Michigan Basketball: 3 reasons why Wolverines are better than Michigan State

1. John Beilein

Tom Izzo, deservedly so, gets a lot of the national recognition as one of the best coaches in the country. John Beilein does not. Beilein is starting to get recognized a little bit, but even with his two national title game appearances in the last five years and back to back Big Ten tournament championships, he is still considered by most out the top ten of coaches in the country. Beilein prefers it this way and most Michigan fans are ok with it also because they know what type of coach they have.

Izzo is a great coach, but Beilein may have passed him in recent years as a better coach. He has taken far less talent and had a better tournament record since 2013. Even though the Wolverines did miss the tournament in 2015 he still has led Michigan to five more tournament wins than Izzo.  During each of those tournament runs, the Wolverines exceeded expectations or at least met them every time. Michigan State has been upset by Middle Tennessee State in 2017 and Syracuse in 2018, both years they were a trending Final Four pick. During this time Michigan State has made it to one Final Four and no national title game appearances.

Michigan State has been loaded with highly regarded recruits, while Beilein keeps producing winners with two and three-star recruits. He gets his occasional four or five-star high school kid, but those have been few and far between.

Again we take nothing away from what Izzo has accomplished at Michigan State, but Beilein has turned a group of role players into a collection of talent not seen in Ann Arbor in a long time. He has built a great team and one that plays together about as good as any other team in the country. Most of the credit has to go to Beilein and his system and because of that, he has a team that is better than Michigan State right now.