MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — John Beilein is one of nine members of the 2022 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame induction class. The former WVU head coach will be enshrined on November 20 in Kansas City as part of National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Weekend, which also features the annual Hall of Fame Classic tournament.
This year’s class also includes players Richard Hamilton of Connecticut, Larry Miller of North Carolina, Frank Selvy of Furman, and the late Jimmy Walker of Providence, along with coaches Jerry Krause and Lon Kruger.
.@JohnBeilein, former WVU men’s basketball coach, talks with @HoppyKercheval about being selected for the College Basketball Hall of Fame. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/AK8IxYgJO3
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) July 1, 2022
“I guess when the announcements come out for the different Hall of Fame classes, whether it is for Springfield [Naismith Hall of Fame] or Kansas City [NCB], you think, ‘Wow, those are some great guys’. I have never dwelled on any part of that. There are so many good coaches out there at every level,” Beilein said on Friday’s MetroNews Talkline.
Beilein graduated from Wheeling Jesuit in 1975 and was the head coach at four Division I programs from 1992-2019. Beilein posted an 89-62 record at Canisius and a 100-53 mark at Richmond before arriving at West Virginia in 2002.
With a revamped roster, the Mountaineers went 31-29 in Beilein’s first two seasons. Over the next three seasons, WVU burst onto the national stage. In the 2004-2005 season, West Virginia went 24-11 and fell one win short of the Final Four. A year later, the Mountaineers advanced to the Sweet Sixteen and finished 22-11. In 2006-2007, the Mountaineers won the National Invitation Tournament and posted a record of 27-9.
“What [Athletic Director] Ed Pastilong and President [David] Hardesty and [Associate Athletic Director] Mike Parsons did by giving me a chance at West Virginia in a pretty unique situation, was pretty remarkable. They gave me all the support you could possibly have.
“We weren’t very good in that first year. But we were so fortunate. I never saw J.D. Collins play. I never saw Johannes Herber play live. Kevin Pittsnogle, we just kind of walked into that situation. I was telling my son Patrick that he should go Division III just so that he could have an opportunity to play. All of a sudden, two years later we are a shot away from the Final Four.”
Beilein left Morgantown for Michigan after the 2006-2007 season. He led the Wolverines to a 278-150 record over 12 seasons.
Adding in his time at Erie Community College, Nazareth and LeMoyne, Beilein collected 829 college victories.
Beilein has spent the past year as a senior adviser for player development with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.
“I have an office but I am never in it. I put my bag down and go in the gym. I spend three or four hours some days in the gym just working with our staff to develop players. And then I go home. There’s no texting. There’s no NLI [National Letters of Intent]. There’s no transfer portal. I just get to teach basketball. It is a perfect thing for me to be doing at this stage of my career.”