John Beilein (2021) - Richmond Athletics Hall of Fame

John Beilein

Induction:
2021

With suit jacket off and sleeves rolled up, John Beilein went to work to rejuvenate the Richmond men’s basketball program. It didn’t take him long.

Inheriting four seniors who had never experienced a winning season, and meshing them with an upstart group of underclassmen, Beilein guided the Spiders to a 23-8 record in his inaugural season. It began with a thrilling double-overtime victory against Virginia in the Robins Center and climaxed with a Colonial Athletic Association championship and first round NCAA tournament victory as a number 14 seed over number three South Carolina. The winning was just beginning.

In five seasons, Beilein’s teams won 100 games. His Spider winning percentage of .654 is second only to Hall of Fame coach Dick Tarrant’s .655. The Spiders appeared in the postseason again in 2001 and 2002. Richmond beat West Virginia in the 2001 NIT and won at Minnesota in the 2002 NIT, before falling at home to Syracuse in the quarterfinals, in what turned out to be Beilein’s last game as Richmond coach.

Beilein also led the basketball transition from the CAA to the Atlantic 10. The Spiders won the CAA regular season title in their last year in the league with a 12-4 record, then finished second with an 11-5 mark in the school’s first year of A10 play, and challenged nationally-ranked Xavier in the championship game of the A10 tournament. His teams went 44-21 overall in those two seasons.

Among the players he coached, Greg Stevenson was twice named State Player of the Year, his brother Jarod CAA Player of the Year, Charles Stephens CAA Rookie of the Year and Darryl Oliver CAA Tournament MVP.

Beilein, who came to Richmond from Canisius, went on to coach at West Virginia and Michigan. He became the Wolverines all-time winningest coach while guiding them to two Final Fours with two national championship game appearances.