Prediction discussion: where does John Beilein end up next year?
So, I've had several discussions with my local Michigan fanbase on where JB will end up next year. A good amount think he'll come back into college bball coaching. I think he'll stick continue to be an analyst. So options are:
1. Coach again in college. If so, who?
2. Coach again in the NBA. If so, who?
3. Continue to be an analyst
4. Full on retire and be a fixture in Ann Arbor. FYI, he still lives in AA.
3 and 4
he's currently teaching at U of M too
Agree.
And I think it’s also pretty significant that one of the reasons he took the Cavs job was it would allow him to continue living in Ann Arbor. I think JB really likes living in A2 and isn’t interested in any job that would involve moving away.
If he coaches again, BC will be a strong choice. I’d rather see him in a different conference than someplace like Indiana
I think Indiana's fanbase would be too hard on him and the recruiting would be difficult even though they're in a basketball hotbed. I bet Beilein would be better served at a small school like Northwestern or BC as you mentioned. He could still recruit his guys and the fanbase won't expect immediate dramatic improvement.
I think he'll end up at Illinois after Brad Underwood's facial ticks become to obvious to ignore.
He hasnt been the same since he got that blood in his eye in 28 days later.
Omg I love this joke and I want to marry it. lol
Avatar checks out
the rumor is Boston College, maybe in 2 weeks
BC taking Beilein over Eisley?
Honestly I think he'll end up at Indiana
And I will has a sad
Sadly, I agree with this guess.
I’ve admittedly been out of the loop on all rumors regarding Beilein, but is there actual smoke to this?
I just can’t see it, given one of his reasons for leaving CBB was having to deal with roster turnover and recruiting. I just don’t see him wanting to go to a big time program in rebuilding mode where there’ll be immense pressure to succeed. He’s already 68 years old too and quit on the NBA fast.
I think the NBA quit him.
Yeah I'd be surprised if he takes a job that big.
I was talking about this on umhoops, but I don’t think Indiana is a good fit for him. He has a limited amount of time to coach, and it will probably be a couple of years to get the roster the way he wants, and Indiana is a place that wants to recruit elite talent. I don’t know that they’d want to follow his plan and timeline.
His scope is much better suited for a program like Minnesota. He seriously has the exact same ceiling and could get the exact same players there, but his results would work much better in that environment. No idea if BC is a possibility, but they’d work, too.
IU fans think it will be Scott Drew or Brad Stevens.
IU fans, including my brothers in law, are delusional. They would of course love to get Beilein. I told them no, they can’t have him.
1. harvard.
Possibly for two reasons - a) it is "The Michigan of the East", and b) will solidify the coaching pipeline with Tommy Amaker.
Isn't Tommy still coach ar Harvard???
you caught that.
i think tommy is still the coach, but the ivies opted out of the season, so who knows? on the other hand, i'm not sure i'd describe what tommy amaker does as "coaching" in any real sense.
Well he did get them their first NCAA tournament win and he's their all-time winningest coach. Not that I miss him here, but he seems to be doing fine.
Based purely on results alone, he seems to have evolved and improved as a coach since he left Michigan. Not only has he made the tourney (which was a rarity for Harvard before he got there), he advanced to the second round a couple of times.
This actually would make a ton of sense for both parties, if Tommy Amaker left for the BC job. Harvard would want someone with a squeaky clean reputation. They would want someone with a track record of doing more with less. They would want someone who can coach high IQ players. They would want someone who can win and compete, but isn't a win-at-all-costs coach. Beilein checks all of those boxes. And Harvard is not likely to care about his age and the fact that he doesn't have decades upon decades left in him.
Beilein would likely love to coach in a league without rampant recruiting shenanigans (though he may have the opposite problem of feeling constricted by only being able to recruit kids who can get into Harvard). He would love to coach kids who stay for all four years. He might prefer a stable situation at an academically-oriented school without ridiculous expectations (as opposed to a pressure cooker with a delusional fan base, like Indiana). Harvard checks all of those boxes.
I would have no problem rooting for him if this came to pass (unless we ever played them, which would be rare). I would hate to see him back in the Big Ten, where I would have to think of him as the bad guy.
It would also be a cool "full circle" thing, seeing as how Beilein replaced Amaker at Michigan.
I am guessing at either Boston College or Indiana.
Why would he want to return to the grind of college basketball as a head coach? If he wants to return, why would he have left Michigan? He made a lot of money coaching Cleveland and can now retire. I am five years older than he is and at my age, I would not want to take on the grind of creating a new program at a new school when I can teach a class, travel, spend time with my family, and reap the rewards of a good life lived.
This. Any prediction of Beilein going back to coaching at his age and where he is in life just seems absurd to me.
To each their own --- but for the record, Beilein isn't that old. He just turned 68, there are plenty of other coaches who have been highly effective into their 70s.
Disagree. 68 years is old for a NEW hire especially at a Power 5 school. Most of the coaches who have been highly effective into their 70s like Boeheim, K, Leonard Hamilton, and Roy Williams already had their programs up and running at a high level long before they hit their 70s. And you could make the case that most of them have seen their programs taking a turn for the worst at this age.
BC may be an exception, but most Power 5 schools are going to have a lot of options that may be better than a 68-year old Beilein. What is a best case scenario for a school hiring Beilein? How much longer do you think he could coach and recruit at a high level especially for a guy who was widely known to run his program within the rules?
I'd put a qualifier on your 2nd sentence --- 68 years is old for a new hire, especially at a Power 5 school that looks for basketball to be an economic engine for the athletic program.
Beilein's not going to get hired by Indiana. He's too old for that type of program.
But BC? Sure - why not?
If he doesn't work out --- it's just a continuation of the same old, same old. BC basketball hasn't done anything for a decade plus anyway, so nothing lost.
If he does work out, its absolutely great.
For analogies in the college football world, I'd look at David Cutcliffe at Duke, Les Miles at Kansas and Frank Solich at Ohio University. 2 of those 3 have worked. Miles is the exception, but from KU's POV, has that much been lost even if Miles does continue to field bottom-of-the-barrel Big XII teams?
Most Power 5 schools don't look at basketball to be an economic engine for their program. But they have football money to try to attract the best candidates. That was my point in putting that there.
I also think drawing analogies to the college football world is not great, and the fact you can't even find one in college basketball kind of works against your argument. Even the college football ones are so few and far between. Cutcliffe has been at Duke for close to 15 years, and he is still 66 and younger than Beilein today. Most of the ones like Les Miles and Mack Brown are so different as they operate their programs more as CEOs than hands-on coaches like Beilein. Beilein notoriously hated to delegate work and had his hands on almost everything in the program.
The only similar example I could think of was Larry Brown at SMU. Bobby Knight was around 60 when he took the job at Texas Tech. Jim Larranaga was around 60 when hired by Miami (FL). Tubby Smith was around 60 when hired at Texas Tech. Jim Harrick was around 60 when he was hired at Georgia. And most of these hires ended badly, and they were all almost a decade younger than Beilein when hired and got fired or retired before they even got to age 68.
It's possible though. Jim Calhoun is coaching Division III basketball now at 78 years old. I just think if Beilein takes another job, he would be better suited going down something closer to that route than trying to coach in the Power 5 conferences.
Good post --- it is a fair criticism that there aren't a ton of examples to point to in college basketball.
My sense of age is off. Before looking it up, I would have guessed that both Larranaga and Rick Barnes were a lot closer to 70 than they were to 60 when they were hired at Miami and Tennessee. Larranaga I would qualify as a (relative) success at Miami. Barnes has been alright, nothing special.
I forgot about Rick Barnes. And I agree I think both programs (and Bobby Knight at TT) would classify them successes, but most of that success has happened early and prior to 65, not after it. I think both programs are on a downward trajectory. It might be early to call that on Barnes, but the last two years have not been great.
