Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
It's a big basketball weekend, of course, as we prepare for March Madness and the NCAA tournament. And John Beilein, the coach of the Michigan Wolverines, should be fired for one of the worst coaching decisions I've ever seen in the game against Ohio State on Friday.
With 2.2 seconds left and his team up by two, Ohio State was taking the ball out on the far end of the court. Everyone in the arena knows that Ohio State wants to get the ball to Evan Turner, their all-American guard. So what does Michigan do? They sit at the other end of the court in a 1-3-1 zone defense, allowing Turner to catch the ball at full speed and sprint across half court to take a 3 pointer - which he made, of course.
What in the world was he thinking? First of all, after the legendary Christian Laettner shot against Kentucky in 1992, any coach that does not guard the out of bounds player on an in bounds play is insane. You simply can't give that guy an unimpeded shot to throw the ball anywhere he wants. You have to at least make it difficult on him to see around you and force the ball to go where you want, not where he wants.
More importantly, you cannot let a player catch the ball wherever he wants on the floor and run to the spot he wants - especially when you know which player is going to get the ball. There isn't enough time to break a press and get a shot, someone is going to have to launch a shot from half court or just over it.
In that situation, you have to be in a man to man press, with someone guarding the man out of bounds, another man fronting Turner and a third man ready to double team Turner if he gets the ball. The one thing you absolutely can't do is let him catch the ball at full speed with no one within 20 feet of him and sprint across half court to shoot from the spot he wants to shoot from.
Worst defensive call I've ever seen in college basketball. On top of that, he's got an offense that relies on three point shooting and he's got a team that can't shoot from the outside. They should have been a top 25 team this year and they're mediocre at best instead. Michigan needs a new coach.
Comments
Are you kidding? I LOVE Beilein! Of course, I did go to Michigan State . . . ;) Go Green!
Posted by: Rob Monkey | March 14, 2010 9:39 AM
Gophers in the final. Who would have predicted that!!!!
I'd throw in a PZ is from MN reference but I think we all know that he probably couldn't tell a basketball from a football.
Posted by: rmp | March 14, 2010 10:02 AM
Ed, Ed, Ed,
Was it ONE of the worst coaching decisions ever, YES. Guard the guy out of bounds....NO!..On one hand you say man to man press....then you say to have a guy in front of turner, and a guy ready to double behind him...Wich is it....man to man or not...
The correct coaching strategy would have been to NOT guard the ball out of bounds and to bracket turner with a guy in front of him and a guy behind him. Encourage the ball to go anywhere except turner. If turner, arguably the player of the year beats you, well then your dumb...But if someone else hits a miracle shot to beat you, well then, that is just bad luck and karma coming back to bite you in the butt. Besides, Beilein recruits a bunch of short white "shooters", how in the world are they going to defend a 6'7" PG that can jump at the end. Again, encourage the ball to go anywhere but to turner. The guy out of bounds isnt going to hurt you. Also in the Duke - Kentucky case, nobody was in front of Laettner, only behind him. SO he was afforded the opportunity to catch the ball, dribble, fake right, then spin left and hit the shot. Oh yea, and nice game vs the gophers all you spartan fans. OVERRATED
Posted by: Brad | March 14, 2010 10:09 AM
I agree with Ed that this was one of the dumbest coaching decisions in college hoops, ever, and Beilein should be fired. I agree with Rob Monkey that Michigan should keep him (I'm a Purdue fan and I live 25 miles from Ann Arbor--I loooove seeing the arrogant Michigan fans humbled). And I agree with Brad that I wouldn't have guarded the in-bounder, but put two men on Turner. That leaves everyone else who might receive the ball guarded as well. Even if Turner or someone does get the pass, the defensive pressure would slow them down enough to make the shot that much harder.
Brad--Minnesota just knocked off two of the three Big 10 Co-champs, and put a hurt on Purdue that the Boilermakers' injuries don't account for. They got some very solid players and a hall of fame coach. It's possible that they're peaking at just the right time. Imagine if they win today, and won the Big 10 Tournament by beating all three of the regular season co-champs. That would be one for the ages.
Posted by: James Hanley | March 14, 2010 10:42 AM
Brad (who is a real life buddy of mine who has coached basketball) wrote:
It's both. You can, of course, play help defense and have a designated double teamer while playing man to man defense. I put Sims on the out of bounds guy - make him make that pass over or around your biggest player so he doesn't have a free look at the pass. The reason I think you guard the guy out of bounds is because by doing so you make that play difficult for both the passer and the catcher, creating two ways to screw the play up rather than just one.
