- 2 days ago
Former Michigan basketball head coach John Beilein joined Costa and Stoney about the Wolverines facing UConn in the National Title game.
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00:00Tonight, in Indy, Michigan goes for the National Championship against UConn, favored by six and a half points.
00:08Joining us now on his way to Indianapolis, the last guy to coach Michigan in a National Championship game, he
00:16is John Beeline.
00:18John, how are you? How you been?
00:21I am fine. I am fine. Yeah, excited about tonight. We got another great chance to win it all.
00:28How good are they? I mean, everybody thinks they're going to win by double digits and just continue to just
00:34blow out people.
00:35Do you think that's the case?
00:37Yes. Yeah, I think that this is the best team I've seen in decades.
00:43I think you have to go back to the days when teams were loaded with juniors and seniors back before
00:53kids started going pro so early.
00:57I think at the end of my career and now, you know, one of the benefits of the NIL is
01:04that kids are going to stick around.
01:06So the youth experience we have is just, oh, God, I'm envious.
01:14I think I added the years up of our 13 team and we and we I think we had 13
01:22years of college experience in our in our top seven, 13 years.
01:28So that was that we had five freshmen and Tim Burton or Tim Hardaway and Trey Burke, Jordan Morgan.
01:36And then now this team has like 25 years of college experience in double the experience.
01:43So it's it's it's one of the benefits of the NIL.
01:46We're keeping kids from going to the second round, being used by the NBA and still staying in college.
01:51So when Yak says this might be the best Michigan team ever, you had some good ones.
01:55You think he's right.
01:58I don't want to ever say that I'll make every I'll say this is this is quite it.
02:04This is a really good basketball team and because they have both talent and experience, I'm not going to say
02:10the other teams didn't have, you know, the talent.
02:13They had the talent that was just they hadn't developed to this point.
02:17And especially, I think what really sticks out to me is the the transfers that have come in.
02:25When I saw him come in, I said, oh, big deal.
02:27Another guy coming off the bench.
02:28But these guys have developed Mara, Cadeau, Johnson.
02:32Well, Johnson, I could see Johnson was going to be this good in a sophomore year.
02:35I didn't see this from Cadeau and and more Mara Lindenberg.
02:40I think it's just special, special.
02:42If he doesn't go, you know, he's changed his draft guess from 20 to he would have went 20 to
02:4730 last year.
02:48He's got to be a lottery pick.
02:50And, you know, some NBA teams may do this thing.
02:53Well, he's he's already 24.
02:55Hell, Duncan Robinson is in his 10th year in the ninth year in the NBA.
02:59Hey, you know, he was 24 when he graduated from Michigan.
03:02You know, think about the immediate future.
03:05Yeah, that dude, that dude should walk on to any NBA team and start immediately because he can play the
03:12two, the three, the four.
03:13The job Dusty May has done, it just seems unfricking believable.
03:18Little things like they practice like pass missing shots for the Arizona game because they knew they couldn't lob it
03:25in to their big guys.
03:27How impressed are you with what Dusty's done?
03:30And second part of the question is he's already said no to North Carolina, allegedly.
03:37NBA, I think, will call, especially if they win tonight.
03:39What advice would you give him because you did that?
03:43Well, he he he really he's much younger than I am at this time.
03:49So he's right.
03:50He has one of the best jobs in the country.
03:52I laughed when I I saw I was ready to the sixth best job in the country.
03:57You would not believe the flack I took from people when I left West Virginia, where we had it rolling
04:01to go to them, to go to Michigan.
04:04They said that program is broken.
04:06That's that's a train wreck.
04:07That's a football school.
04:08And over we've had so much great support from the administration for these three different presidents now that have said
04:17that we're going to make basketball good again.
04:20We're going to do it the right way.
04:22So he is.
04:23Dusty's done an amazing job of using.
04:25He's got resources now and he's got plenty of them.
04:28I wouldn't say that was the mindset back in 2007.
