First-year Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Beilein left the team on Tuesday night, according to reports, making the former Michigan head coach one of the biggest names to watch in the upcoming 2020 college basketball coaching carousel.
In 12 seasons at Michigan, Beilein compiled a 278-150 (.650) record, including nine NCAA tournament appearances and national runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2018. He previously served as head coach at West Virginia, Richmond and Canisius.
Beilein, 67, has a proven track record of success as a coach with a .637 career winning percentage, having won at least 150 games and made the NCAA tournament at each of his four Division I stops.
But if Beilein pursues another head coaching gig at the college level, he could be an unprecedented hire. Once again, that's if he even wants to continue coaching and chooses to do so at the college level.
Since the offseason prior to the NCAA tournament expanding to 64 teams in the 1984-85 season (one of the clear cut-off points if you're trying to identify the "modern era" of college basketball), there have been 297 full-time head coaches hired in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.
None have been older than 61 – Cal hiring Mike Montgomery in 2008, Miami (FL) hiring Jim Larranaga in 2011 and Texas Tech hiring Tubby Smith in 2013.
Those three coaches had varying degrees of success. Only Larranaga is still in his post. He has a 297-188 record in nine seasons in Coral Gables, including four NCAA tournament appearances and a sweep of the ACC regular season and conference tournament titles in 2013.
(Save your "The ACC doesn't have a regular season championship" comments, I'm trying to compliment to Larranaga here.)
Smith spent three seasons in Lubbock, where his teams went a combined 46-50, culminating in a 19-13 season and NCAA tournament in 2016 before he left for Memphis.
Montgomery was Cal's head coach for six seasons, where he went 203-130 with four NCAA tournament appearances and a regular season championship in 2010.
On average since the 1984 offseason, full-time men's basketball head coaching hires at schools that currently compete at the Power Five level in football have been 43.8 years old, almost a quarter-century younger than Beilein.
It's not that coaches can't have success into their 60s.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski won the 2015 national championship at 68 years old, as did former UConn coach Jim Calhoun in 2011. Both coaches won multiple national titles in their 60s.
John Wooden won his last at 64, Lute Olson and Dean Smith won at 62 and Rick Pitino won Louisville's since-vacated 2013 title at 60 years old.
It's not a question of if a coach at that age win. It's a matter of the viability, or at least willingness of an administration, of starting a new era at a program with a coach who's tenure will admittedly be operating on a much shorter timeframe than, say, Alabama's Nate Oats (hired last offseason at age 44), or Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg, Michigan's Juwan Howard or Texas A&M's Buzz Williams at 46 years old.
Just for perspective, Michigan's hiring of John Beilein in 2007 is tied for the 27th-oldest coaching hire among the 297 coaching hires examined.
Beilein was 54.
West Virginia's hiring of Beilein in 2002 (49 years old) is tied for the 64th-oldest coaching hire among the data set analyzed and ranks in the oldest 25 percent of coaching hires examined.
To add more context to this analysis, power conference coaching hires have skewed older in recent years. The following data table shows rolling five-year averages for the seasons listed, plus the previous four years, for men's basketball coaches hired in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.
In 12 seasons at Michigan, Beilein compiled a 278-150 (.650) record, including nine NCAA tournament appearances and national runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2018. He previously served as head coach at West Virginia, Richmond and Canisius.
Beilein, 67, has a proven track record of success as a coach with a .637 career winning percentage, having won at least 150 games and made the NCAA tournament at each of his four Division I stops.
But if Beilein pursues another head coaching gig at the college level, he could be an unprecedented hire. Once again, that's if he even wants to continue coaching and chooses to do so at the college level.
Since the offseason prior to the NCAA tournament expanding to 64 teams in the 1984-85 season (one of the clear cut-off points if you're trying to identify the "modern era" of college basketball), there have been 297 full-time head coaches hired in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.
None have been older than 61 – Cal hiring Mike Montgomery in 2008, Miami (FL) hiring Jim Larranaga in 2011 and Texas Tech hiring Tubby Smith in 2013.
Those three coaches had varying degrees of success. Only Larranaga is still in his post. He has a 297-188 record in nine seasons in Coral Gables, including four NCAA tournament appearances and a sweep of the ACC regular season and conference tournament titles in 2013.
(Save your "The ACC doesn't have a regular season championship" comments, I'm trying to compliment to Larranaga here.)
Smith spent three seasons in Lubbock, where his teams went a combined 46-50, culminating in a 19-13 season and NCAA tournament in 2016 before he left for Memphis.
