{"id":80901,"date":"2025-01-16T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/john-beilein-on-michigan-this-team-may-be-as-good-as-our-best-teams\/"},"modified":"2025-01-16T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T17:30:00","slug":"john-beilein-on-michigan-this-team-may-be-as-good-as-our-best-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/john-beilein-on-michigan-this-team-may-be-as-good-as-our-best-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"John Beilein on Michigan: \u2018This team may be as good as our best teams\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan State stands atop the Big Ten standings at 6-0, and Michigan Wolverines basketball<\/a> <\/strong>has the chance to join them Thursday night, when they\u2019ll take on Minnesota in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Appearing on \u2018The HUGE Show\u2019 with Bill Simonson<\/a><\/strong>, former Michigan head coach John Beilein<\/strong>, now an analyst on Big Ten Network, believes U-M and MSU will both be top-10 teams come the first of two regular-season meetings Feb. 21 at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichigan\u2019s got so much talent,\u201d Beilein said. \u201cMichigan State has got an amazingly connected team that plays so well together. It\u2019s great for the state to be back like this, where the two teams can rival with Duke and North Carolina type of in-state rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED<\/strong>
\u2022 Preview and prediction: No. 20 Michigan basketball vs. Minnesota<\/a><\/strong>
\u2022 Reading between the lines: \u2018Fast, strong and physical\u2019 Michigan is \u2018flying under the radar\u2019 despite early Big Ten dominance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even amidst a five-game win streak in which the Wolverines have won by an average of 25 points per game, first-year Michigan head coach Dusty May<\/a> <\/strong>has been telling his team they have a lot they can improve on. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis season is so young in the Big Ten,\u201d Beilein agreed. \u201cJust think about this: They\u2019ve already gone on the road and won at Wisconsin, gone on the road and won at UCLA and USC. I mean, those were all hard road games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no easy one, there\u2019s no question about it, but they have answered the bell every time. I think I saw a stat where they have [three] losses and they\u2019re by a combination of [five] points or something, some absurd number.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say whether they\u2019re underrated or overrated this time of the year, but I think they\u2019re one of the best teams in the country \u2014\u00a0I sincerely do. And I think Michigan State is, too. Not 12 and not 20, but both of them are really top-10 teams, with no question in my mind. No question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graduate center Vladislav Goldin<\/a><\/strong> is leading the way for Michigan, averaging 20.7 points per game over the last 10.<\/p>\n

Date<\/strong>Opponent<\/strong>Points Scored<\/strong>Field Goals Made-Attempted<\/strong>Field Goal Percentage<\/strong>Jan 12, 2025Washington196-785.7%Jan 7, 2025UCLA Bruins3613-1872.2%Jan 4, 2025USC Trojans114-757.1%Dec 29, 2024Western Kentucky Hilltoppers177-887.5%Dec 22, 2024Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons136-785.7%Dec 18, 2024Oklahoma Sooners2610-1283.3%Dec 14, 2024North Carolina Tar Heels229-1369.2%Dec 10, 2024Indiana Hoosiers198-1172.7%Dec 7, 2024Iowa Hawkeyes208-1361.5%Dec 3, 2024Wisconsin Badgers2410-1471.4%<\/p>\n

Junior forward\/center Danny Wolf<\/a><\/strong> has gotten a lot of the headlines for Michigan, but Goldin is finishing around the rim at an elite level and leading the team in scoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all talking before at length about Danny Wolf \u2014\u00a0well, Vlad Goldin right now has become maybe the best big man in this league, as far as just in the paint, doing what he does, keeps his game so simple,\u201d Beilein said. \u201cThere\u2019s no drama when he catches the ball. You see his armpits all the time \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s really a good sign of a basketball player, when you see that he plays with his elbows up by his ears. He\u2019s doing that. But just watch him \u2014\u00a0every time they throw it to him, the ball\u2019s in the basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a lot of big men, there\u2019s drama every time they get it. They drop it down, they pivot a couple times, they get themselves into trouble. Not this kid. This kid \u2014\u00a0whoever worked with him in Russia or Texas Tech or Florida Atlantic or at Michigan has done a great job with his footwork and just playing as big as he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Beilein on Dusty May comparison<\/h2>\n

May has revived the program after an 8-24 season that led to Juwan Howard<\/a><\/strong> being fired. Michigan is back competing at the top of the Big Ten, like it did for one season under Howard (2021) and many under Beilein.<\/p>\n

Fans and analysts have compared the way May is running the program to what Beilein did as the winningest coach in Michigan history. Beilein was asked about the comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is they\u2019re playing at a faster pace than we played,\u201d Beilein said. \u201cI always said if I go back into coaching \u2014\u00a0which I won\u2019t \u2014\u00a0I would play at a faster tempo, just getting the ball over half court quickly, so the shot clock is 30, you should be over half court at 26 or 27 if you\u2019re playing with this pace. You watch them, and they will do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re spread out. They spread the court, a lot of pick-and-roll offense, but there\u2019s not like, \u2018Hey, throw it into the big fella and make him go to work.\u2019 It\u2019s, let the big fella set a screen or set a fake screen and roll hard to the rim. You either throw it up to him or he sucks in the defense so much that you can throw it over the top for a three on the other side. And that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beilein led Michigan to two national title game appearances, in 2013 and 2018. He and many other coaches maintain that receiving breaks or \u2018luck\u2019 is needed to make deep tournament runs, so with that caveat, Beilein believes this current Michigan team can get as far as any Wolverine squad has.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just really, really think that there are similarities,\u201d Beilein explained. \u201cThis team may be as good as our best teams. We\u2019ll see, and remember, our best teams got lucky to get to the Final Four. So you\u2019ve still gotta have some breaks, but they can be there at the end if they get those breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post John Beilein on Michigan: \u2018This team may be as good as our best teams\u2019<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michigan State stands atop the Big Ten standings at 6-0, and Michigan Wolverines basketball has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}