Now-former Michigan assistant Jeff Meyer didn’t know it when he first met John Beilein in 1994, but he seemed destined to cross paths with him again. He did, becoming the coach’s right hand man for the better part of nine years in Ann Arbor.
Meyer, 63, recently accepted a job to join former U-M assistant LaVall Jordan at Butler, a place that’s always been special to him. Nine years is a long time in the coaching profession, and after accomplishing plenty in Ann Arbor — two Big Ten titles, an Elite Eight and a National Title game appearance among them — he moves on to his next challenge as an experienced, steadying hand for an up and coming young coach.
Jordan gave him a few days to think about it, Meyer said Tuesday, and didn’t pressure him to accept, but several factors led to his decision.
“We have family there, No. 1,” Meyer said. “It was just the right time.”
But he’ll never forget his time in Ann Arbor.
“Nine years,” he said. “It was so fulfilling. Karen [Meyer’s wife] and I appreciated the opportunity we had with Coach Beilein so much.”
Beilein threw him a lifeline of sorts in 2008, when Meyer got caught in the middle of Kelvin Sampson’s mess at Indiana. He was exonerated of any wrongdoing, but there was a stigma that left him wondering what his next step might be.
Beilein was coming off a season in which his Wolverines finished 10-22 in his first season, a transition year from the Tommy Amaker era. He’d been well aware of Meyer’s troubles, but he never doubted his friend’s innocence. All he had to offer, however, was an administrative assistant position, one for which Meyer was obviously overqualified.
He laid it out there, regardless. He’d gotten to know Meyer when Meyer had been head coach at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. for 14 years and was still only 40 years old, during an October 1994 coaches’ summit in Charlotte, N.C., and the two became fast friends.
“Out of all that, Coach Beilein throws a professional lifeline,” Meyer recalled in 2010. “He said, ‘we’ve had a tough first year here. We could use your experience. I know you’re a man of integrity and character and that you were in the wrong situation at the wrong time.’
“If want to stay in college coaching, you’ve got to have a friend, someone that knows you, believes in you and trusts you to help you at that point in time.”
Beilein was that guy, and the relationship was a good one.
Meyer was soon promoted and became lead recruiter for talent such as Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III, Nik Stauskas, instrumental in finding Trey Burke and several more for which he probably never got the credit he deserved, and he always stuck to his principles. The assistant coaching staff of Meyer, Jordan and Bacari Alexander, now head coach at Detroit Mercy, was extremely tight knit and always seemed like family.
Even so, Meyer was surprised when Jordan, a Butler alum and young coach Meyer mentored under Todd Lickliter’s staff, offered him a job.
“You hope you can add value and experience,” Meyer said.
Those who know him well have no doubt he will, and that Jordan, Meyer and Co. have the potential for great success going forward.
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