrick asked him a few years ago where Webber would go if he had a mulligan …
"Don't do that ... don't do that ... don't do that," Webber said. "The truth is this … I don't want to answer that, honestly, in the mood that I'm in."
We wish he would have. Maybe then that faction of the fan base that continues to fawn over him for no good reason could let him go, the way he apparently wants them to.
And had he gone to Michigan State? Michigan fans would have missed two years of highlight reel basketball, but MSU might well be cleaning up Ed Martin’s mess instead of (or in addition to) Michigan.
****
Thank you, Fran McCaffery, for saying exactly what we were thinking about head coach John Beilein’s departure. Beilein was truly one of a kind — voted the cleanest coach in the country by his peers recently in a landslide vote yet still winning titles.
McCaffery was stunned at Beilein’s departure, but probably wasn’t surprised (if that makes sense) … liken it to a relationship that ends abruptly with one filing for divorce. Maybe there were signs of unhappiness, but the moment that piece of paper comes, it still hits you like a ton of bricks.
“It’s getting harder and harder the way he does it, the way I do it,” McCaffery told the Des Moines Register of Beilein and the way he operated. “The way it should be done.”
"He didn’t like it there. He loved it there. But our game has changed. I know he’s disappointed in the state of our game right now. The unethical nature of what’s been going on.”
That includes pay for play, cover-up cultures within his own conference, having to recruit his own players like Jordan Poole and Ignas Brazdeikis just to stay another year to hone their skills when it makes perfect sense for them to do so … and now, thanks to the NCAA, competing with agents to convince them, as well.
Beilein said during his last official Michigan press conference he’d be interested to see how many players with agents would remain in the draft compared to those without agents. That was probably rhetorical. He knew the answer.
So does McCaffery.
“Agents signing our players and inserting themselves into the equation — it’s safe to say there’s no agent out there that’s advocating for the University of Michigan. I can tell you that,” McCaffery said.
"I’m not sure some of those rules were for the better. At the time, we all said, you know what? Change is coming. We embraced the change, and we’ll adjust. I’m not sure the change was good. The new recruiting rules. The interaction with agents. The transfer portal. Grad transfers. There are cases when it’s good; but it creates mega-problems elsewhere.
"And if you weigh the collateral damage with some of the changes that were made versus some of the small amount of good ... we probably should make some changes again.”
It won’t bring Beilein back, and it probably won’t matter. The NCAA has proven time and again it doesn’t really care, and guys like Gonzaga’s Mark Few are among those fighting the good fight who have noticed.
"It's not going to do us any good if [cheating schools] beat us, and [the NCAA] takes away their banner four years from now," Few said. "Do something, man. Do it right now. Don't hide behind, 'Well, it takes time.' Not if it means something to you. You should be the czar. ... That's what I'd do if I was the sheriff. And I'd say, 'If you have a problem with this, fine, but if I find anything in your program? Five years. Five years with no postseason, and the coach is done for five years."
Mark Few will most likely never leave Gonzaga, but man, would he ever be the perfect guy to follow Beilein at Michigan.
****
The latest head scratchers in this coaching search center around former Fab Fivers Jalen Rose and Chris Webber. Rose offered this on ESPN’s “Get Up” Friday morning.
“The one thing [Beilein] did not do, and it was a different style of recruiting, is recruit McDonald’s All-Americans,” Rose said. "In his entire tenure there, we had a grand total of zero get recruited to the University of Michigan.
"I think Juwan Howard is the guy that could bring that back. He would be a terrific head coach. He would be terrific at developing young talent. He wouldn’t take no mess off of the players. He would own the Michigan market. I think he would be the guy that could bring the program back to where everybody’s standing on campus representing.”
Will all due respect — and noting that Jalen Rose is a great representative of the university — nobody represented better than Beilein’s crew in Ann Arbor. He sent several to the NBA. They had an APR near 100 percent in the classroom, and his players were great teammates (for the most part).
Anyone familiar with the game knows how hard it is to land the McDonald’s guys given the baggage that comes with so many of them … and we know Rose is as familiar with the game as anyone.
So what is it he’s trying to say, exactly?
Given Beilein’s postseason success — he’s won as many NCAA Tournament games as anyone since 2013 and would have had a National Championship in 2013 if not for some bad breaks — who cares if the guys he won them with were McDonald’s All-Americans?
This one is right up there with the argument that folks wouldn’t want Tony Bennett in Ann Arbor because his Virginia teams are too “boring to watch.” We’d watch peach bucket ball if it would bring a national title along with it.
As for Webber and his Howard endorsement …
Sweet.
This from a guy who continues to tout Michigan State’s Tom Izzo as “his guy” and ignoring the Michigan basketball program despite U-M’s success and Jim Harbaugh bringing him back as an honorary captain for a football game last year.
He did it again on a broadcast the other night when he endorsed Howard for the job, as though his opinion should carry any weight. Beilein did everything he could to get Webber back in the family, and Webber wanted no part of it.
"I want every player that ever played here to feel like he's a part of that building, including Chris," Beilein said last year. "We're really looking forward to the day that we get him back here with our team, in front of crowds and things like that.
"Since the day that I got here, of course, there were five or six years where I was limited in what I could say about that era. Since the ban has been off, I've reached out to Chris several times. I continue to do that, and we're going to continue to try and build bridges and just really work at making sure there's a lot of healing going forward."
At least one of them made an effort, so forgive those who don’t fall in the “forgive and forget” category when it comes to Michigan’s former All-American, especially given what he’s said about the program over the last several years.
"Tom Izzo knows how I got to Michigan," Webber told the Michigan Daily. "He knows if he [had been] the coach at Michigan State, I would have gone to Michigan State. If anyone were to ask him, he would tell you. He cried when he didn't get me in, and I cried when I didn't go there."
And when Dan Patrick asked him a few years ago where Webber would go if he had a mulligan …
"Don't do that ... don't do that ... don't do that," Webber said. "The truth is this … I don't want to answer that, honestly, in the mood that I'm in."
We wish he would have. Maybe then that faction of the fan base that continues to fawn over him for no good reason could let him go, the way he apparently wants them to.
And had he gone to Michigan State? Michigan fans would have missed two years of highlight reel basketball, but MSU might well be cleaning up Ed Martin’s mess instead of (or in addition to) Michigan.
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