Welcome back to the (new-look) Hoop Vision Weekly!
For the second week in a row, we’re coming to you on a Sunday; expect that cadence to continue for a while.
This week’s edition is a look back at John Beilein’s college coaching career; his evolution, his teams’ hallmarks, and some ideas around what he may bring to the Cleveland Cavaliers next season after 44(!) years as a college head coach.
Here for a good time AND a long time…
There have been 32 coaches who have been a head coach for a Division I program in all 20 seasons of this century. In other words, there are 32 men who have been leading a D1 program every single year since 2000 without a break.
The breakdown of this group:
11 coaches have spent all 20 of those seasons at one school: Bob McKillop, Fran O'Hanlon, Greg Kampe, James Jones, Jim Boeheim, Mark Few, Mike Krzyzewski, Mike McConathy, Phil Martelli, Rick Byrd, Tom Izzo
12 coaches have coached 20 seasons between two schools: Bill Herrion, Bob Marlin, Dana Altman, Fran Dunphy, Gregg Marshall, Jay Wright, Jim Larranaga, Joe Mihalich, Mike Brey, Rick Barnes, Ron Hunter, Roy Williams
Six coaches have done it splitting 20 seasons at three different schools: Bruce Weber, Ed DeChellis, Fran McCaffery, John Beilein, Steve Alford, Tommy Amaker
One coach has spread those 20 seasons between four schools: Mark Turgeon
One coach has coached at five schools across those 20 seasons: Tubby Smith
This streak will snap for several coaches in 2019-20.
After Belmont's Rick Byrd and Temple's Fran Dunphy both retired, Saint Joseph's Phil Martelli was fired, and Michigan's John Beilein left for the Cleveland Cavaliers, we’re down to 28 coaches who will have been at the helm of a program every year since 2000.
As Byrd and Beilein exit, the sport loses two of the most progressive offensive minds, particularly in terms of shot selection.
Of the 32 coaches listed above, Byrd and Beilein rank #1 and #2 over those 20 years in three-point attempts. For Byrd, 46-percent of his team’s shot attempts were threes, while 43-percent were threes for John Beilein (context: when looking at all 32 coaches, the average is 35%).
As he “goes pro,” Beilein leaves behind one of the more interesting statistical coaching profiles in all of college basketball. Year in and year out, you pretty much knew what you were getting from a Beilein offense.
When we look at the Four Factors, of those 32 coaches, Beilein ranked:
2nd in three-point rate (behind only Byrd, noted above)
1st in offensive turnover percentage
Second-to-last (#31) in rebounding percentage
Last (#32) in free throw rate
Basically, Beilein teams were — largely by design — either really good or really bad at the Four Factors. And those types of extremes are, at least in my opinion, one of the best parts about college basketball.
It's yet to make an appearance in a newsletter, but we've had plenty of Beilein related throwbacks since he took the Cavs job.
There was this Twitter thread, which highlighted the three sets that dominated Beilein's offensive scheme over the years - and how they changed over time.
And then — as these things sometimes go — that thread was turned into a 13-minute YouTube video breaking down why the changes Beilein has made over the year to his scheme (more ball screens, less zone) have prepared him for this next step with the Cavs.
(There's also quite a bit of time spent in this one breaking down West Virginia's 2005 Sweet 16 win over Bob Knight's Texas Tech.)
Lastly, to put a bow on all this Beilein talk - here's a newsletter exclusive for the X's and O's junkies, featuring another option out of Michigan's pin down play — an especially popular play for Beilein at Michigan when he had a sharpshooting point guard in Derrick Walton:
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