John Beilein loves a challenge.
The University of Michigan men’s basketball coach was contacted by the Detroit Pistons after the organization let go of former coach and team president Stan Van Gundy this spring, and Beilein had mutual interest.
In a local radio interview this morning with WTKA, Beilein talked at length about the process and why he ultimately decided to stay at Michigan — a place he adores with all his heart.
He was never offered the job by the Pistons. He knew the team had multiple good options and that he obviously, had one great option to stay in Ann Arbor. The challenge of coaching in the NBA and turning around a franchise was an appealing thought. Beilein has shown he is masterful at rebuilding down programs — Michigan being no exception.
However, this would’ve been the ninth rebuilding job he’d taken. In each of his previous positions, he’d taken over for a coach that had either stepped down or been fired. The difficult road ahead is why he’s taken different jobs over the years — he can’t resist.
“I had a very good college coach come up to me, who I’m not going to say his name, but everybody would know his name, when I came up to Michigan and say ‘are you crazy? Why are you going to a train wreck like Michigan?’ A dumpster fire, all of these words that some of the pundits might use when they talk about an organization, and I said that’s exactly why I came to Michigan,” Beilein said. “Those things sometimes are motivating.”
He still believes there are plenty of challenges ahead at U-M, noting that the Big Ten should be even deeper this year and will be “a monster” of a league.
Coaching the Pistons would’ve allowed him to stay in the area he now calls home and near his place up north. He wanted to stay close to family.
The shorter leash NBA coaches get when it comes to having success also crossed his mind, noting that if he had a season where multiple key players got hurt and the team struggled — as he had at Michigan in 2014-15 — there is a higher likelihood of losing his job.
“I talked at length with [Boston Celtics coach] Brad Stevens and [Oklahoma City Thunder coach] Billy Donovan and anybody that thinks the pros grind harder than we do — Brad and Billy told me yeah, we work hard, but don’t think this is harder than what you do, because you’re at it 12 months a year. We know when we have down time, you never have down time.”
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel came to Beilein as soon as the team’s season ended to talk about an extension, and soon after offered what he called a “lucrative” contract. However, because Michigan played so late in the year, the coaching staff needed to get on the road to recruit. Because of that, Beilein asked to push the contract talks back until he had taken care of some recruiting.
When they sat down next, Beilein had already been contacted by the Pistons. He decided he did not want to sign the extension until after he had sorted things out with the NBA franchise, since he didn’t want to sign something only to change his mind shortly after.
He said Manuel handled the situation very well.
“He was extremely cooperative in just letting me … it was the same thing we did with [rising redshirt junior forward] Charles Matthews,” Beilein said. “We want you here, you know we want you here, how can we help you with this process so that you’re sure of it, and that’s exactly what Warde did.”
Pro teams were telling Matthews that he wasn’t ready, which led to him wanting to prove those doubters wrong. It was a similar kind of attitude that his coach would have.
Beilein thought his conversations with the Pistons would be wrapped up by the May 30 deadline for Matthews to announce whether he was staying in the NBA Draft or not. However, they weren’t, so he decided to tell his star player what was going on.
“He was really good about it, his mom was really good about it,” Beilein said. “He still called me back the next day, maybe that’s why he called me back, because he wouldn’t have me yelling at him anymore. He told me ‘I’m coming back’ and I said let’s go man, let’s go. He still knew the scenario.”
He hardly told anyone what was going on, saying in the interview that his wife and dog were practically the only ones he told. Three of his four children found out about the news on Twitter.
In the end, Beilein knew where his heart was — at Michigan. He withdrew from consideration and after talking to Manuel and a few others, sent out a Tweet announcing he was staying with the school.
He didn’t alert his assistant coaches about his decision to stay until he sent the tweet — and heard the commotion in the building, celebrating the news.
“I heard down the hall all the assistants running up and down the halls, and I know all their spouses breathed a sigh of relief too because there would’ve been some change,” Beilein said.
Michigan fans can now breathe a sigh of relief of their own, Beilein is staying home.
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