How John Beilein's son became one of college basketball's most coveted coaches
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Patrick Beilein remembers barreling his Big Wheel through the hallways surrounding the gymnasium at Le Moyne College back in the mid-1980s. His father, John Beilein, coached at the Division II Jesuit school from 1983-92, trekking his Ford Escort down I-90 from Rochester to interview for the job a day or two after Patrick was born.
Patrick Beilein entered the gym through the boiler room back then, handed his dad a toy for good luck before games and recalls being fascinated by the rubber galoshes protecting his dad's shoes from the Syracuse winters. He cracks up retelling the story of him spilling a water cooler on the floor during a timeout of a game, prompting a stern pointed finger to John's wife, Kathleen, in the stands.
Until his current 12-season run at Michigan, John Beilein spent more time at Le Moyne College than any other of his seven stops as a head coach, an ascent that began in high school and built through JUCO, Division III, Division II and three Division I stops before Michigan.
There's an endearing symmetry to Patrick Beilein, 35, making his coaching name at a place where his family's name means so much. On Sunday, Le Moyne made the Division II NCAA tournament for the third consecutive time under Beilein. It will mark the first time the school reached three consecutive NCAAs since 1966, when Patrick Beilein's great uncle, Tom Niland, was the coach.
Patrick Beilein's tenure at Le Moyne has started with a distinctly better trajectory than his father's. He led the school to its first Elite Eight last season, set the school record for wins (27) and even won an exhibition game at Division I Siena College. Until Patrick Beilein arrived, the school hadn't won 20 games in back-to-back seasons or an NCAA tournament game since his father's tenure.
There's alignment in the family narrative as well. Patrick Beilein's wife, Kristen, is the daughter of the Le Moyne women's lacrosse coach, Kathy Taylor, who won the national title last season. (Kristen Beilein coaches a local high school team with her sister.) Just like when he was a newborn when his father arrived at Le Moyne, Patrick and Kristen have a 1 year old, Thomas, of their own.
"It's déjà vu a little bit here," said John Beilein in a phone interview with Yahoo Sports. "He's a similar age to me when I was there and able to do some of the same things. He and Kristen are living the same life we were living."
It should come as no surprise that Patrick Beilein's Le Moyne College teams look and feel like the Michigan, West Virginia and Richmond teams that fans have become familiar with the past two decades. There's a two-guard offense with a pair of ball handlers, and the center is often removed from the paint and utilized as a playmaker. There's more intricate cutting than a Hibachi dinner. There's an emphasis on ball movement that would make Norman Dale smile.
"Patrick's team plays very similar to what John does at Michigan and did at West Virginia, Richmond and Canisius," said Herb Magee, the Hall of Fame coach at Jefferson who has coached against both. "They play the right way."
And, of course, there are plays. Lots of set plays. While father and son estimate about half of Patrick Beilein's repertoire is cribbed from dad, the best way to describe it may be philosophical overlap with organic evolution. He knows the comparisons are inevitable and embraces them.
"As I look to grow my coaching career, I hope I can be as successful as he is with the way you rebuild programs and doing things the right way," said Patrick Beilein in a recent interview outside Le Moyne's renovated gymnasium.
To figure out how Patrick Beilein became the country's most coveted Division II coach, the story starts where his life did. The Beilein family planted their roots in the Syracuse area for nine years in 1983, buying a starter home in the Eastwood area – "no driveway," John recalls – before having the final two of their four children and moving to the town of Minoa, east of the city. John Beilein made $22,000 a year, landing the job without his uncle, who was the athletic director, telling anyone they were related. (He did after Beilein was chosen, to be sure there were no nepotism concerns.)
The family's basketball history can also be told on the playsheet, folded and rumpled from a recent Le Moyne College game, that offers an impromptu glimpse into the intricacies that have evolved from his father. They have fun names – Best Play Ever, Double Quickie Potato, Double Spider, Five Canada – and offer a roadmap through his father's career. Each play has a story from a stop along the way, like time-capsule items from a coaching dossier passed on like family heirlooms.
