A week ago, it would have been skeptical to say that John Beilein will be the Michigan Wolverines coach for the rest of his career, but now the odds seem to be heading that way.
Last week, Michigan faithful were afraid of losing one of the best coaches in the NCAA after Adrian Wojnarowski announced the Wolverines’ coach was one of two candidates remaining in the Detroit Pistons’ coaching search.
However, Beilein told The Michigan Insider last Friday that he was never offered the job, and the Pistons went with their other candidate, former Toronto Raptors coach Dwayne Casey.
According to the Detroit News, Beilein practiced what he preached to his player‘s in terms of making the transition to the NBA: “listen, gather information, and make an informed decision.”
He told The Huge Show on Wednesday, “it didn’t work out, but I wanted to think it through. I don’t anticipate or plan on ever doing that again and I think people understand that. It’s not like I’ve been doing this every year.” And he hasn’t. This is the first time in Beilein’s 11-year career where he publicly considered leaving Ann Arbor.
In the interview with The Michigan Insider, Beilein spoke of the draw to revitalize Piston’s basketball saying, “I’ve had eight jobs and all eight for whatever reason they were turnaround type of jobs. That was a challenge that has always driven me and sometimes the more people say that’s stupid to do it, the more I wanted to do it. In the end, I realized I’m so grateful I have this opportunity at Michigan.”
When he took over at Michigan, a colleague of Beilein described Michigan as “a train-wreck,” and that is exactly what they were. The Wolverines had not reached the NCAA tournament in the previous eight seasons.
Now, Michigan has been the runner-up in the NCAA Tournament two times in the past six seasons. They have also had more than 20 wins in all but two of the seasons under Beilein; making the big dance each of those times. Along with that, the Wolverines have won back to back Big Ten Tournament championships and two regular season championships in his tenure.
Wolverine basketball seems to be on its way to being a national powerhouse under coach Beilein. This trend likely won’t change after Jalen Wilson’s commitment a few weeks ago, and other top recruits expressing interest in making Ann Arbor home.
Beilein is here to stay, and he knows it. His extension talks seem to be going well, and it will likely be the final contract of his career. He concluded his interview with The Michigan Insider saying, “Let’s make some more runs, see what we can do and at some point we’ll hang it up.”