Men's Basketball: Beilein Coach of the Year
April 11, 2005 11:32 AM | General
April 11, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - John Beilein, who guided his underdog West Virginia University men's basketball team on its miraclous advance to the NCAA tournament's "Elite Eight," has been elected as the state's College Coach of the Year for 2004-05.
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| John Beilein is the first WVU basketball coach to be named state coach of the year since Gale Catlett was honored in 1981.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
He will be honored by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association at its 59th annual Victory Awards Dinner on Sunday, May 1, in Fairmont. The college coach award has been named in honor of Mickey Furfari, veteran state journalist. Several other awards also will be given out at the fete.
Beilein, whose team finished with a 24-11 record and No. 12 national ranking, was the winner by an overwhelming margin in balloting by WVSWA members.
Other top vote-getters included WVU football coach Rich Rodriguez and four women's basketball coaches -- Mike Carey of WVU, Sherry Winn of the Univerity of Charleston, Royce Chadwick of Marshall, and Steve McDonald of Fairmont State.
"I am extremely honored to receive this award, especially knowing that it comes from sports writers within our state," Beilein said. "There are a lot of people behind our success, and they will be as much a part of this award as I am.
"So for me, awards like this one are coaching staff awards -- not personal awards."
Beilein is the first WVU coach to win the award since Rodriguez for 2002-03.
The last WVU men's basketball coach to win it was Gale Catlett in 1981. He also was the winner in 1979.
In just three years, Beilein, a Burt, N.Y., native, has returned the Mountaineer program to the national limelight as a rising power to be reckoned with in the Big East Conference. This year's team set an all-time school record with eight victories over ranked teams in 14 games. The Mountaineers were amazing overachievers as they won 10 of their last 13 games and 13 of the final 18. WVU became only the third team to win three games in the Big East tournament without a bye, losing to Syracuse in the title contest.
Those triumphs were over Providence, Boston College and Villanova. And, in the process, Beilein's battlers went from the bubble to a solid, seventh-seed selection for the NCAA tournament.
But the best was yet to come. The Mountaineers duplicated the 1-2-3 feat at the expense of Creigthon, fifth-ranked Wake Forest and Texas Tech to face fourth-ranked Louisville for a spot in the Final Four. WVU just fell short as the Cardinals prevailed in overtime.
It was only the second time in the school's history that a team won as many as three games in an NCAA tournament. The 1958-59 team, led by tourney MVP Jerry West, bowed by just 71-70 to California in the championship game.
Earlier this season, the Mountaineers had upset two other ranked teams, George Washington and North Carolina State in non-confeence games. BC, Villanova and Texas Tech also were Top 25 teams.
Beilein, 52, came to WVU as a proven winner in April of 2002. Taking over a team that was a worst-ever 8-20 the previous season, he put together a team of seven scholarship players for a 14-15 record in 2002-03. Then it improved to 17-14 his second season, including two wins in the NIT, before topping 20 victories this go-round. He's not only an outstanding coach but one who's unique in that he's always been a head coach -- never an assistant -- at the college level. Amazingly, he has had just three losing seasons (14-15 twice, 10-18 once). His career record is 502-298 (.628) for successful stints at Erie CC, Nazareth, LeMoyne, Canisius, Richmond and WVU. He ranks among the Top 30 active Division I head coaches in victories.
Beilein also has moved into 96th place among the NCAA's all-time winningest coaches at four-year institutions.
His teams have combined for a dozen 20-victory seasons, including three in his five years at Richmond. Nine earned postseason tournament berths -- four to the NCAA and five to the NIT.
Beilein is the only person in active collegiate coaching circles to record a 20-win season at four different levels -- junior college, NAIA, and NCAA Division II and Division I. He was a winner at every turn throughout his career.
Ironically, it was at Wheeling College (now Wheeling Jesuit University) that he played basketball from 1971-75. He received a bachelor's degree in history there in 1975 and then got a master's degree in education from Niagara University in 1981.
Beilein and his wife, Kathleen, have been married for 26 years. They have three sons, Patrick (21), Mark (20) and Andrew (14), and a daughter, Seana (24). Patrick is an outstanding member of the WVU basketball team. He will be a senior next year.
Tickets for the VAD, priced at $15 each, must be purchased in advance by April 26. They are available at member newspapers in Morgantown (Justin Jackson) and Fairmont (Cliff Nichols). No tickets will be sold at the door May 1.
