College Basketball Hall of Fame inductee John Beilein's coaching career didn't go as planned — it was even better

Back in 1975, former Michigan Wolverines basketball head man John Beilein set out to teach and coach. From Newfane (N.Y.) High School, where he coached basketball and taught social studies, to the University of Michigan and eventually the NBA, he’s done just that until this very day.

Beilein’s college journey began at Erie Community College in 1978, took him to Nazareth in 1982, Le Moyne in 1983, Canisius in 1992, Richmond in 1997, West Virginia in 2002 and Michigan in 2007. Beilein was a head coach all the way — never fired, always climbing. He took four different programs to the NCAA Tournament — Canisius (1996), Richmond (1998), West Virginia (2005, 2006) and Michigan (nine times).

He’s the Wolverines’ all-time winningest coach with 278 victories, and took the Maize and Blue to two national title games, in 2013 and 2018. He produced 12 NBA Draft picks from U-M.

He departed Michigan in 2019, accepting the head coaching job with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, where he spent part of a season before choosing to step down. He’s currently the senior player development advisor for the Detroit Pistons.

Sunday, Beilein was officially inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Kansas City.

Beilein reached great heights in the college coaching profession, but it’s the journey — his unique one — and the relationships along the way that he embraces more than anything.

“You know what?” the former Michigan coach asked, replying to TheWolverine.com‘s question. “There was a plan, but that wasn’t the plan, that you would have the opportunity to coach at every level.

“It was, get here to Newfane High School and do a great job, and maybe you could get to a college job one day. Then all of a sudden, it was like, if we can do a good job, maybe somebody will be interested in me at Nazareth College. It was amazing at how it would go along the way.

“And then you have to have a family that’s willing to move. [Wife] Kathleen and I moved seven times, bought and sold nine houses. All four children graduated from different high schools in their senior year in four different states. It’s just amazing that we could hold it together that long.

“Every time, I thought, I think it’s going the other way, we may get fired here, this may be our last year. And then something happened that turned it around, and we ended up having some success.”

While there were milestones along the way, Beilein insists there was no one defining moment, even though there could’ve been quite a few — making the NCAA Tournament for the first time, being hired by a high-major program, reaching the Final Four at Michigan, etc.

“There are so many of them,” the former Michigan coach said. “Because of the nature of just getting that next job, that sometimes you weren’t searching for, sometimes just fell into your lap, or that you really wanted to … maybe it was a good time to make a move because of that quest just to be a Division I coach whose team was nationally ranked. That was the goal. There were so many of those moments that you’re sitting there and you get the USA Today and you see your team is nationally ranked. And those were really fulfilling moments, but then I realized, OK, we want more.

“So there’s no one defining moment. As I said before, there could’ve been moments where I could’ve gone the other way. I remember saying to Kathleen, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to make it.’ We were picked 11th out of 11 teams in the Big Ten in my fourth year. But there’s no defining moment — that’s for sure.”

That 2010-11 season, by the way, Michigan finished with a 21-14 record and made the NCAA Tournament round of 32. The next season, the Wolverines won the Big Ten regular season. A year later, they played in the national title game in Atlanta. It was off and running from there.

That uncertainty Beilein experienced helped him survive what can be an unforgiving profession.

“You always doubted, but when you move around programs and you have a family, you know that’s when you have to make it,” Beilein explained during the enshrinement ceremony. “There’s no other way than to make it, so you grind away and do everything you can to get it done, so I think that actually helps you to prosperity later on.”