John Beilein

John Beilein

John Beilein (pronounced bee-line; born February 5, 1953 in Burt, Niagara County, New York) is the men's basketball head coach at the University of Michigan. He is the 16th head coach of the Wolverines. Beilein has won 554 career games.

Coaching career

In 1975, Beilein graduated from Wheeling College (now Wheeling Jesuit University) with a bachelor of arts degree in history; he had competed on the school's basketball team. After graduating he began his coaching career, at Central High School in Newfane, New York, and remained there for three years. He went on to earn a Master of Arts in education from Niagara University in 1981.

Throughout his coaching career, Beilein has always held head coaching positions, never as an assistant. Beilein served as the coach of Erie Community College from 1978 to 1982, Nazareth College for the 1982-1983 school year, and Le Moyne College from 1983 to 1992. In 1992 he arrived at Canisius College, which was also the first position in which he hired assistant coaches. [1].

At Canisius - his first NCAA Division I coaching position - Beilein reached the NCAA tournament once and the National Invitation Tournament twice in his five seasons. In 1997 he moved to the University of Richmond. There, he compiled a 100-53 record in five seasons, recording a winning record each season, and again reached the NCAA tournament once and the NIT twice.

In 2002, Beilein accepted the head coaching position at West Virginia University. At WVU he posted a 104-60 record over five seasons. In 2004-05, his team went 24-11 and reached the "Elite Eight" (fourth round) of the NCAA tournament. The following year, WVU went 22-11 and reached the "Sweet Sixteen" (third round). In 2006-07, Beilein's Mountaineers, despite only having 2 seniors, went 27-9 and won the NIT championship.

On April 3, 2007 the University of Michigan announced that it had hired Beilein to coach its men's basketball team. He replaced Tommy Amaker, who was fired after failing to reach the NCAA Tournament in his six seasons.

Coaching style

Beilein is known for his offense which emphasizes constant motion, passing, back-door cuts, disciplined teamwork, and precision shooting. The offense usually starts out with four players outside the three-point arc with one player at the top of the key. In addition to working this formation to try to open up space for players to cut to the basket, West Virginia also took a high amount of three-point shots. He is also notable for employing the rare 1-3-1 zone defense.

Personal life

Beilein is married to Kathleen Beilein. They have three sons (Patrick, who played for his father at WVU; Mark; and Andy) and a daughter (Seana Hendricks). Patrick is playing professional basketball in Europe. The Beileins live in Ann Arbor and attend a Catholic Church in town regularly. A good friend and former neighbor to former WVU football coach Rich Rodriguez, the two are again coaching at the same school, the University of Michigan as Rich Rodriguez was hired to replace retiring U of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr.

Career Division I coaching record

Season	Team	Overall Record	Conference Record	Postseason	Ranking
1992-93	Canisius	10-18	5-9	---	NA
1993-94	Canisius	22-7	12-2	NIT 1st Round	NA
1994-95	Canisius	21-14	10-4	NIT Semifinal	NA
1995-96	Canisius	19-11	7-7	NCAA 1st Round	NA
1996-97	Canisius	17-12	10-4	---	NA
1997-98	Richmond	23-8	12-3	NCAA 2nd Round	NA
1998-99	Richmond	15-12	10-6	---	169
1999-00	Richmond	18-12	11-5	---	112
2000-01	Richmond	22-7	12-4	NIT 2nd Round	54
2001-02	Richmond	22-14	11-5	NIT Quarterfinal	75
2002-03	West Virginia	14-15	5-11	---	102
2003-04	West Virginia	17-14	7-9	NIT 3rd Round	74
2004-05	West Virginia	24-11	8-8	NCAA Elite Eight	25
2005-06	West Virginia	22-11	11-5	NCAA Sweet Sixteen	18
2006-07	West Virginia	27-9	9-7	NIT Champions	17
2007-08	Michigan	5-13	1-5	---	185
Overall record at Canisius: 89-62 (.589)
Overall record at Richmond: 100-53 (.654)
Overall record at WVU: 104-60 (.634)
Overall record at Michigan: 5-13 (.278)