He was at West Virginia in the same capacity for five years. They were, by any standard, five successful years. He cleaned up the mess left by Gale Catlett. He took the Mountaineers to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances, including an Elite Eight berth in 2005. His team won an NIT title.

Then he left. Since then, Bob Huggins' teams have soared with four NCAA tournament appearances, a Sweet 16 spot and that memorable Final Four run.

Time flies when one is having fun, eh? Beilein has been gone that long?

The answer is yes. Gone and, to some degree, forgotten, save for when the Wolverines are on the tube. Beilein is also caught up in his own world, but on Tuesday I caught up with the former Mountaineer coach.

"Doing OK," Beilein said. "We have a young team - a young team still with only two seniors and [Darius] Morris gone [to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA draft]. We still have a long way to go."

That's Beilein, always wrapped around the team. The question asked was: How's it going? The coach, though, is slowly rebuilding UM's program from the charred remains of the Fab Five scandal of 20 years ago and subsequent NCAA punishment. Beilein had the Wolverines in the NCAA tournament last season for the second time in three years after the school missed the event for 11 straight years. This past March in the NCAA tourney, Michigan crushed Tennessee 75-45 before falling to Duke by 73-71.

In addition, 44-year-old Crisler Arena is getting a facelift. The coach has already landed a contract extension through 2016. (Earned, by the way, in the midst of the Rich Rodriguez turmoil.) And Beilein remains classy. Less than a week ago, he thanked UM's fans and university employees for supporting a high school basketball recruit, Austin Hatch, critically injured in a plane crash.

Of course, not all WVU fans look at Beilein as classy. The news he was leaving Morgantown wasn't received well. The coach then fought WVU over his buyout, eventually settling to pay $1.5 million via $300,000 installments every April through 2012. ("He has one payment left," said WVU deputy athletic director Mike Parsons. "It's never been an issue. He's always been on time.")

Beilein certainly seems to have no hard feelings. He was asked to sum up the experience taking into account both the success and the buyout fight.

"I had two sons graduate from West Virginia," said the coach. "I had five very special years there."

He chuckled.

"I miss Cheat Lake and my boat. Very fond memories of our time there."

In particular?

"I hate to even address that," Beilein said. "At West Virginia there were several memories, whether it was the [2003] win over Florida in Charleston or the [2005 Sweet 16 double-overtime] win over Wake Forest. The [2005 Elite Eight overtime] loss to Louisville still sticks out. There was the NIT championship.

"That Wake game ... I remember someone questioning our style of play and I said, 'Ever see Chris Paul's last college game? The score was 111-105.' And that was us. Sounds like we got up and down."

He pointed to WVU's two-year sweep of UCLA: Mike Gansey's decisive steal at Pauley Pavilion and Ted Talkington's lift in Morgantown to push the Mountaineers past the then-No. 2 Bruins. Also, he recalled WVU's 2005 sweep of Pittsburgh "with Kevin Pittsnogle shooting 3s."

"No one memory though," he said, "was more important than the other."

Beilein said the task at Michigan, where he is now 67-67, has been more difficult than rebuilding at West Virginia.

"Kids are committing earlier," said the coach. "At West Virginia, I was still able to get kids in April. We got J.D. Collins, Jo Herbert and Pat Beilein to add to Kevin Pittsnogle, who we inherited. We added D'or Fischer as a transfer. We could paint with our own brush.

"But here we've coached them through and recruited through. It's maybe a little later than at West Virginia, but in the same direction."

That direction has been up. In Morgantown, Huggins took over and continued the climb. And, yes, Beilein has been watching.

"They've done extremely well," said the Michigan coach. "It's a great accomplishment how well they've done the last few years."

Huggins is winning at a 70.6 percent clip at 101-42 in four seasons at his alma mater. Beilein was 104-60 (63.4 percent) in five seasons. It's tough to compare records because of schedule strength and teams inherited, but it's not tough to compare coaching styles. Could Beilein and Huggins be more different?

"I only know how I coach," Beilein said. "Both of us coach basketball and do the best we can. All I know is [Huggins] has won a lot of games."

A big difference, of course, is Huggins is a Mountain State product and returned to the hills often, whether he was coaching at Cincinnati or Kansas State. Beilein has few ties.

"I keep in touch with my former players a little, but otherwise I don't have much [contact with those in West Virginia]," said the UM coach. "I stay within where I'm at. I talk to Gansey and J.D. Collins and some of the guys. Tyrone Sally's mom called the other day.

"I just keep moving forward though."

Likewise, WVU has moved on. Mountaineer fans are happy with Huggins. And that's probably an understatement. "Thrilled" would probably be the more correct word.

But know Beilein is happy as well.

"This is Year Five [at Michigan]," he said. "And I love coaching as much as ever. There's no plan. It's just teaching and rebuilding.

"I have a great contract. I love being the coach at Michigan."

Seems his move worked out for all involved.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at twitter.com/MitchVingle.