Last
summer,
Beilein
was
reportedly in talks to become the
coach of the Detroit Pistons, but
decided to remain at Michigan.
In July, he signed a contract
extension through 2023, with a
rollover clause that would keep
him in Ann Arbor as long as both
sides desired.
However, this time around, the
Cavaliers were too enticing to pass
up. According to Wojnarowski,
Beliein had become frustrated
with
the
world
of
college
basketball recruiting and the
nature of top teams losing their
players year after year. Beilein
was also an appealing choice to
NBA teams for the work he did
rebuilding the Wolverines into a
top national contender after years
mired in mediocrity.
“We could not be more thrilled
to name John Beilein as the new
coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers,”
Gilbert said in a statement. “First,
John is a great human being. He
cares deeply about his players
and others who work for him and
around him. He defines the words
class, integrity and character. He
is a tireless worker who obsesses
about finding better ways and
the inches that will help his team
and the organization grow. John
is a brilliant basketball mind and
last but not least, John Beilein
is a winner. I also want to thank
Koby and his hardworking staff
for turning over every rock while
relentlessly searching for our new
head coach since the minute this
past season ended. It is no surprise
that Koby and his team landed
on John Beilein as great cultures
attract others
who hold the
same values as the foundation for
everything they do. I can’t wait
for next season to begin.”
Staying in Cleveland will also
allow Beilein to stay relatively
close to home, as well as just a few
hours drive to his son Patrick, who
is now the coach of Niagara.
In a statement released Monday
afternoon, athletic director Warde
Manuel thanked Beilein for his time
at the University and said that he
would commence a national search
for the next coach. Michigan hired
the search firm Turnkey Search —
the same firm it used to hire Manuel
in 2016 — according to the Detroit
Free Press.
“I was saddened when John told
me this morning of his decision to
leave Michigan for a head coaching
position in the NBA. However, I am
incredibly thankful for his 12 years
of service to this university,” said
Manuel. “Above and beyond being
our all-time winningest coach,
John is a tremendous role model
for the game of college basketball.
He is an outstanding educator,
community member and a man of
great integrity, and he and Kathleen
will be missed. My priority now is
to commence a full national search
for our next basketball coach.”
SPORTS 11
Thursday, May 16, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
As Beilein leaves, an unmistakable legacy is left in his wake
The last time the Michigan had to
replace its head coach, the program
was unrecognizable to those familiar
with the current Wolverines.
Michigan in 2007 had barely
scraped relevance since the breakup
of the Fab Five in 1993. It hadn’t
made the NCAA Tournament since
1998 — an appearance later vacated
by NCAA sanctions. It lived under
the shadow of the football team and
a group of recruits who had since
been banned from the program.
CJ Lee, a Michigan guard from
2006-09 and current director of
program
personnel,
was
there
when then-coach Tommy Amaker
was fired. Even with Amaker’s
uninspiring record, his firing still
incited some disappointment. After
all, he had helped drag the program
out of its sanction-induced low point
in the early 2000s.
Lee, though, knew the Wolverines
were getting someone good in
John Beilein. Lee went to high
school in western New York, where
Beilein recruited some of his AAU
teammates and had seen Beilein’s
success at West Virginia. The Beilein
he knew of back then was a coach
who ran a unique offense and a 1-3-1
zone, a coach with a good reputation
but questions about whether he
could stick at a high-major program
like Michigan.
Twelve years later, when Beilein
left the Wolverines to take the helm of
the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday
morning, he was a coach who still
ran a unique offense, albeit one of a
different vein, but had ditched the
zone — and ditched control over
his defense, hiring assistants with
greater expertise in the area. He
was a coach whose reputation had
exploded, who hadn’t just succeeded
at a high-major program but taken
it from no-man’s-land to consistent
contender. He was a coach who had
become, in some ways, impossible to
replace — the unenviable task that
now falls on the shoulders of athletic
director Warde Manuel.
“The first couple years, people
were kinda wondering, does (Beilein)
have what it takes?” Lee told The
Daily. “And it just shows that his
ability to morph, his ability to adapt,
his ability to change, his ability to
figure out that place and figure out
his way of doing things here — it was
incredible. And it worked.”
