The biggest news of the Michigan men’s basketball team’s offseason was made official on Wednesday, as coach John Beilein and athletic director Warde Manuel agreed on a contract extension through the 2022-2023 season.
The five-year deal will automatically extend by one additional year after each season, barring either the University or Beilein deciding not to renew. Financial terms of the deal were not announced, but The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn reported in June that Beilein is expected to receive a raise from his current salary of $3.37 million.
“I am thrilled to ensure John’s leadership of our basketball program today and into the future,” Manuel said in a statement Wednesday. “I am very pleased with our shared dialog throughout the process, and I am extremely happy that one of the game’s great coaches is representing the University of Michigan.”
Earlier this offseason, Beilein interviewed with the Detroit Pistons, who were searching to fill their head coaching vacancy, and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that he was one of the Pistons’ top three candidates. However, on June 6, Beilein took himself out of consideration, stating via Twitter that he was excited to coach the Wolverines for years to come.
The contract’s “rollover” clause essentially means that Beilein, 65, will remain the Wolverines’ head coach until he retires — the ultimate affirmation of the commitment he made last month, when he spurned the bright lights of the NBA in favor of the program that he has steadily built over the last 11 seasons.
“I am grateful for the opportunity the University of Michigan has given to me over the past 11 years,” Beilein said in a statement Wednesday. “Kathleen and I love Ann Arbor, our University, our fans and the state of Michigan. We will continue to work very hard in the future to have our basketball team reflect the greatness of this University. I thank Mark Schlissel and Warde Manuel for their faith and commitment to our coaching staff and basketball program. The future of men’s basketball is bright and I am excited to be a part of it.”
In 2007, Beilein arrived in Ann Arbor, looking to lead a struggling Michigan program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. He accomplished that his second season. Since then, he has missed the Big Dance just twice.
Along the way, Beilein has won 249 games — the most of any coach in Wolverines history — to go with two Big Ten regular season titles, two Big Ten Tournament titles and two Final Four appearances. The last of these came this season, in which Michigan won a school-record 33 games, including a 14-game winning streak en route to an unlikely appearance in the national championship game.
Between the 200-plus wins, eight NCAA Tournament appearances, and eight NBA draft picks he has produced, Beilein’s legacy is just about unassailable. This fall, he will welcome to Ann Arbor perhaps his most talented recruiting class ever, highlighted by four-star recruits Ignas Brazdeikis, Brandon Johns and David DeJulius, and earlier this summer he secured a commitment from 2019 wing Jalen Wilson — Michigan’s highest-ranked recruit since Kam Chatman in 2014.
Beilein’s Wolverine tenure has been marked by incredible consistency — both in terms of offensive scheme and an uncanny ability to spin gold out of unheralded recruits, turning Michigan into one of the most easily identifiable programs in college basketball. And if the next few years go according to plan, that consistency should only continue.