John Beilein says he was never offered the Detroit Pistons‘ coaching job.
”I never really had to make the decision
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Beilein is now looking ahead to another season of college basketball after briefly emerging as a candidate for the Pistons. Not long after the news broke about Beilein’s talks with Detroit, he said he’d be back at Michigan . The Pistons eventually hired Dwane Casey earlier this month.
On Tuesday, Beilein held a news conference to talk about the offseason. He led Michigan to the national title game this year before falling to Villanova, so the possibility of losing Beilein to the NBA was a jolt to Wolverines fans.
”I was not offered the job by the Pistons,” Beilein said. ”We certainly had some mutual interest. I think they had a great candidate in Dwane Casey.”
Beilein said he was intrigued by the possibility of coaching in the game’s top league.
”I love coaching basketball a lot, and you’re watching the NBA playoffs, and you’re seeing what guys are doing, and you’re looking, like, they’re running stuff that we run,” Beilein said. ”I don’t know if they watched us or I watched them. You can see, boy, if you have really highly skilled players – (Boston Celtics coach) Brad Stevens kept telling me, `I’m having a blast.’ When you hear those words, and your season’s over – so that was appealing.”
With the Pistons’ search behind him
Tom Brady Jersey , Beilein can prepare for the 2018-19 season with the Wolverines. Michigan announced Tuesday that the team will go on a tour of Spain from Aug. 17-26 that will include exhibition games.
