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Post by motorcitysam on Nov 26, 2014 16:52:24 GMT -5
So, Coach B was upset with ESPN because last night's game with Villanova got pushed back 15 minutes to start at 10:15 PM to accommodate the football game that was on. His comments are a bit puzzling, though. Apparently, he was okay with starting a game at 10:00 PM, but he is worried that moving it back 15 minutes would negatively affect the players who had 9:00 AM classes this morning. Really? Doesn't seem like there is much difference between a 10:00 PM and 10:15 PM start time as it relates to classes the next morning. zagsblog.com/articles/michigans-beilein-rips-espn-for-late-start-2/
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Post by kevinudm on Nov 27, 2014 19:07:19 GMT -5
I’ve got tremendous respect for Coach Beilein and it’s refreshing to hear him speak out on behalf of the student athletes.
The NCAA allows more and more demands to be placed on these athletes. The season used to run 26 games prior to conference and post-season tournaments; now it’s typically 30+ games, with the prospect of a bunch more tournament games (NCAA, NIT, CIT or CBI) tacked on at the end. Conference structures used to help limit travel requirements, but now Beilein has to get used to winter trips from Ann Arbor to Lincoln, NE, Piscataway, NJ and College Park, MD.
Beilein was already annoyed at the late 10pm scheduled start time for the game (which wasn’t determined until after UM committed to play in the Legends Classic). It wouldn’t be surprising if UM only agreed to be there at the urging of the conference – Jim Delaney has a fixation on expanding the Big 10 brand into New York (Rutgers admission, Pinstripe Bowl affiliation), and UM is a good representative to send to the Legends Classic in Brooklyn, with a big alumni base and a strong team.
15 minutes is a pretty minor issue. But with UM’s team not getting back to Ann Arbor until 5am following the loss to Villanova, even an extra quarter hour of sleep would have been appreciated by the guys that needed to get to morning classes.
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Post by motorcitysam on Nov 28, 2014 8:27:54 GMT -5
That's one way of looking at it, Kevin. While I am not a Beilein fan, I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and I do However, complaining that much about a 15 minute delay comes across as a guy who is in a bad mood about a close loss and looking for something to complain about. That's not unusual. Coaches do it all the time.
Coach JB put his team in a tournament that he knew was going to have a championship game on a weekday evening, and he knows hie players' class schedules. A fifteen minute delay seems like a minor thing, even in light of getting an extra fifteen minutes of sleep, and especially when you consider they had already missed any classes they had scheduled on Monday and Tuesday.
It seems a bit of an overreaction to publicly go after the business partner in a very lucrative relationship. If next year he decides not to put his team in pre-season tournaments to avoid negative impact on the academic performance of his players, maybe I'll look at this a little differently.
I definitely agree with your point about conference expansion and the additional road trips that will result.
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Post by larrytitan on Nov 28, 2014 20:58:58 GMT -5
Bet Coach B doesn't mind that big salary of his that results from coaching a big time team.
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