AUBURN HILLS -- Stan Van Gundy can still recall the first time he crossed paths with John Beilein.
It was 1981 and Van Gundy, still green in the college coaching game, was an assistant at the University of Vermont. Beilein was the head coach at Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York.
Van Gundy - now president of basketball operations and coach of the Detroit Pistons - had made the trek to Buffalo.
"I was trying to recruit one of his guys," Van Gundy said Monday after practice. "I was recruiting one of his guys. So, that's where I got to know him.