Beilein Official

You may have noticed this website is closely tracking the words out of a particular West Virginia scout board and the statements of a couple of insiders who proved their mettle in the recent Rich Rodriguez chaos. One of these insiders, EERhole, has just posted this:

West Virginia University has formally begun the search for a new basketball coach. Beilein has accepted Michigan's offer. I see no need in posting further details. The writing has been on the wall for a year.

Internet rumors? Perhaps. But given the oracular respect given EERhole based on his blow-by-blow accounts of the Rodriguez thing -- during which he was an outpost of positive news during a mass-media reported Alabama departure -- at the board, I think it's exceedingly likely that he is for real and that this is also. It's tough to reassemble the wavepattern months after the fact, but to have built that sort of trust he would have had to be on the inside during a time in which anyone faking it would have been swinging the other way. He's got the goods. IMO this is 95% of official and worth reporting as such.

I'm off to break down the NIT championship game.

UPDATE: Dude, that post totally went Keyser Soze on me: poof, like that it's gone. I was fortunate enough to still have it up and have archived it for posterity if anyone would like to see the original. I don't know if it was the site mods, who are liable to bring the hammer down when something like that leaks, or a voluntary withdrawal from EERhole. I do know that the other guy they rely on for information has added a couple notes:

Don't think the final salary offer from UM really matters so long as the buyout is taken care of... what I've been saying for a while. Sad really. Hope it changes.

And then what seems like an equivalent of the Soze post:

It's officially unofficial...

It is unofficial that it is official.

Whichever you prefer but I would with door #2 at this point.

I still think the announcement is almost certainly a formality at this point but you have all the information and can judge for yourself.

UPDATE II: EERhole popped up in another thread which came from a guy with one post purporting to have some inside info from the governor. The original guy said "Beilein rumor FWIW"; EER replied "not a rumor," so we can safely say that it was the site mods doing the nuking and so we're back to where we were before Keyser Soze. This concludes your skullduggery for the evening.

UPDATE III: Michigan boards lighting up with separate confirmation. We've got our guy. (Note link is to the premium Rivals board, where non-subscribers can read headers but not content. I think given the context the content is obvious.)

UPDATE IV: CBS Sportsline has it; Fox Sports has it.