Montgomery was Cal's head coach for six seasons, where he went 203-130 with four NCAA tournament appearances and a regular season championship in 2010.
On average since the 1984 offseason, full-time men's basketball head coaching hires at schools that currently compete at the Power Five level in football have been 43.8 years old, almost a quarter-century younger than Beilein.
It's not that coaches can't have success into their 60s.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski won the 2015 national championship at 68 years old, as did former UConn coach Jim Calhoun in 2011. Both coaches won multiple national titles in their 60s.
John Wooden won his last at 64, Lute Olson and Dean Smith won at 62 and Rick Pitino won Louisville's since-vacated 2013 title at 60 years old.
It's not a question of if a coach at that age win. It's a matter of the viability, or at least willingness of an administration, of starting a new era at a program with a coach who's tenure will admittedly be operating on a much shorter timeframe than, say, Alabama's Nate Oats (hired last offseason at age 44), or Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg, Michigan's Juwan Howard or Texas A&M's Buzz Williams at 46 years old.
Just for perspective, Michigan's hiring of John Beilein in 2007 is tied for the 27th-oldest coaching hire among the 297 coaching hires examined.
Beilein was 54.
West Virginia's hiring of Beilein in 2002 (49 years old) is tied for the 64th-oldest coaching hire among the data set analyzed and ranks in the oldest 25 percent of coaching hires examined.
To add more context to this analysis, power conference coaching hires have skewed older in recent years. The following data table shows rolling five-year averages for the seasons listed, plus the previous four years, for men's basketball coaches hired in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.
As you can see in the table above, the average age of coaching hires in the last five years is roughly five years older than it was from 1985-89.
If there was ever a time for an athletic director and supporters of a men's basketball program to be willing to hire a coach with a smaller coaching window, the data above suggests that time is now. Plus, despite Beilein's short tenure with the Cavaliers, you don't have to scan far down his resume to find his best work.
He's just two years removed from playing for a national title and in his final six years at Michigan, he had three teams that ranked in the top five nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and a different team that ranked in the top five defensively.
When Beilein was hired at Canisius in 1997, he was in the fat part of the bell curve in terms of how old men's basketball coaches are when they're hired at a school that competes at the Power Five level in football.
Sure, Canisius is in the MAAC but you get my point. He was 39 then.
The table below shows the complete data set for the 297 full-time men's basketball coaches hired between 1984 and 2019 by a school that's currently in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 or SEC. Note that in a few cases when a coach was born in late March or early April, his listed age when hired might be a year off in either direction if his exact hiring date couldn't be confirmed.
If there was ever a time for an athletic director and supporters of a men's basketball program to be willing to hire a coach with a smaller coaching window, the data above suggests that time is now. Plus, despite Beilein's short tenure with the Cavaliers, you don't have to scan far down his resume to find his best work.
He's just two years removed from playing for a national title and in his final six years at Michigan, he had three teams that ranked in the top five nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and a different team that ranked in the top five defensively.
When Beilein was hired at Canisius in 1997, he was in the fat part of the bell curve in terms of how old men's basketball coaches are when they're hired at a school that competes at the Power Five level in football.
Sure, Canisius is in the MAAC but you get my point. He was 39 then.
The table below shows the complete data set for the 297 full-time men's basketball coaches hired between 1984 and 2019 by a school that's currently in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 or SEC. Note that in a few cases when a coach was born in late March or early April, his listed age when hired might be a year off in either direction if his exact hiring date couldn't be confirmed.
Age is just one factor of many when decision-makers do their due diligence on a potential coaching hire. You could make the case that a potentially short stint for Beilein – say, four to seven years? – at a fifth Division I school isn't even the biggest potential concern for an athletic director evaluating the prospects of hiring Beilein.
But as the 2020 college basketball coaching carousel picks up speed in the coming weeks and months, it's interesting to observe that since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, there have been almost as many head coaches hired by current ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC schools that have been less than half of Beilein's current age (16 who were 33 or younger) as there were who were within a decade of his current age (18 who were 57 or older), and the oldest were six years younger than Beilein is today.
But as the 2020 college basketball coaching carousel picks up speed in the coming weeks and months, it's interesting to observe that since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, there have been almost as many head coaches hired by current ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC schools that have been less than half of Beilein's current age (16 who were 33 or younger) as there were who were within a decade of his current age (18 who were 57 or older), and the oldest were six years younger than Beilein is today.