Ingerson didn't contribute much on the court (at least against any team that could play semi-competent defense) and had a bad rep from high school, but I don't remember him getting into any trouble off the court while at UM. Did I miss something?
Bilas was an assistant at Duke from 1990-92. Do you think he is bitter about any experiences trying to recruit the 5 freshman of 1991?
Is it me or are the Duke apologists seemingly damning Amaker with faint praise? Right after the hire, Bilas and others of his ilk criticized Michigan for not caring about basektball. They said that the evidence we didn't care was that we were too cheap to open up the checkbook to hire a real coach six years ago and pointed to TA's low "base salary." IS that really the way to defend TA? Further, how does Bilas' remarks about TA being a good fit at Michigan mesh with his criticisms of the athletic department. Isn't Bilas essentially saying that 'TA is a good fit for Michigan because they don't care about basketball'?
Clearly, those who question the dedication of the athletic department to the baskeball program are wrong. Bill Martin paid Amaker $900,000 to never, ever coach another Michgian team again. Ever. He even splurged and upped Beilein's "base salary" to $200K per year (and, yes, TA and JB both made much more under their respective contracts through other compensation measures).
Bilas also keeps beating the facilities drum. Never mind that UCLA has gone to consecutive final fours, including a championship game appearance, even though they play and practice in an ancient Paulie Pavilion.
Time to face the facts. Of all the Coach K coaching offspring, none have yet repeated his success. Not Snyder, not Capel III, not Brey. Brey would be the closest, taking ND to the NCAA's out of the Big East four times with one Sweet 16. None of them can be said to be top level coaches. TA just wasn't that good. Six years was plenty of time to make serious strides. He mades a few baby steps, but as Brian points out, the bar from the Ellerbe era was set pretty low.
Jay Bilas: early contender for the 2007 Gary Danielson Award for Ignorant Michigan Bashing and General Asshattery.
If it makes any difference, Shawn Crable is of the opinion that Beilein will indeed be able to recruit in Detroit.
Bilas is like the friend of a divorcee, you might not have really cared about your friend's spouse but now that they are divorced you have to badmouth them.
BTW...the comments section of the Free Press is GAWD AWFUL. I now hate myself for having read it.
"Asshat." Hilarious, I'll have to add that to my vocabulary.
Yeah, The Freep needs to do something about their comments. It's like a breeding ground for the lowest of the lowest internet trolls. I love the Free Press (even Sharp, I think I must be the only one), but it's becoming a serious problem to go over there and read without your jaw hitting the ground.
Amen.
Prior to his firing, the defenses of TA on the basis that "he runs a clean program" drove me insane. For the last time: IT'S EASY TO RUN A CLEAN AND CRAPPY PROGRAM. If your only goal is to not run afoul of NCAA rules, then the pool of quality coaching candidates is all members of homo sapiens. The challenge is to not cheat and actually win games.
BTW, great Maurice Searwright reset. I have forgotten (on purpose?)the list of washouts during the Ellerbee era. Is there some kind of year by year roster available on the internets?
The six years of the Tommy Amaker era felt like an eternity.
I'd like to guess that coach k disciples don't succeed because they coach, for the most part, the same style that he does. He's not the best game coach, and usually wins because he has more talent than most teams he plays against. Most of his coaches try the same things he does but don't have the kind of talent on their rosters, so we see a bunch of mediocrity.
I think I could go out there and be an improvement over Brian Ellerbe...
Which brings me to an interesting subplot of the Ellerbe era, which I plan on investigating. How many players did that guy recruit that actually stayed a full 4 years at Michigan? Hell, how many guys did Ellerbe recruit that actually stayed 3 years at Michigan? Seemed to me like that general 1998-2001 era was ripe for guys dropping left and right.
Leon Jones. Chris Young. Lavell Blanchard. Those are the three guys I can come up with that were Ellerbe recruits and stayed all 4 years.
Wait? You said the interview was in the Free Press? And it was terrible? Shock of shocks. You don't think they actually interviewed Bilas (asshat) and knew the answers before they asked the questions, do you? You are right on with the Amaker comments. They only reason people aren't blasting him was he is a class act as a person, but the glorification of someone who did what was expected of every coach (run a clean program) and little else is getting sickening. And I prefer Dickweed to Asshat. I think Bilas looks more like a Dickweed. When I think Asshat I think Huggins.