Then I put Manny Harris, the only guard they have with size and athleticism, on Turner and have whoever is closest to him double team him -- unless their guy is Diebler. That's the only other guy I'm worried about taking a long 3 pointer, he can hit them.
I can't argue with you on that one. As Izzo keeps saying, this team just has no leadership at all from their guards. Lucas didn't have to be a leader his freshman year because they still had Drew Neitzel. He didn't have to be a leader last year because Walton was the leader of that team. But now it's his team and he's not stepping up. You can't be the guy with the ball in your hand, be an 80% free throw shooter, and miss 4 free throws in overtime of a tournament game. That's just not leading by example. And he has a difficult time leading vocally. And Summers and Allen clearly have problems both leading and following. It's going to have to come from the big guys, Green and Roe, both of whom are fiery competitors, but that's not normal for a team.
This team still has talent, and no one should ever count an Izzo team out come tournament time. They underachieved during the regular season, but they generally overachieve in the tournament. But I don't see them going deep in this tournament. They're a year away. They can be a serious contender for the title next year with the addition of Appling and Payne, but only if their guards get their collective heads out of their collective asses.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | March 14, 2010 11:27 AM
As a WVU fan I would just like to thank the University of Michigan for paying us to take those losers off our hands.
Big East Tourney Champs!
Posted by: Fred | March 14, 2010 12:30 PM
James Hanley wrote
The Ohio State/Minnesota game is giving me fits: I grew up in MN and got my degrees from the U, but have lived in OH for 40 years now. Truth be told, though, I'd like to see MN beat OH State for just the reason James gives.Posted by: RBH | March 14, 2010 1:57 PM
What a pile of crap. Don't tell me about MU sports, tell me about academics. How many Nobel prospects are on the faculty? Of course the coach should be fired--Michigan should get out of big time sports, go D3, and become a real university like MIT
Posted by: pissed prof | March 14, 2010 2:06 PM
That's only the half of it. They couldn't even knock the other team's rock out of the house, much less off the button.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | March 14, 2010 2:08 PM
Ed you're way off base on this one. LEAVE BEILEIN ALONE!
U of M is one of the few teams that NU beat twice this year.
Posted by: Bill Carmody & The Cats | March 14, 2010 4:02 PM
Oh, well. Ohio State crushed MN 90-61. Shucks.
Posted by: RBH | March 14, 2010 5:23 PM
You sure are a big fan of the man-on-man press, aren't you?
Posted by: Sparky | March 14, 2010 8:32 PM
The Gophers fell victim to the three pointers today but did get a 11th seed to face Xavier.
Posted by: rmp | March 14, 2010 9:14 PM
And Purdue gets screwed by being dropped all the way to a 4 seed.
But check out the PAC 10 champion, Cal. Only an 8th seed. The PAC 10 was indisputably the worst major conference this year, and it may have been the worst season for a major conference in my lifetime.
Posted by: James Hanley | March 14, 2010 10:50 PM
As an Ohio State grad and a Mich hater all I can say is GO BUCKS!! And congratulations to my hometown team Syracuse on their first #1 seed. I've got two teams to root on. Hope they both can go deep in the tournament. Can't wait for Thursday.
Posted by: Dan | March 15, 2010 12:35 AM
pissed prof,
Yeah, because I university can't do both right?
The football program is currently committing suicide so you should be ecstatic.
Who cares about the more than one hundred year record of excellence. Why go D3? Just can the whole thing.
Luckily your irrational ranting has a zero chance of happening.
GO BLUE!
Posted by: Lance | March 15, 2010 4:48 AM
I'm not ready to axe him just yet Ed. You're right, it was a bad move and he should've known better, but one mistake on one play isn't enough to fire the guy. On the other hand his pathetic record this year (15-17) and failure to take Michigan to the tournament might be firing offenses.
But I'm okay giving him at least one more season. He's a far sight better than Amaker and he did take the team to the big dance last year (and even survive the first round).
Another factor is recruiting. We're losing our two best players Harris and Sims this year. Is Beilein rebuilding or reloading?
If any Michigan coach should be on the hotseat, it should be Rich Rodriguez.
Posted by: Democritus | March 15, 2010 3:46 PM