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Bilas' blog:


• Say What, Again? I detest having to bring this up again because I love John Beilein and think he was a great choice for Michigan, and that he will do a good job there in time. But, what is he talking about?! Beilein has taken great pains to suggest that his players don't know a basketball from a bowling ball, that his players are "learning how to play college basketball" and that when the Michigan coaches "give their wisdom to them, it's got to be almost a Montessori experience." What?! Beilein makes his players sound so stupid and clueless that it is insulting. First, and I say this as a guy who thinks that basketball is far more complicated than most seem to understand, to refer to your own basketball understanding as "wisdom" seems a bit much. Knowledge, yes. Wisdom, take a pill. Even John Wooden wouldn't refer to his own knowledge as "wisdom." Second, if your system is so complicated that you need to refer to recruited athletes and students admitted to the University of Michigan as the basketball equivalent of toddlers, maybe you should simplify things so you can compete favorably with Harvard, Central Michigan or Western Kentucky. Beilein has no depth (because of attrition), but Manny Harris (consensus top-50 recruit), DeShawn Sims (consensus top-50 recruit), Kelvin Grady (heavily recruited) and Ekpe Udoh (heavily recruited) are all good enough and smart enough to be competitive. Heck, Purdue is full of freshmen and sophomores, and its players are not being referred to as if they are idiots. Michigan is off to its worst start in 25 years, and it is not all the players' fault. Nobody is complaining about the poor play because Beilein deserves time to do it his way. Nobody asked me for my advice, and I understand that. But, if I were in Beilein's situation, I would quit making so many excuses and save my breath for teaching. Or, maybe I'm not smart enough to get it, either.

File this under "W" for "Who gives a fuck". Bilas will never forgive UM for firing Amaker.

Saucy.

Jay, how about you pay a few more visits to the cafeteria in Chapel Hill like the commercial suggests.
Your boner for K is more disturbing than an Idaho Congressman with a "wide stance" in an airport bathroom, and yet as you call out Beilein for his arrogance, your spew it like no other.
I love the fact that a guy with wood for a school carrying nothing but McDonald's All-Americans can get snooty about how competitive a team with 4 players that were either top 50 or "highly recruited" (wtf is that?) who are all either freshmen or sophomores needs to be. Meanwhile, a team in EL full of "highly recruited" players had to have the best coaching job ever last year to squeak into the tournament. Oh wait, not HIS argument, though Coach K slappies tend to get a little bone for Iz.

I don't think this is ALL Amaker love.

He probably was thinking about this because of the Amaker crap, but he has legit points. Phil Jackson = 'genius' = retarded playbook a Helen Keller could do. B-ball playbooks should be so rudimentary the Brent Petway's(Marqueis Gray is you want to look at the MSU side of things) of the world can function in them. You want good athletes with good skills making things happen. Asking more than that will make you have to pass over a lot of the NBA kids. If you are a Northwestern that is doing that anyway - brilliant, but if you can get talent, there is no reason to turn it away for execution.

I don't remember the last team to make the title game without serious NBA talent. Final 4 you have George Mason, but otherwise - talent wins games in Bball. Izzo made last year's team better than it would have been otherwise, but we still didn't finish THAT much better than our talent said we should.