04:32We couldn't raise any money for anything.
04:35Four thousand people at our first game.
04:37It was tough, but we got to that point.
04:40And now they've used this NIL, the resources they have, all the efficient practice facility.
04:50They've done so well with this.
04:52Just continue to stay up with the times.
04:55And it's become one of the best jobs in the country.
04:58Talking to John Beeline, former Michigan basketball coach.
05:01Some people complain, right?
05:03They say NIL and the portal, it's just a bunch of mercenaries.
05:07What do you say to people who offer that criticism?
05:11Well, I'm not comfortable with it, but people have to adjust.
05:15There's a lot of things in life that go on that you say, I'd like it to be back the
05:19old way.
05:20I think of the teams that we had over my time.
05:26I had a picture of the West.
05:30It was 20 years since senior day at West Virginia.
05:32We had five seniors and four of them had been there all four years.
05:36I think that's special.
05:38You know, that's what I would prefer is kids coming in and fighting through the whole thing.
05:43But at the same time, there's no changing.
05:46So you could just say, hey, we're going to bucket the old way and we're still going to do it.
05:52Good luck.
05:52I mean, it's going to be hard to do it.
05:54I just, the portal is one thing.
05:57I think the portal was healthy.
05:58I think the not having to sit a year is what's wrong about it.
06:04You know, nobody asked Duncan Robinson when he sat out for a year.
06:08That made him an NBA player.
06:09He got his body right.
06:11He worked and he worked and he worked and gave him that extra year to get ready.
06:15We're not sending kids to jail because they have to sit out a year.
06:18It's another year of an education.
06:20Think about that.
06:21You get another year of free education.
06:23But it also will deter people from just like jumping around to four different schools in four different years.
06:31So that's the thing I'd like to see get changed.
06:34And, you know, I was always all for kids getting paid.
06:38But I thought I never saw it happening this way.
06:42I thought, you know, kids should be able to go out and get a car commercial.
06:45Hell, Spike Albrecht should have been able to sell T-shirts, you know, after his 17 points for his death.
06:51He would have sold thousands of them to every small kid that wanted to be a good player.
06:57Or Trey Burke could have had shots saying it was a block.
07:00It was not a foul, right?
07:01Trey Burke, they all could have made a lot of money.
07:04But they would have made it.
07:05It just wasn't handed to them going into the door.
07:07I think that's a really bad precedent.
07:10And the fact that I think that the agents came involved legally at the same time.
07:15We never had any problems with agents.
07:17I mean, none.
07:18We just said, you want an agent?
07:20Go to another school.
07:21We are not having agents.
07:23You sound like your buddy up in East Lansing.
07:29Well, it's affected everybody so much that that's all we needed was more.
07:34We had to worry about AAU coaches shopping people around and things like that.
07:38But when agents know they're making a lot of money every time you transfer,
07:43they say, no, no, you're good where you are.
07:46They have a chance to make a lot of money.
07:48And so that's really, it's a different agent.
07:52I mean, the one that I think is making 20% as opposed to like the 5% or whatever
07:56an NBA
07:57makes.
07:57So there's some issues there that need to be cleaned up.
08:00But we got to stay up with it and keep it going.
08:03How does Connecticut win this basketball game, if you were to be in Dan Hurley's mind?
08:08They almost have to play.
08:11First of all, here's what they have that the other teams didn't have.
08:17Let me process.
08:18Michigan has experience and they're talented.
08:22Connecticut has experience.
08:24Arizona did not have experience.
08:25Illinois did not have experience.
08:27Duke did not have experience.
08:30So Michigan's got them both.
08:34I suspect that Coach Early will have this team.
08:37They run some stuff where they end up taking a little time off the clock looking for a good shot.
08:44They don't have a lot of shooters.
08:46I don't know why people don't recruit.
08:47You know, we had this thing, if they can't shoot, don't recruit.
08:51And there's so many people that don't have shooters out there.
