Don Beck (born June 2, 1953)[1] is an American professional basketball coach.
 Beck coaching Toyama Grouses in 2018 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 2, 1953 New York City, New York, United States |
| Position | Coach |
| Coaching career | 1978–present |
| Career history | |
| As coach: | |
| 1978–1979 | Santa Barbara CC (assistant) |
| 1979–1980 | Santa Barbara CC (women) |
| 1981–1985 | Bentley (assistant) |
| 1985–1986 | Rutgers (assistant) |
| 1986–1990 | Fresno State (assistant) |
| 1990 | Fresno State (interim co-head coach) |
| 1992–1994 | Oostende |
| 1994–2001 | TVG Trier |
| 2001–2007 | EWE Baskets Oldenburg |
| 2002 | Luxembourg |
| 2007–2009 | Euphony Bree |
| 2009–2010 | EiffelTowers Den Bosch |
| 2010–2015 | Toyota Alvark |
| 2015–2018 | Toyota Antelopes |
| 2018–2020 | Toyama Grouses |
| 2021–2022 | Kumamoto Volters |
| 2023–2024 | Gladiators Trier |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Career
editA 1975 Quinnipiac University graduate,[2] Beck began his career on the sideline as assistant coach at Santa Barbara City College in 1978, before taking his first head coach position at Santa Barbara City College in 1979, where he coached the women's team during the 1979-80 season.[3] Other assistant coach stints came at Bentley College (1981–85),[4] Rutgers University (1985–86)[2] and Fresno State University (1986–90). In March 1990, when head coach Ron Adams was released, Beck and Frank Carbajal were named Fresno State's interim co-head coaches for the remainder of the 1989-90 campaign.[5]
In 1992, Beck was named head coach of Sunair Oostende, a first-division team from Belgium.
During his seven-year tenure at German Basketball Bundesliga side TVG Trier (1994–2001), Beck guided the team to two German Cup titles (1998 and 2001) and a trip to the Bundesliga semifinals in 1998.[6] In 2001, Beck took the reins at fellow Bundesliga team EWE Baskets Oldenburg, where he worked until May 2007. In the summer of 2002, he served a four-month stint as head coach of the Luxembourg men's national team.[7]
After parting ways with Oldenburg, Beck was named head coach of Euphony Bree of Belgium in 2007, where he stayed until January 2009[8] and served as head coach of the Eiffel Towers Den Bosch,[9] a member of the Dutch top-flight Eredivisie, from January 2009 to April 2010, winning the Dutch cup competition in 2009.[10]
From 2010 to 2015, Beck was at the helm of Japanese side Toyota Alvark. He received JBL Coach of the Year honors in the 2011–12 season after guiding the team to a championship title and led Alvark to a second-place finish in 2014–15.[11] He served as head coach of the Toyota Antelopes in the Women's Japan Basketball League from 2015 to 2018 and then accepted the head coaching job with the Toyama Grouses of Japan's B.League in July 2018.[12] He coached the Toyoma team until 2020. In May 2021, he was named head coach of the Kumamoto Volters of Japan's B2 league.[13] Beck coached the team in the 2021-22 season.[14]
On May 11, 2023, German ProA side Gladiators Trier announced the appointment of Don Beck as the club's new head coach. Beck returned to the town, where he had worked from 1994 until 2001.[15] In the 2023-24 season, his Trier team fell just short of winning promotion to the German top-tier Bundesliga, dropping the ProA semi-final series in five games.[16] Beck stepped down after one season at the helm of the Gladiators and was appointed the team's President of Basketball Operations.[17]
Head coaching record
edit| Regular season | G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L % | Win–loss % |
| Playoffs | PG | Playoff games | PW | Playoff wins | PL | Playoff losses | PW–L % | Playoff win–loss % |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Alvark | 2010–11 | 36 | 23 | 13 | .639 | 3rd in JBL | - | - | - | – | - |
| Toyota Alvark | 2011–12 | 42 | 29 | 13 | .690 | 2nd in JBL | 6 | 5 | 1 | .833 | JBL champions |
| Toyota Alvark | 2012–13 | 42 | 32 | 10 | .762 | 2nd in JBL | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | 3rd place |
| Toyota Alvark | 2013–14 | 54 | 45 | 9 | .833 | 2nd in NBL-E | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 | 3rd place |
| Toyota Alvark | 2014–15 | 54 | 40 | 14 | .741 | 3rd in NBL-E | 9 | 5 | 4 | .556 | Runners-up in NBL |
| Toyama Grouses | 2018–19 | 60 | 32 | 28 | .533 | 3rd in Central | 2 | 0 | 2 | .000 | Lost in 1st round |
| Toyama Grouses | 2019–20 | 41 | 17 | 24 | .415 | 3rd in Central | - | - | - | – | - |
References
edit- ^ "Don Beck". FIBA Europe. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
- ^ a b "Perrin, Beck supply FSU with youthful coaching". The Daily Collegian. 1986-10-23. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ^ "Women's Basketball Yearly Records". Santa Barbara City College. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ^ "They coached them". Bentley University Men's Basketball History & Record Book. 2014. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ^ "Adams out as head men's hoop coach". The Daily Collegian. 1990-03-01. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ^ "Serie zum TBB-Jubiläum: Der amerikanische Trainer Don Beck als Glücksfall für die "Germanen"". www.volksfreund.de (in German). 10 December 2014. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
- ^ "Ehemaliger FLBB-Coach wird Alex Laurents Trainer". Luxemburger Wort (in German). 2023-05-11. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
- ^ "Don Beck verlaat Bree voor Den Bosch". De Standaard (in Flemish). Retrieved 2017-02-11.
- ^ "Don Beck (ex-Bree) aan de slag bij EiffelTowers Den Bosch". HLN. 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
- ^ "Eredivisie 2008-2009". eurobasket.com. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
- ^ Nagatsuka, Kaz (2015-10-18). "Beck, Oga looking to change women's basketball culture". The Japan Times Online. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
- ^ Odeven, Ed (2018-07-05). "Globetrotting Rick Rickert reaches end of the line after 15 seasons as pro player". The Japan Times Online. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
- ^ "B. League Teams Make Coaching Moves". japan-forward.com/. 2021-05-23. Archived from the original on 2021-05-23. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
- ^ "Don Beck". Asia-basket.com. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
- ^ "Don Beck is back! Erfolgreichster Trainer der Trierer Basketballgeschichte kehrt zurück". 5vier.de (in German). 2023-05-11. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
- ^ Fritzen, Marek (2024-05-27). "Playoff-Krimi: "Einer der bittersten Momente meiner Karriere": Gladiators verpassen den Aufstieg". Volksfreund (in German). Retrieved 2024-05-27.
- ^ "Erste Personalentscheidungen für die ProA-Saison 2024/25". Gladiators Trier (in German). 2024-05-31. Retrieved 2024-05-31.