John Beilein thought back to the days when he was a young head coach driving the vans at Erie Community College and Nazareth and Le Moyne in upstate New York.

Those teams would eat at Ponderosa on good nights, McDonald’s on others. He’d be the do-it-all guy, barely have assistant coaches and relied on himself and his players for everything.

The late 1970s and early 1980s are a long time ago - it’s been 33 seasons since Beilein first became a head coach. On Sunday, the Michigan basketball team beat Gardner-Webb, 80-58, for Beilein’s 600th victory - No. 525 at four-year schools.

“I have something from everything, I have the balls from maybe 250 and (400) and 500,” Beilein said. “We’re putting together this wall - because Erie Community College, Nazareth, Le Moyne - those are a big part of my coaching experience.

“It really helped our coaching staff and our players, because you go back to the mistakes you made when you were a 29-year-old coaching.”

Don’t expect Beilein to coach forever. Beilein, 57, has no plans on being here for 20 more years. He’s said he’d like to retire at Michigan.

And it won’t be as an octogenarian like Joe Paterno.

“No way,” Beilein said, laughing. “But God bless Joe, he does a wonderful job, but John Beilein will not be coaching that long.”

Bringing back the Fab Three/Fifths

(From left) Former Michigan basketball Fab Five members Ray Jackson, Jalen Rose and Jimmy King received plaques and varsity jackets as they were honored during halftime of the Legends Classic against Gardner-Webb on Sunday.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

As part of the Legends Classic tournament, Michigan brought back Fab Five members Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson for a halftime presentation.

The Legends Classic usually honors a past player at each of its host schools as part of the tournament promotion.

“A lot of people came to mind and with the work Jalen has done back in the city of Detroit now, he’s been one of those guys that you’ve seen quite often on campus,” Beilein said. “He’s come back, spoken, been a great friend of the program through thick and thin. And one of the things he wanted to do is why don’t we bring Ray and Jimmy with us, and they all came back.”

The group - as a fivesome including Juwan Howard and Chris Webber - has been together as a group once since they left Michigan at a charity event for Rose in Chicago in 2003.

Rose comes back to the school regularly, as does King. Jackson had been to just two games since he left Michigan.

Howard was not in attendance as he continues to play in the NBA with the Miami Heat and Webber is not allowed to be recognized by the school until NCAA sanctions run out.

In May 2003, the NCAA told Michigan to disassociate with Webber for 10 years stemming from the Ed Martin scandal.

Another game, another career-high Sophomore guard Darius Morris broke his personal single-game assist mark against Bowling Green on Thursday, recording 11 assists.

On Sunday, he took on his scoring, getting a career-high 21 points and breaking his previous mark of 17 set in the season-opener against USC Upstate.

Not that he’s thought about it.

“I don’t know,” Morris said. “Whatever happens, happens. I’m just out here trying to win each possession. I never know about numbers until after the game.”

This and that Michigan 2011 commit Trey Burke came up to Sunday’s game with his family. … Michigan shot 52.4 percent from the game. … Sunday’s officials were Frank Raposo, James Barker and John Gwynn. … Junior guard Zack Novak got a haircut, chopping off his mini-mop. He said he wanted to “change it up.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein