I think we've all heard the story of how we almost had Rick Pitino as Michigan’s head basketball coach back in 2001.

But I don't think I've seen the story of John Beilein's lucky break in getting the West Virginia job back in 2002, and the subsequent events that led to his success with the Mountaineers.

 

The West Virginia Hiring Process

In 2002, West Virginia's head coach Gale Catlett announced he would retire after the season was over. West Virginia finished the season 8-20. Bowling Green's head basketball coach, Dan Dakich, was hired as the head coach of the WVU Mountaineers. Dakich would be getting a raise from $125,000 which he made at Bowling Green to $500,000 which WVU was offering.

In Dakich's first week as coach at West Virginia, he found out that the Mountaineer basketball program might be guilty of NCAA recruiting violations. Surprisingly, Dakich had not yet signed the contract to become the head coach. As a result, Dakich tried to negotiate a higher salary, but failed and subsequently returned to Bowling Green.

West Virginia then reported the violations to the NCAA, and the NCAA did not penalize the Mountaineers after they banned the athlete in question.

That's when West Virginia hired Beilein away from Richmond. Beilein won 31 games in his first two years at WVU.

 

John Beilein accesses the Transfer Portal

Although we were reminded a lot that Charles Matthews was a transfer, he wasn’t the first transfer Beilein got. Duncan Robinson and Jaaron Simmons transferred to Michigan before Matthews did, but they weren’t the first transfers Beilein took either. Beilein had a history of looking at transfers from his first days at West Virginia.

In March 2002, a few months before Beilein was hired at WVU, Beilein’s conference rival Saint Bonaventure admitted Jamil Terrell to the team. Terrell’s admittance was based on a welding certificate from Coastal Georgia Community College.

In May 2002, it was revealed that the certificate was not equivalent to an associate degree. And by February 2003, the NCAA determined Terrell was ineligible. The Atlantic 10 Conference then voted to exclude Saint Bonaventure from the conference tournament that year. The team then boycotted the final two games of the regular season.

With uncertainty around the program, many of the players decided to leave including sophomore forward Mike Gansey. Gansey was the second leading scorer on the team and announced his transfer in May 2003.

Beilein had coached against Gansey in Gansey’s freshman season back in 2001-2002. Beilein noticed his work ethic and drive in tape sessions back at Richmond, and now that Gansey was available, Beilein recruited him hard.

"He fit the typical profile of a player we wanted at West Virginia," Beilein said. "We knew he wasn't a quitter. He's been good from day one."

Gansey eventually came to West Virginia, but he had to sit out the 2003-2004 season due to transfer rules.

Tell me this quote from an ESPN article about Gansey doesn’t sound familiar?

Offensively, Gansey was pretty limited prior to arriving in Morgantown. The 6-4 junior described himself as simply a catch-and-shoot player with the Bonnies, where he averaged 13.9 points and shot 40 percent on 3-pointers. Now, he can put the ball on the floor and drive.

 

Beilein’s First Magical Season

Gansey would join senior forward Tyrone Sally and junior center Kevin Pittsnogle as the star players for the Mountaineers for the 2004-2005 season.

West Virginia started the season on a run, winning ten games and beating two Top 25 teams before falling to Villanova in the conference opener, 84-46. They would then lose eight of their next twelve games.

At 14-8 (4-7 Big East), the team looked NIT-bound at best. They then strung four straight victories together including a road win over rival #18 Pittsburgh before losing the regular season finale to Seton Hall.

Entering the Big East conference tournament, the team was 18-9 (8-8). They need some magic to make the NCAA Tournament, and it was going to need to come in Madison Square Garden.

The Mountaineers took care of business against Providence, and then upset #14 Boston College to make the Big East Semifinals.

In the Big East semifinals, they faced #19 Villanova, the same team that destroyed the Mountaineers back in the conference opener. With .2 seconds left, a foul was called on the Wildcats, sending Garnsey to the line to break the 76-76 tie. Garnsey went on to make both free throws and sent the Mountaineers to the Big East title game.

The Big East title game pitted West Virginia against #11 Syracuse, and Syracuse handled business, defeating the Mountaineers by nine points.

However, that was enough for the Mountaineers to make the NCAA Tournament. They earned a 7 seed and faced Creighton in the first round.

With the game tied at 61, Creighton shot a three with under five seconds left. Tyrone Sally blocked the shot, took the ball, and slammed it home with 2.9 seconds left to give WVU the win.

In the second round, West Virginia went up against the 2 seed, Wake Forest, led by All-American Chris Paul. John Beilein stated before the game that West Virginia couldn't win if the game was in the 70s and 80s.

Boy, was he wrong! The game was tied at 77 at the regulation. Then it was tied after the first overtime. Finally, West Virginia prevailed in second overtime to defeat Wake Forest, 111-105.

In the Sweet Sixteen, West Virginia would go on to defeat #6 seed Texas Tech, 65-60, which set up an Elite Eight matchup with Louisville to advance to the Final Four.

In the Elite Eight, Beilein faced 4th seeded Louisville and lost in overtime, 93-85. Tyrone Sally, West Virginia’s leading scorer, had fouled out and only scored four points. As a result, John Beilein’s son, Patrick, played 27 minutes and scored 13 points. The only Mountaineer to score more points in that game than Patrick Beilein was Kevin Pittsnogle who scored 25 points.

In reflection of that Elite Eight appearance, ESPN wrote an article about what could've been if Dakich had signed with WVU:

If the Dan Dakich domino had not fallen four years ago, when the Bowling Green coach was hired and then quit as the West Virginia coach in a span of eight days, John Beilein and three of his best players would be Richmond Spiders today. If a welding certificate had not destroyed the St. Bonaventure program three years ago, nobody would be talking about Mike Gansey as an All-America candidate. And if Beilein and his unique offense had never arrived, it's possible that Pittsnogle still would be a regionally recognized proper noun, not a nationally celebrated verb.

But all those things did happen. And the result has been a most excellent accident. It's been a "Eureka!" experience for a program that hasn't had days like these since Jerry West hung up his No. 44 jersey some 46 years ago.

 

Beilein’s final two years in Morgantown

In Beilein's fourth year, West Virginia finished the regular season with a 20-10 (11-5) record. They earned a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Mountaineers then went on to reach the Sweet Sixteen by defeating 14th seeded Northwestern State in the second round. They then lost to the #2 seed Texas in the Sweet Sixteen.

In Beilein's final year at WVU, he won 22 games, and somehow didn't get invited to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, while in talks with Michigan to become their head coach, Beilein led the Mountaineers to a NIT Championship.

The NIT was the only postseason championship he'd won at West Virginia, but little did we know he would go on to win two Big Ten conference tournaments a decade later.