Before and After Tweets From some of the 2017 "Fire John Beilein" Crowd

It hasn't always been peachy for John Beilein at Michigan. Before he broke through in 2013 to lead the Wolverines to a National Title game appearance, Beilein was criticized by many for not being able to advance past the first weekend of the dance.  Then, after his best seasons in 2013 and 2014, the whispers of negativity surrounding him and the program started to make their way back. In 2015, Michigan failed to make the postseason, and in 2016, they were bounced from the NCAA Tournament in the first round.  But the Wolverines have turned it around the past two seasons.  In 2017, they won the Big 10 Conference Tournament championship and made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. This season, they won the Big 10 Tournament again, and after Thursday night's blowout win over Texas A&M, will appear in the Elite 8 for the third time in six seasons to play for a spot in the Final Four.

For a college basketball coach to be able to withstand the criticism when a program is struggling, weather the storm, and turn things around, he must be patient, calm, and disciplined.  That's why he gets paid the big bucks.  Fans, who are paid nothing, have neither patience, calmness, nor discipline.  In fact, they are, for the most part, completely nuts.  At a drop of the hat, a college fanbase will turn on its team's coach or player regardless of the goodwill he has built from his past successes.  John Beilein's tenure at Michigan has been a prime example of a college fanbase's schizophrenic behavior.

Currently, John Beilein's stock is as high as it has been since 2013. However, a little over a year ago, he had fallen out of favor with much of Michigan fans and alums.  After two sluggish seasons, Michigan started off the 2016-17 campaign poorly. By January 2017, the fire Beilein movement was gaining traction and the Beilein criticism was at an all time high.  Of course, we all know now that he was able to right the ship.  Given all this, I thought it would be a fun experiment to take a look at some of the tweets from the "fire Beilein" crowd from January 2017, and compare them to some of their more recent tweets. I think you'll enjoy this experiment.

Let's start out with a guy who actually wanted Michigan to fire Beilein and hire Josh Pastner (you are reading that right):

 

 

Now, fast forward to this season, after a big Wolverine win over Penn State...

 

 

And how about some retweets after Thursday night's win over Texas A&M...

 

 

After a bad loss at Illinois last season, this man proclaimed that he WILL NOT WATCH anymore, until Michigan fires Beilein.

 

 

Apparently, he did not adhere to his self-imposed ban because by the end of the regular season...

 

 

 

Here's one from earlier this season...

 

 

And finally, for some nice irony, how about this retweet by our man.  Brian, you have to take this oath too. It's only fair.

 

 

Last year, this dude repeatedly tweeted that he wanted Beilein fired...

 

 

But he kindly apologized last March when Michigan clinched a spot in the Sweet 16.

 

 

Now, he's retweeting fun Beilein stuff!

 

 

Here's a guy who was very harsh on poor John...

 

 

Here, notice by the end of the month of January, this guy expanded his list of places where Beilein had no business coaching from Michigan, to any school in the Big 10.

 

 

Well, things have gotten better...

 

 

Here's another incessant "fire Beilein" tweeter...

 

 

A cooler head prevailed after last year's Big 10 Tournament championship...

 

 

 

And now he's retweeting funny Beilein/Tom Izzo jokes!

 

 

 

Moving on.  We've got a frustrated tweet, including an all caps. Nothing will change, he says.

 

 

 

 

Things did change. And by March of last year, after Michigan beat Louisville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, our boy graciously ate crow...

 

 

 

 

Now he's pushing Beilein stats!

 

 

 

One more.  This guy is straight up telling the Michigan Basketball twitter account to stop tweeting until they get rid of the plague that is John Beilein.

 

 

 

Fast forward to Thursday night:

 

 

And one more for the people in the back...

 

 

 

Congratulations to the Michigan Wolverines, especially John Beilein, for a great season so far.  I'm happy coach has bought himself at least a year of goodwill. Alright, maybe two.

 

Fred Segal is an attorney from West Palm Beach, FL. He operates the popular Freezing Cold Takes twitter account (@OldTakesExposed) which highlights, among other things, hilarious unprophetic and inaccurate takes and predictions. 

You can follow Freezing Cold Takes on Facebook here, and Instagram here (username: freezingcoldtakes).

Fred also hosts a podcast, “Freezing Cold Take Spotlights with Fred Segal,” which you can find on iTunes.