NCAA Notebook
March 25, 2005 09:19 PM | General
March 25, 2005
A view of John Beilein through a television monitor as he talks to reporters Friday afternoon at The Pit in Alburquerque, N.M.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach John Beilein admits his second attempt at coaching his son Patrick has turned out far better than his first try when he was a 10-year-old little league pitcher.
“I was the worst little league coach in the world,” Beilein laughed. “I had just gotten the Canisius job after being at LeMoyne. I was an absentee coach because I was living in Buffalo and we hadn’t sold our home yet. We didn’t have a very good year and that was the only time I ever coached him.”
The elder Beilein says Patrick has always been the most receptive of his four children to his coaching.
“Of course every father knows how that goes with your own children,” he said. “He really has been the one that I could teach and he didn’t take it personally.”
Mike Gansey says there have been a handful of times when he could detect when Beilein was upset with his son in practice.
“A couple of times he maybe raised his voice a little bit when Pat had a couple of shots hit the rim a little bit when he didn’t get his shot up,” Gansey said. “That’s the only time he ever really gets mad at him.”
According to the coach, the biggest thing he tries to remind himself is to not take Patrick’s mistakes personally.
“When he makes a mistake, turns the ball over, turns down a shot or takes a bad shot then I remind myself, would I get mad at Joe Herber or J.D. Collins for doing the same thing? Yeah I might but I would forget about it,” Beilein said. “I wouldn’t carry it into fatherhood after that.”
Beilein says his wife Kathleen constantly reminds him to enjoy this time together with his son.
“I think the one regret for the rest of my life when this is all over is during the practices and the games that I wasn’t more of a dad during that time as far as a coach,” he said. “When we step into the locker room or whatever I’m a very focused coach about what I’m trying to do. I would say 90 percent of the time I’m coaching him he’s one of my players and they’re all my favorite players.”
Despite that, Kevin Pittsnogle can detect a special bond between the two.
“It’s such a great relationship for them to have,” he said.
Notebook:
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| West Virginia play-by-play man Tony Caridi is looking to get his voice back for Saturday's Elite Eight game against Louisville.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“Growing up in West Virginia I didn’t really watch too much basketball, I just kind of played a lot,” he said. “I didn’t really idolize too much of anybody growing up. The past couple of years the person I probably idolized the most is Dirk Nowitzki. He’s a great player and I try to emulate my game after his.”
“They were all 6-10, 6-9 – typical great European team with great players,” he said. “I said this has been a great trip and let’s just do what we can do and see what we can do against them. All the sudden I look up at the clock and we’re up by 12 with 10 minutes to go. Then I said maybe we’re better than I think we are.”
“It’s a tremendous compliment,” Beilein said. “I’m not sure what they mean because I think it means something different to someone else. People might think about sharing the basketball. Some people might think of our defense and our backdoor cuts. All those type of things may be involved although everyone has a different opinion.
“I think they like the way our kids share the basketball and the way they conduct themselves on and off the court,” he added. “I think that is something we’ve really tried to strive for as a team.”
“When I got recruited not a lot of people actually recognized the fact that West Virginia was a Big East team or it was actually a high-major level so for a lot of people in Germany they didn’t think it was a big deal,” he said. “Right now a lot of people are starting to recognize how big of a deal it is. It’s just great because I’m getting emails and calls from my friends that are watching the games and it’s been a great experience.”
