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John Beilein    

Senior Player Development Advisor for the Detroit Pistons; Former Head Coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers

John Beilein is an American professional basketball coach who currently serves as the Senior Player Development Advisor for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Before being hired by Detroit, Beilein served as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Prior to joining the Cavaliers, he coached the Michigan Wolverines (2007–2019), West Virginia Mountaineers (2002–2007), Richmond Spiders (1997–2002), Canisius Golden Griffins (1992–1997) in NCAA Division I as well as Le Moyne College (1983–1992), Nazareth College (1982–1983) and Erie Community College (1978–1982). Beilein has won 754 career games at four-year universities and 829 games altogether, including those at the junior college level. Beilein's overall career wins counting the time spent in Cleveland is 843 games.

Beilein was the only active collegiate coach to have achieved 20-win seasons at four different levels—junior college, NCAA Division III, NCAA Division II, and NCAA Division I. At the time, Beilein was one of only six active Division I coaches with 700 or more career wins at all levels. He has been recognized as conference coach of the year five times: in 1981 at Erie Community College, in 1988 at LeMoyne, in 1994 at Canisius, in 1998 at Richmond, and in 2014 at Michigan. In addition, Beilein was the seventh of only ten coaches to have taken four different schools to the NCAA Division I tournament. He is known for his attention to details, focus on fundamentals and knack for developing under-the-radar players. Beilein is also widely respected in collegiate sports as one of the cleanest and most rule-abiding coaches. In a poll conducted by CBS in 2017, Beilein was voted the cleanest coach in college basketball, gathering 26.6% of the votes vs. the next highest candidate's 10.5%.

Beilein's first Division I head coaching position was at Canisius, a hometown school of which he had been a fan. He turned around the school's losing program and helped it earn two National Invitation Tournament (NIT) bids and one NCAA tournament appearance in five years. Next, at Richmond, he reached the NCAA Tournament once and NIT twice in five years. He moved on to West Virginia, where his teams reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament twice, and also twice went to the NIT, including one championship. At Michigan, where he became the school's winningest coach, he won two Big Ten regular-season championships, two Big Ten tournament titles, and in the NCAA Tournament twice advanced as far as the national championship game. He has a 26–13 career record in the NCAA tournament, with championship game appearances in 2013 and 2018, as well as a 13–6 record in the NIT.

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Why John Beilein Is The Truest Coach In College Basketball
One crash. Four days. Four wins. That’s my attempt to write a story in six words, something that Ernest Hemingway once did in response to being challenged to write a short-short story. (For his answer see below.)

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