Oh, and another thing that Jay Bilas avoids - if Amaker was such a hot coach that only failed at Michigan because of the fact that they don't have a shiny new practice facility, why weren't other schools trying to pry him away from his below-market-rate-salaried job to take over a big time program? Clear answer: his tenure at Michigan unmasked him for what he is, a bright, intelligent and nice guy with a Duke degree, basketball skills not sufficient to have merited an NBA career, and a profound lack of NCAA head coaching abilities.
Easy on the Amaker bashing.
I'm not bashing TA. Just stating an opinion. I don't think he is a capable head coach, and I think Bill Martin gave him plenty of time to get on-court results. Frankly, I was very excited when he was hired and thought he would have done much better. I was not happy to see him go, even though I believe it was a change for the better. I would have preferred that his record had been better, that he got us to the NCAA tournament and made deep runs.
I also applaud the way he made his exit. I resent Bilas and Dick Vitale and others for bashing U of M for making the change that was clearly needed, and for bashing U of M for not devoting more money (that isn't there at the moment) to building a practice facility that isn't an absolute emergency to build.
Amaker did indeed take over the program at its worst state since we first put a team on the floor. He guided us through a tough time. He should be, and has been on several occassions, praised by the U of M administration for the strides he took in terms of reviving the image of the program.
As for the performance of the teams under him, those who criticize his in-game coaching skills, his ability to develop players, and his apparent unwillingness to be a more public and available ambassador for the team, department and school have all raised valid points.
Amaker will never be heard from again at a big time basketball program, period.
"Amaker will never be heard from again at a big time basketball program, period."
I thought the same think about Ron Zook (whoops, if the EDSBS people are reading, I mean [name redacted])
same "thing" sorry
I don't want the well deserved Bilas bashing (he is an asshat and a dickweed) to make people forget Terry Foster's incompetence. His April 5th blog that seemed to have his ass covered by saying the re-recruiting Harris, Grady, and Legion would be decided in a few days managed to be wrong as well. First it was about a week before Harris and Grady announced they were staying...it's now 11 days and still no official word from Legion as far as I have seen. So I'm thinking for some the panic remains, for others it doesn't, and for nobody with an IQ above your average $uckeye does Foster look like he knows anything he's blogging about.
...jb needs to understand that his friend,simply,could not get it done. althoough, I find jb interview interesting,however,nonetheless pointless...GO BLUE BABY!
I just couldent understand it this year and last year. Why was Jay Bilas loving Michigan so much. Do you guys remember last year after the great meltdown that ended in the Big Ten tourney against Minny what he said. LOCK. He called us a god damn lock to get into the tourney. Upon hearing that i laughed my ass off. And then this year he fought for us also saying if you look at Purude and Illinois then you have to look at Michigan. I could never understand why ol Jay loved us so much but here is my anwser. Wow have i been a dumb ass or what
Re Ellerbe recruits, Bernard Robinson (in trouble several times but cleaned up his act later) and Gavin Groninger also stayed all 4 years.
Leon Jones. Chris Young. Lavell Blanchard. Those are the three guys I can come up with that were Ellerbe recruits and stayed all 4 years.
---------------------------------
It gets even worse when you consider that Jones and Young actually committed when Fisher was the coach.
The only genuine Ellerbe recruits to stay four years were Blanchard, Groninger and Robinson Jr.
Obviously I'm in the minority here but I've always liked Bilas as an analyst but his big brother act with Tommy is pathetic. If he's being totally honest how is that unlike many other "experts" he fails to see how fundamentally unsound Tommy's boys were? He's typically pretty even handed but his Puke homerism is pretty disgusting.
Good point above about Bilas claiming UM being a lock for the tournament last year. So with that is saying we were really screwed by the ncaa. If not then he must admit that TA's teams underachieved.
True Ellerbe recruits who stayed for four/five yeras:
Blanchard
Groninger
BRob
Abram
Chris Young and Leon Jones were Fisher recruits but signed LOI when Ellerbe was interim HC.
Ellerbe players who flamed out:
Crawford
Gaines
Anderson
Searight
Queen
7 footer Josh
Bailey(sp?)
Ingerson
Hart
Whitney
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