And age is sometimes just a number with some 68 year olds functioning better than those in their late 50s. But I wouldn't feel confident betting on a 68 year old hire getting or keeping a major Division I program competitive for long.
Every time I see Rick Barnes, I think about how he didn’t make the Sweet 16 with Kevin F’n Durant.
I think Kansas may be a more difficult job than even Rutgers. They literally haven't won more than 3 games in any year since they fired Mark Mangino.
This isn't to say it's impossible--Mangino somehow got them to a 12-1 record in 2007. I don't think Les Miles is the guy to do it, though.
It was just 2 years ago that he signed a 5 year contract TO COACH.
Not in college and not to take over a rebuilding project
If you don't think Love and Tristain Thompson weren't a rebuilding project with the Cavs. I don't know what to tell you
I was only responding to the suggestion that he is too and and wouldn't be interested. Zero chance he takes the BC job or a similar rebuild. But IU....
The only way I see him heading back to the coaching ranks is as an adjunct to help out is son Patrick Beilein if needed. Not sure why he stepped down from Niagara but if he is having difficulty getting back in, I can see John stepping in anyway possible to help him land a program.
Otherwise, I agree with you, he does the analyst/faculty/retire gig and enjoys his family.
That was the one scenario I thought about, but no one really knows what Patrick Beilein's situation is, why he resigned, or if he even wants to get back into coaching again. But I could see something like Bobby and Pat Knight at Texas Tech if the younger Beilein was aspiring to get back into coaching.
But I also think as long as there were no skeletons in the closet, Patrick Beilein had proved enough early in his career that he could get another job on his own without needing John Beilein to have to come out of retirement to jump start his career.
If that’s the case, then the broadcasters will need to find a couple minutes of commentary to fill up the “He has never been an assistant coach” tidbit they’d bring up everyday.
maybe...although it's not that unusual for coaches to bag out for a couple years, then come back to scratch the coaching itch.
There is no way in hell I'll continue subjecting myself to the grind when I'm in my upper 60's and 70's. No way. But some people are wired differently and cannot imagine doing anything else with their lives, especially if the fire and passion are still burning. I would not be surprised to see JB coach again. But I know that I wouldn't be able to start from scratch again like he would be doing if he takes the BC, IU, or any other open collegiate job.
I'm ~50 and the thought of starting work at a new place, and dealing with new personalities makes me want to retire. Coaching kids is one thing, but dealing with the rest of it is tough for 68. (Probably says more about me than Beilein.)
hire john beilein as head coach, ask him to bring along patrick beilein as his lead assistant.
I think he enjoys what he's doing now. BC would present an even bigger issue than he had as Michigan HC, having to recruit big time players to compete in that conference against the likes of a myriad of blue bloods like Duke, UNC, Louisville, Syracuse and programs that are really good right now like Virginia, FSU and others, even Notre Dame.
Why should he subject himself to that?
Easy...he likes to compete! How many good programs were in the Big East when he coached at WVU. He had a great program within the state when he took over at Michigan. Cowards run away from challenges, Coach Beilein smiles at those same challenges.
He was in his 40s when he coached at WVU, he's in his mid 60s now.
Right --- Beilein doesn't seem like a man who is afraid of a new challenge at any age.
Sometimes the new challenge (e.g., the Cleveland Cavs) doesn't work out. But sometimes it does.
What he did at West Virginia was really remarkable in retrospect, They were an absolute after thought in the highly competitive Big East at the time he started there. They literally finished in 14th place in the conference in Gale Catlett's last year. Within 4 years Beilein had gotten the Mountaineers to an Elite Eight and another Sweet Sixteen!
(and he didn't cheat --- Catlett always had an undertone of shadiness in his time at WVU, and Cincinnati prior).
Boston College would be even more challenging than early-2000s WVU. But you can't scale a mountain if you don't even try.
Beilein is a great coach. Even if he goes to BC and completely bombs out, his legacy is secure.