CLEVELAND — John Beilein’s tenure as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers appears to be coming to an end less than one year after the former University of Michigan Wolverines leader was hired to replace interim coach Larry Drew.
According to Jason Lloyd and Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Cavaliers and Beilein are “in advanced talks about parting ways by Wednesday.” They further reported that Beilein would be “walking away from the remainder of his contract.”
Beilein signed a five-year deal to coach the Cavaliers back in May of 2019.
Lloyd and Charania’s story came one day after ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst reported that Beilein was meeting with team management and a decision on his future was expected in the next 24-48 hours.
Currently, the Cavaliers are 14-40 (.259 winning percentage), 9.5 games out of the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference standings. Coming out of the NBA All-Star Game break, the Cavaliers have the worst record in the Eastern Conference.
The Cavaliers are 2.5 games behind the Golden State Warriors for the worst record in the entire NBA, just two seasons after the franchises met in The Finals for the fourth consecutive year.
Beilein was an unexpected hire of the Cavaliers this past offseason after spending in his nearly three-decade college coaching career.
While leading Michigan for 12 years, Beilein posted a 278-150 record with nine winning seasons, three 30-win campaigns, two Big Ten Conference Tournament championships, two conference regular-season titles and nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
Overall, Beilein had a 571-325 career record (.637 winning percentage) in his 27-year career at the NCAA Division I level, and his rate of winning was equally impressive in the NCAA Tournament.
Beilein guided his teams to a 26-13 record and twice took the Wolverines to the Final Four.
During the 2018 NCAA Tournament, Beilein’s Wolverines defeated Florida State in the West Regional Final and Loyola-Chicago in the national semifinals before falling to the vaunted Villanova Wildcats in the NCAA Championship Game.
In addition to the NCAA Tournament appearances, Beilein guided West Virginia to the 2007 NIT (National Invitational Tournament) Championship.