{"id":1866,"date":"2019-05-18T02:23:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T06:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/?p=1866"},"modified":"2019-05-18T02:24:24","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T06:24:24","slug":"john-beilein-the-ultimate-journeyman-of-coaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/2019\/05\/18\/john-beilein-the-ultimate-journeyman-of-coaches\/","title":{"rendered":"John Beilein: The ultimate journeyman of coaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ignore the fact that he coached one of the bluest of bloods in college basketball for over a decade. Ignore the fact that he is now in charge of the King-less Cleveland Cavaliers. What John Beilein has accomplished in his coaching career is no short of an absolute triumph on the ladder of success.<\/p>\n<p>Taking a look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/26738229\/how-college-coaches-fared-nba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">some of the most recent coaches to take the leap from college to the pros<\/a>, their paths have been a lot quicker and undoubtedly more straightforward.<\/p>\n<p>Fred Hoiberg, who served as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 2015-18 before transitioning back to the college scene, got a gig in the National Basketball Association after becoming the fastest coach in Iowa State\u2019s basketball history to 100 wins. Hoiberg coached his alma mater after playing five years in the NBA and a brief stint in the front office of the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ciYSPcJGexs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brad Stevens, who took a virtually unknown Butler basketball team to back-to-back NCAA title games, was one of the youngest head coaches in the league during his first season. Stevens played DIII ball and worked his way up the hierarchy at Butler after joining the staff in 2000 \u2013 ultimately earning the head coaching nod in 2007. In the summer of 2013, the genius basketball mind inherited a Boston Celtics team that had a lot of draft picks but would need good coaching to have a sustainable future, thus Stevens has done successfully to this point. Stevens was literally inches away from a college national title to his name.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ADPT7h661wo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Conversely, John Beilein, who did not have the strong athletic background to lean on at Wheeling Jesuit, started as the head of Newfane High School\u2019s junior varsity basketball team in upstate New York. After a couple of seasons, then 24 years old, Beilein coached the school\u2019s varsity team and finished with best record the team had in eight years.<\/p>\n<p>Beilein\u2019s next stop, at Erie Community College, was pivotal to his success. He almost doubled his loss total in four seasons by going 75-43 and won at least twenty games in a season twice. From the early \u201880s to early \u201890s, Beilein would go from community college to Division III to Division II to Division I.<\/p>\n<p>Recently named the head coach at Niagara University, Patrick Beilein, dominated at one of the Division II schools his dad coached before going to Division I.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s just ready for a new challenge and a new rebuild,\u201d said Patrick Beilein to a local NBC affiliate network. \u201cHe feels great, he\u2019s 66 years old and Cleveland is right down the road. I knew it was coming for a little bit, for the week that the Cavs\u2019 thing happened. The relationships he\u2019ll create with that, with the young roster, won\u2019t be any different than he did at Michigan. I know it\u2019s a long season, but I will be rooting for him and my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Very proud of my son Patrick, his team, and his assistants Jimmy Langhurst and Keegan Hyland.  Another tremendous year for the Division 2 LeMoyne Dolphins.  Good luck in the NE10 tourney ! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/D1WbTCsRXe\">https:\/\/t.co\/D1WbTCsRXe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John Beilein (@JohnBeilein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnBeilein\/status\/968274487627124737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>After nine long seasons at the Division II level, Beilein got his first Division I job at mid-major Canisius in upstate New York. Canisius made the Big Dance, the first time and only time in their 62 years at the top level, under Beilein in 1996. The Griffsn also made it to the 1995 NIT Final Four.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou never know,\u201d Beilein said in a 2016 interview commemorating the 20<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the Golden Griffin\u2019s sole tourney team. \u201cAny good Jesuit-educated guy knows you better follow God\u2019s will. This would have to be a two hour document all of the memories walking back in here. I think there has been only one time since I left and came to the campus; it is emotional to me right now because of you\u2019ve got a young family and you want to be just as successful as the young guys on the team. Last night I was apologizing for being so hard on them and somehow they were thanking me for it, I can\u2019t figure that one out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W7s4YvHu8J0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At Beilein\u2019s mid-majors, he sparked magic. The Richmond Spiders were a No. 14 seed in their first year under Beilein and won 23 games. In the previous three years combined, had a win total of 29. The Colonial Athletic Conference champs were on fire that year and ended the season on nine-game winning streak <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/richmond-upsets-gamecocks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">before losing in the Round of 32<\/a>. Beilein would move on to a major conference school after winning 100 games in five seasons for the program.