08:55They have more than Arizona had.
08:58At the same time, I think that they'll try to grind it that way.
09:02Their biggest thing is defensive transition.
09:07The length of Michigan, when they try to shoot over Michigan, you better make the shot.
09:11Because if you don't, they have willing outlet passers.
09:15You know, both Mara and Johnson will get rid of it quick.
09:18And then Lindenburg and everybody else, if they get a defensive rebound, they're gone.
09:22And there's so little you can do against the fast break.
09:26My experience tells me that young kids, that's the last thing they learn to do,
09:33is miss a shot or watch somebody miss a shot or see a turnover and get back and guard on
09:39defense.
09:39One thing to get back is get back and guard on defense.
09:42Connecticut will do that.
09:43I think they'll have one of the better defensive transition teams we've seen.
09:48And so we can't just depend on them missing shots and getting baskets.
09:52But I don't think people can score on us.
09:55It's the length at the rim.
09:58You watch Wisconsin beat Michigan because they shot a whole bunch of threes and made them.
10:02That's the only way you can beat them, I think.
10:05But I could be proven wrong tonight.
10:07Final thing, how impressed are you with your former team, the Detroit Pistons?
10:12Oh, this is great to watch.
10:15I mean, great to watch.
10:16You know, I went to see them.
10:18They played the Magic in Orlando.
10:20So we had Franz and Mo there and then Karris and Duncan.
10:24So I went to the game and went out with those guys afterwards.
10:27But Thompson, I'm just telling you, I've never been this, oh, I've got to have more defensive players.
10:34I never thought that way.
10:36I said, we'll teach them how to play defense.
10:38But this dude, oh, my gosh, he changed the game.
10:43And I think that that's how they're winning without K.
10:45They got enough guys that were on-ball defenders, off-ball defenders wreaking havoc so they can get out and
10:51transition.
10:52And what a pickup by Jenkins is.
10:55But, I mean, this kid, I mean, I think he was on draft.
10:59And we picked him up.
11:01And, oh, my goodness, there's not that much of a drop-off.
11:04So I look at their scores, and it's just fun to watch.
11:09And Duncan and Karris are both playing so well.
11:11So that's the first thing I look in the box score is how those two get.
11:16After I see whether we won, how those two do it, I'm really pleased.
11:19They're having a great year.
11:20And they've brought so much maturity that every team really needs.
11:24I thought you'd be here this weekend to see your St. Louis Cardinals.
11:27You're dealing with a rebuild okay?
11:29I went to spring training last week.
11:32I watched the game.
11:34I watched every pitch last night.
11:36I'm getting sick in my older age.
11:38I was listening on the radio to the exhibition games.
11:42I mean, this is like I know the guys in Memphis and the guys in Springfield because they're in a
11:49big development thing.
11:50So it's so much fun to have this.
11:52This and my Buffalo Bills.
11:54That's what you're living for.
11:57My family, those are the bigger cares.
11:58I'm not caring about, hey, I need to call that kid tonight or I need to do, you know, I
12:03need to go recruiting right after Brexit.
12:05I worry about what time are the Cardinals or the Bills playing.
12:08And that's my – but I think there's a lot of men in their 60s and 70s that grew up
12:16loving baseball that are doing the same thing right now.
12:18Which is not to my degree, but crazy.
12:22But it was great.
12:23I'm glad we could get one win because the Tigers just hit the ball.
12:27At least they did in this age.
12:28They just hit the ball.
12:30Jeez.
12:30And we're rebuilding, you know, from the ground up.
12:33But I did talk with the GM there, Haim Bloom, and Ali Marmol's become a friend over the years.
12:39So I'm excited.
12:40I'm excited about their future.
12:42John, thanks a lot.
12:43Have a great time tonight in Indy and bring home a championship.
12:47Okay.
12:48Thanks, guys.
12:48All right.
12:49Bye now.
12:49It's 97-1.
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