The apologists say: “Who do you think we are, UNC?,” as though it’s unfair to expect the wolverines to be a major power. But the fact is that in living memory, we were an elite team. Wisconsin doesn’t have the national recruiting clout that we do and yet, unlike us, they are a solid team every year.

It’s been said, but all this redshirting “player development” business is a smoke screen for the fact that we don’t recruit elite talent, and when we do (usually Detroit guys), they either have to carry the rest of the brick-shooting, non-defending dead weights or they transfer to greener pastures.

There’s no way we are going to get one of the established premier coaches to come here that are going to instantaneously change our program with insane talent. So if you aren’t a Kansas or a UNC the only way you can become an elite program is picking a diamond in the rough. We hoped that might happen with Amaker. It didn’t. Beilein is our next try and based on a tourney appearance last year, I’d say he’s off to a pretty damn good start. But the bottom line is: it’s just too early to be able to accurately assess the job he has done. And just like football, the only thing that would come out of another coaching change right now is guaranteed terribleness for a few years.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100112/COL22/1120369/1322/U-M-will-take-its-chances-with-virtuous-John-Beilein

Finally, I will say that Amaker was not as bad as some say he was. He did have bad luck with injuries and he got the team very close to the tournament. He just couldn’t get them over the hump. I don’t know how anyone can look at his and Beilein’s track records, and say Amaker is better. It sounds like the venting of frustrations with the current situation to me.

p.a. Darius Morris is going to be very very good. No doubt about that.

Yeah, Amaker inherited Lin but he has helped develop him into the player he is just like Beilein has helped Harris and Sims develop.

Whether or not Harvard beats Cornell in the Ivy they will be playing somewhere in the postseason this year. That’s quite an accomplishment considering Harvard has absolutely no basketball tradition.

Like I said, I appreciate what JB did here last year and I like him personally but we don’t look like we’re headed in the right direction right now. Year 3 has been pretty bad and year 4 looks worse. I hope I’m wrong about that.

As far as his track record there, he’s already publicly criticized the school for making it hard to recruit. Like you can recruit at all at a school that doesn’t give athletic scholarships. And finally, almost all his success he owes to inheriting Jeremy Lin.

We won’t know anything about the quality of his team this year until they face Cornell. Frankly, I don’t see how they beat Cornell either at home or in Ithica.