NCAA Basketball: Stevens, Huggins among top head coaching hires of 2007
By Joey Loose
2. John Beilein (Michigan)
Based on what we’ve seen in recent years, it seems wild to think that Michigan basketball wasn’t good at all back around 2007. In fact, the Wolverines hadn’t even sniffed the NCAA Tournament since 1998. Tommy Amaker hadn’t made any progress in his years with the program and now Michigan was back to the drawing board. Fortunately, they made some serious headway with their hire this time.
John Beilein had already put together a successful and extensive head coaching career, with stops at the high school and junior college level long before breaking in at D1 with Canisius. He had spent five years apiece with Canisius, Richmond, and West Virginia, taking all three programs to the NCAA Tournament, and reaching the second weekend twice with the Mountaineers. Michigan presented a new challenge.
After spending a few seasons reloading the talent at Michigan, Beilein had built a national power again with the Wolverines. He won a few Big Ten titles during his twelve seasons in Ann Arbor, but the clear highlight is leading the Wolverines to the national championship game in both 2013 and 2018, with two completely different rosters. Beilein made the decision to move on to the NBA in 2019, though Juwan Howard’s done pretty solid building on what he started.