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y1IGhM31l8o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>West Virginia was the first big-time job for Beilein, having to play the likes of the Kansas Jayhawks and Texas Longhorns every year now. The first season was under .500, but they bounced back to have four straight winning seasons and peaked with a trip to the Elite 8. Surprisingly, the Mountaineers were left out of the big dance after going 27-9 but bounced back to win that year\u2019s National Invitational Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>The Michigan hire was intriguing considering that the school would make him the highest paid coach in their history at $1.3 million per year, on a six year deal.<\/p>\n<p>Beilein also had to pay WVU to leave the program, due to his $550 thousand buyout in his contract annually. He had never stepped foot on the campus in Ann Arbor before taking the job, but was sold in every which way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe buyout issue is sensitive, but I wanted to be the coach of Michigan,&#8221; Beilein said after being introduced to the fan base at a news conference in 2007. &#8220;Obviously, the buyout was something I had to consider. If you look at my paycheck, there ought to be pressure. I grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario, we&#8217;ve made almost a complete circle back to the Great Lakes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After three not-so-successful years at Michigan, the Burt N.Y. native thought to rebuild the mindset of his players. In an interview with the Atlantic\u2019s B.R.J. O\u2019Donnell, Beilein talked about his six core values that transformed the program in his tenure there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to make an intentional effort to shape the culture of the team,\u201d said Beilein, struggling to bring back the team to the Fab Five glory days. \u201cSo I sat down and I asked, &#8220;What are the five things you value the most?&#8221; And that&#8217;s when we came up with unity, passion, appreciation, integrity, and diligence\u2014in the form of a lot of hard work. So those are our core values, and then we added accountability, because we felt that our team held themselves accountable as individuals, but that didn&#8217;t extend to others around them. We were not good at that, so we added it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After going the gauntlet of being the head coach at a couple mid-majors, Beilein finally got his chance at the University of Michigan \u2013 and oh, did he capitalize.<\/p>\n<p>A large contributor to success in March is the ability of team to get hot, not in terms of field goal percentage, but wins. The teams that get to the national championship game has likely won their conference in the regular season or won the conference tournament of that year. Beilein&#8217;s has won the Big 10 Tournament in two out of the last three years.<\/p>\n<p>The list of players to don the blue and gold under Beilein is numerous with a splash of quality NBA players along the line. One thing remained constant \u2013 all his guys have nothing but love for the time spent and the opportunity to be coached by a college great.<\/p>\n<p>Trey Burke, one of the most successful NCAA tournament players this decade, shone brilliantly at Michigan and worked his way up to ninth\u00a0overall pick after his sophomore season under Beilein. Burke, now entering this offseason as an unrestricted free agent, notes the impact being coached by Beilein had on him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHeld me accountable, more off the court than on and I think that\u2019s how he made me better,\u201d said Burke on ABC6, who had controversy with the school academically but was backed by Beilein. \u201cEvery player regardless of league wants to have the trust of his coach. I could possibly see myself there, Coach and I are definitely familiar with each other and if it happens, I think it will be a great opportunity for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No Michigan fan will ever forget Burke\u2019s jumpshot that helped Michigan beat Kansas and reach Beilein\u2019s first Final Four in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Fast-fowarding to 2018, Beilein\u2019s second trip that ended at the title game, Jordan Poole hit an equally memorable shot and showed just as much love for coach as Burke.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cpGOXZN788k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Poole, entering the 2019 NBA Draft, has the intriguing opportunity to play for his college coach should Cleveland spend a draft pick on the sophomore shooting guard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing able to play with him at for two years and being able to play with him at the next level would definitely be unique and would be something different,\u201d said Poole at the NBA Draft Combine. \u201cI think he\u2019s an amazing coach and really solidified himself at the college level. I think everybody was surprised when they heard the news.