Michigan basketball's John Beilein 1 of 3 1st-time Basketball Hall of Fame coaching nominees
Former Michigan basketball coach John Beilein is among a trio of men’s coaches on the list of first-time nominees for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, according to a list released by the Hall on Wednesday.
Other first-time nominees include Michigan State alumnus Greg Kelser (as a choice for the veterans’ committee) and NBA All-Stars Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade. Former Piston (and current Portland Trail Blazers head coach) Chauncey Billups is a nominee for the sixth time. Former Detroit Shock player Jennifer Azzi, who starred at Stanford before being selected No. 5 in the 1999 WNBA draft, is a nominee on the women’s side.
Finalists for the men’s and women’s selections will be announced on Feb. 17 in Salt Lake City, Utah, as part of the NBA’s All-Star weekend. The entire 2023 class, including those elected by the vet committee such as Kelser, will be announced on April 1 as past of Final Four weekend in Houston.
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Beilein won 278 of 438 games (.650) during his 12 seasons (2007-19) with the Wolverines, part of a lengthy coaching career that included 27 seasons in Division I, plus 10 more in Divisions II/III. He led the Wolverines to nine NCAA tournaments, including appearances in the national title game in 2013 and 2018. Michigan won two regular-season Big Ten titles (2011-12, 2013-14) and two conference tournament titles (2017, 2018) under Beilein, who departed Ann Arbor in 2019 to take over the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
That stint didn’t last long, with Beilein resigning after 54 games of the 2019-20 season, with a 14-40 record. In all, Beilein finished his college career — with stops at Nazareth, Le Moyne, Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia and Michigan — with a 754-425 (.640) record. In addition to the Wolverines, he took Canisius, Richmond and West Virginia to the NCAA tournament. Beilein has been a senior advisor to the Pistons since June 2021, with a focus on developing players' shooting skills.
Beilein was picked for the College Basketball Hall of Fame in June 2022 and inducted in November. He was also inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in September.
The other first-time coaching nominees on the men’s side: Jim Larranaga, the longtime Bowling Green, George Mason and Miami (Florida) coach who won his 700th college game earlier this season, and Gregg Popovich, the NBA’s winningest coach at 1,354 victories (all with the San Antonio Spurs). Popovich is one of just two coaches in the top 10 on the NBA’s career victories list not already inducted into the Hall. (Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers, at No. 9 with 1.060 wins entering Wednesday’s game against the Pistons, is the other.)
The list of nominees includes three other notable former Big Ten coaches, all of whom have been nominated before: Lou Henson (Illinois), Gene Keady (Purdue) and Bo Ryan (Wisconsin).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball: John Beilein nominated for Basketball Hall of Fame
