Michigan Basketball Coach Jon Beilen was the guest speaker last night at the Rocket’s Men’s Basketball Roundball Social. One of the subject matters he talked about was playing mid majors like Toledo on the road. He said, it isn’t going to happen, that mid major programs like Toledo are capable of knocking off programs like Michigan. He told Coach K that maybe he’d work out a 98 for 1 deal with the l game at Toledo scheduled 98 years from now! He also said that mid majors are at a huge disadvantage of getting to 20 wins as they have to play a lot of nonconference games on the road while major programs can load up on home games during the non-conference and make their quest for 20 victories a lot easier. He opened his remarks by saying he was honored to be on the campus of the #1 College Football Team in the State of Ohio which brought a huge roar from the crowd!
(10-23-2015 01:32 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote: [ -> ]Michigan Basketball Coach Jon Beilen was the guest speaker last night at the Rocket’s Men’s Basketball Roundball Social. One of the subject matters he talked about was playing mid majors like Toledo on the road. He said, it isn’t going to happen, that mid major programs like Toledo are capable of knocking off programs like Michigan. He told Coach K that maybe he’d work out a 98 for 1 deal with the l game at Toledo scheduled 98 years from now! He also said that mid majors are at a huge disadvantage of getting to 20 wins as they have to play a lot of nonconference games on the road while major programs can load up on home games during the non-conference and make their quest for 20 victories a lot easier. He opened his remarks by saying he was honored to be on the campus of the #1 College Football Team in the State of Ohio which brought a huge roar from the crowd!
Sounds like a great event and a lot of fun was had!
I had the opportunity to sit down with Beilein for a long time at a Big East media day while he was at West Virginia. He's the exact opposite of a BS'er and was the most genuine coach I encountered during my sport editor days in undergrad. When I met him, it was the preseason before the year he made that wild Elite Eight run. Nobody was going to his table, I already got the quotes I needed, and I was just looking for people to talk to in order to make our Big East preview capsules a bit more interesting.
He gave very honest answers to questions and didn't do any "coach speak" garbage. So after I asked my generic questions (How's the team looking? Who are your breakout players? What do you think about the league's strength? stuff like that), he started asking me questions. The WVU players were doing the Big East video/TV interviews and no other reporters were there, so he invited me to sit at the table and we just talked for a half hour/45 minutes. We talked about basketball, family, life, and the future. It was a lot of fun and pretty surreal. That was my senior year and I imagine media day was much different the following year after the Elite Eight run.
His comments on mid-major schedule difficulties are spot-on and you don't hear coaches being that honest. It's going to keep on getting worse. It'll be completely out of the coach's hands very soon. The ADs and conference commissioners won't want to give up gate and TV revenue for away games or neutral site games against other big programs put on by one of the networks. When this is done, it makes the majors look that much better for at-large spots in March, which makes money for the conferences and schools.
Good mid-majors will have to work hard to get home-and-home deals with other good mid-majors to try and get some respectable wins prior to the conference season beginning.
Seems to me that the major programs are very particular about which mid majors and sub-majors they engage with. They stay away from the highly ranked ones, obviously because they might lose, but they don't really want too many games against the bottom tier either, so that it doesn't kill their RPI. Gotta figure, when you're #25, the difference in win probability against #125, compared to against #325, when you're at home, is about 1%, which is totally worth the risk given how much it helps their computer numbers. It's all about the RPI manipulation.
So basically he admitted the whole ncaa tourney is rigged to keep out mid majors. Not something we didn't already know, but appreciate his honesty. In bball I think. They should be required to play a certain number of mid major school conferences in some sort of rotating schedule with every other year at least one game needs to be an away game. The schools aren't going to level the playing field on the own.
Hmm Michigan plays at SMU this year
(10-23-2015 06:05 PM)Pony94 Wrote: [ -> ]Hmm Michigan plays at SMU this year
Some guy named Brown down there
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Would he change his mind if it was 98 to 1 odds of him getting his speaking fee?
I'm sure the Rockets would play at Crisler. UM has teams like Youngstown State and Northern Kentucky on their home schedule.
I think it's a regional thing. We are basically in each others back yards and are recruiting in the same areas, with UM having a larger national recruiting footprint. They have everthing to lose if we come out with a W. Just look at the football team. We will be using that W in recruiting conversations for years and guess who will never schedule us again.