John Beilein called Double Spider for former Richmond (Spider) point guard Scott Ungerer to initiate the offense, Best Play Ever to clear space for former West Virginia guard Drew Schifino and Five Canada to create shots for sharp-shooting Canadian Nik Stauskas. They were invented and tweaked through fits of both necessity and creativity – often both – as John Beilein worked his way up every rung on the basketball ladder.
And now Patrick Beilein has added his own twists, pulling out a tattered game call sheet with 93 different play calls, divided into five subsets. There are 17 plays highlighted in yellow, indicating that he'd call them against defenses that hedge ball screens. There are 19 highlighted in green, which means he'd call them against a switching defense. Patrick Beilein gets giddy as he walks through the family history on the sheet, the circle of life wrapped through the screens and cuts of Double Quickie Potato. "Kind of making my own," he said.
In Patrick Beilein's four seasons, perhaps his biggest lesson has been building a culture to complement the strategy. This season, Beilein's Dolphins have 11 transfers on a 13-man roster, led by leading scorer Kobi Nwandu (16.8) from Division II East Stroudsburg. No. 3 seed Le Moyne will play No. 6 seed St. Thomas Aquinas in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Saturday.
The emphasis on culture begins with daily breakfast checks and ends with each player required to call Beilein at 11 p.m. on the night before home games to let him know they're headed to bed. He begins each season by teaching the players how to hang their gear in the locker room. It carries over to practice, where fundamentals like catching on two feet are drilled with dedication. Each Dolphin is required to make 100 free throws every day and chart how many shots it took to get there. (Le Moyne, not surprisingly, is No. 1 nationally with an 81.9 percent free-throw percentage.)
Le Moyne players take their hats and headphones off when they enter buildings, and eye contact is required. "It's the little things," said Patrick Beilein, echoing his mantra. "Do the right thing because it's the right thing to do."
Patrick is 77-39 through his four seasons (66.3 percent), and John went 73-43 (62.9 percent) in his first four years at Le Moyne. It took John Beilein five years to reach the NCAA tournament, his lone appearance in nine seasons. (Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim famously called administrators at Canisius when that job opened and told them they'd be crazy not to hire John Beilein.) With both entering high-stakes March games, father and son watch or listen to each other's games and trade notes, with Patrick downloading Michigan games for bus trips while John listens. "We can get it on the computer," John said. "What's that called? Streaming it?"
Patrick Beilein's shot at a Division I gig appears imminent, especially in a coaching cycle that should be viewed through the prism of the federal basketball corruption cases shrouding the sport. The last name Beilein is synonymous with tactical nuance and is about as controversial as vanilla wafers.
Patrick Beilein turned down the chance to take Division I gigs at both Marist and Bryant last year, with the March arrival of Thomas complicating the hiring process and nudging the family to the comforts of another year at home. He also has a firm appreciation of his surroundings at Le Moyne. From the appearance of Tom Niland, son of the legendary coach with the same name, in his office every day to all those memories walking through the boiler room. Le Moyne athletic director Matt Bassett said Beilein's greatest asset has been integrating with the tight-knit athletic department, as Beilein's ability to blend in has stood out.
"He's just got a lot to offer beyond just being a basketball coach to the community and campus he ends up on," Bassett said. "I'd like to think that had something to do with him staying for another year here."
Bassett, who was a graduate assistant on Boeheim's 1987 Final Four team, hired Patrick Beilein and has relished his growth as a coach. He sees Beilein's decision to stick around as a sign of his comfort, something that indicates confidence and maturity. Bassett has also relished the family connection, bonding three generations and, of course, projecting the fourth.
"It adds to the joy," Bassett said. "It really does, because that family is still here and supportive, so the lineage is constantly connected. It's not lost on us. We joked when little Tommy was born that he'd be the next little Beilein up here coaching."
Perhaps Quadruple Dolphin ends up on a Le Moyne play sheet in 2049.
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