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beilein dealt with many highs but very unusual lows during his time at Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>Just two seasons after taking a team with five rotation freshmen to the national championship, his preseason top-25 ranked team was struggling and lost to the NJIT Highlanders. Caris LeVert and D.J. Wilson, eventual first round picks, were on the remaining roster that lost to Rutgers, who projected to finish dead last in the expanded Big Ten Conference in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Derrick Walton Jr., the starting point guard and one of six players battling ailments during the turbulence spoke on the up-and-down time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThings happen,\u201d Walton said. \u201cWe had a little more bumps in the road than the average team, but we\u2019re not harping on it at all. Things happen all throughout the year. This just happened to us. We\u2019re just taking it in stride and you learn from it, you stay positive. You can\u2019t cry about it. You\u2019ve just got to get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wolverines would lose in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament and finish 8-10 in regular season conference play with an underachieving 16-16 record, consequently missing the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned in all these 40 years is that you don\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d Beilein said during the wild December of that season. \u201cAnything can happen. Just as crazy. You\u2019ve just got to adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fairness, that year&#8217;s team lost Nik Stauskas, Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary, all to the 2014 NBA Draft. When all three players were drafted, it became the first time Michigan had at least three draft picks since the 1990 NBA draft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of X\u2019s and O\u2019s, he\u2019s a basketball genius,\u201d Stauskas said on ESPN Radio last week. \u201cIn the NBA, it\u2019s a little bit different. You\u2019re dealing with guys who are sometimes 30, 35-years-old and who have all the money in the world and players sometimes feel like coaches can\u2019t tell them anything. So that\u2019s why the communication part is so key and that\u2019s what I think is going to be the biggest adjustment for him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Free agent guard\u2019s chances of securing a roster spot next season may have gone up, since Beilein will coach the team he played for last season.<\/p>\n<p>Erie Community College Nazareth, LeMoyne, Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia and finally Michigan\u2019s head coach in April of 2007. Over 40 years of experience. Beilein is 829-468 (.639) as a college coach. Statistically speaking, it is as solid as solid gets.<\/p>\n<p>An incentive to make the jump was being able work with the Cavs\u2019 assistant general manager Mike Gansey, whom Beilein coached in Morgantown, West Virginia. Location also mattered most, as he referenced the Detroit area.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thanks to everyone at the Univ of Michigan for their incredible support these last 12 years. Our fans , alums , leaders, players  and students are AMAZING  It has been a heck of a ride and I hope you enjoyed our teams and staff as much as I did !Go Blue Forever !  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoBlue?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GoBlue<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John Beilein (@JohnBeilein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnBeilein\/status\/1127939262522044416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>While the ex-Wolverine has an uphill battle in the resurgence of his current team, John Beilein\u2019s unconventional path will guide him through unfamiliar territory in the NBA \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/theundefeated.com\/features\/the-new-kid-in-cleveland-collin-sexton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sans LeBron James<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love Michigan, I love the area, I want to stay close by,&#8221; Beilein said to the Detroit Free Press. &#8220;This is the next best thing to (what) the Pistons were. I plan on staying in Ann Arbor. Kathleen, with the grandkids there, we\u2019ll stay for at least a year while I just get a nice place to rent in Cleveland. See how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Evando Thompson can be reached at Evando.thompson@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @ethmps.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ignore the fact that he coached one of the bluest of bloods in college basketball for over a decade. Ignore the fact that he is now in charge of the King-less Cleveland Cavaliers. What John Beilein has accomplished in his coaching career is no short of an absolute triumph on the ladder of success. Taking&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4391,"featured_media":1868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[32,306,25,50,305,31,274],"class_list":["post-1866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-ncaab","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-coaching","tag-college-basketball","tag-free-agency","tag-michigan","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1896,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions\/1896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}