Beilein got Michigan back to the
NCAA Tournament in his second
year, and the Wolverines have made
it in eight of the past nine years —
with five Sweet Sixteens and two
appearances in the national title
game. His performance surpassed
even
what
could
have
been
considered the best-case scenario.
“It goes without saying, he
brought Michigan basketball back to
prominence,” Lee said. “I would say
he restored the image in the hearts
and minds of a lot of people, probably
in the court of public opinion.
Certainly, coach Amaker did a great
job in his time, coming out of the
sanctions, and then coach Beilein
took it to a level where you’re back in
the Final Four.”
Zack Novak, a Michigan guard
from 2008-12, joined the program
in Beilein’s early days. Back then,
the team was filled with Amaker
holdovers, and Beilein was tasked
with not only developing his young
players, but getting buy-in from his
older ones — a test he passed with
flying colors. Then, he began to build
the foundation of the Wolverines’
new
identity.
Novak
saw
the
beginning of that foundation, with
Michigan’s
NCAA
Tournament
appearance in 2009. By the time he
left in 2012 — with a Big Ten regular-
season title and a No. 4 seed in the
tournament — he saw a program that
finally stood on solid ground.
“From day one, when coach
starting recruiting me, the first
step was, get back to the NCAA
Tournament,” Novak told The Daily
on April 13. “But he was very firm
that Michigan should be a premier
program and we needed to build the
foundation to get back to where it
should be. And so, I think from day
one, he had a vision and he had his
guys that bought into the vision.
“And I think you gotta give credit
to a lot of the guys who came from
coach Amaker, who rolled over. Kind
of a difficult situation, right? Two
very different styles of playing. And
those guys easily could have been
cancers on the team and not bought
into the vision, and instead they did
the opposite.
And
really
set the foundation for what was to
come. Now, with that being said,
I’m not gonna lie to you and say that
I thought we’d be in two national
title games in the next 10 years. I
think it’s gone a bit beyond what the
original vision was.”
From
there,
Beilein
built
Michigan into what it is now, all with
the perception that he runs a clean
program. Beilein is one of the few
high-major coaches who is widely
believed not to cheat. He instilled his
values in every player, from Lee and
Novak until now. Former Michigan
sports information director Bruce
Madej
remembered
Beilein
as
someone who always talked about
family and community. Even as
Beilein began to crave the greater
challenge that the NBA would
bring, that community was what the
Wolverines were to him.
In a way, the NBA is a culmination
for Beilein. This is someone who has
never held a permanent position as
an assistant coach, instead climbing
the ladder from high school JV to
community college to Division II to
mid-major to Michigan. Professional
basketball was the one step he had
never taken.
“What has happened to John
Beilein in his life and in his coaching
career has been miraculous, it’s
really been magical,” said Jeff
Neubauer, the current Fordham
coach and a former Beilein assistant
at Richmond and West Virginia
from 1996-2005. “... Who he has
been throughout his life is to take on
a massive challenge — most of them
were places where people didn’t
think he could succeed. So he’s gone
to different schools throughout his
career and done amazing things
over and over. So my speculation
would be that this is his opportunity
to take on another huge challenge,
climb another mountain.”
Now, Beilein is firmly entrenched
as a Michigan legend. No matter who
you talk to, former players, assistants
and people around the program have
nary a bad word to say about him —
as a person or a coach.
And regardless of what the
future holds, Beilein will always
be remembered as the coach who
brought Michigan back to soaring
heights, the coach who firmly
implanted a new culture and the
coach who did things the right way
— in every sense of the word.
“I tell people all the time when
they ask me about playing for,
working for coach Beilein, is that as
good of a basketball coach as he is,
he’s a better person,” Lee said. “And
I think that, over the last 12 years,
the fan base and college basketball
in general has got to witness an
incredible, incredible human being
who happens to be a basketball
coach on the sidelines, in Ann Arbor.
“And I really hope that they
cherish that. I hope they recognize
how special that is to have the
human being, the coach, the man,
the success. How rare that is, for it all
to come together like that. So I just
hope that people are appreciative
and he is honored for his time,
because he did a tremendous job.”
ARIA GERSON &
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editors
BEILEIN
From Page 1A
ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
Former Michigan coach John Beilein said that he is leaving Michigan on Monday.