8 — Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The architect of Michigan’s new identity
Zavier Simpson had heard
Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon’s
name a few too many times that
week.
Resting
against
the
wall
outside the locker room of the
emptied Carver-Hawkeye Arena
following Michigan’s 75-68 win
over Iowa, Simpson made that
abundantly clear.
“Defense is a pride thing in
my opinion,” Simpson said with
a straight stare and a stern tone.
“I knew Bohannon was good.
The coaches love Bohannon,
to the point where it started to
become annoying. … Bohannon,
Bohannon, Bohannon.”
At
the
16
minute
mark,
he
heard
the
voice
again:
“Bohannon.”
At
the
18-minute
mark,
“Bohannon.”
The
35
minute
mark?
“Bohannon.”
But defense being a source
of vehement pride is nothing
new for Simpson. Teammates
frequently use the word “dog” as
their endearing way to describe
him. That mindset alone has
often been his path to playing
time, even when his offensive
production sputters. He’ll grab
any opportunity he can get to
tell you he takes every defensive
matchup personally, and that
you should too.
“I felt like it’s a disease,”
Simpson said, “so it can spread.”
That bird in his ear? The one
that drove Simpson to near
insanity on a frigid January
night in rural Iowa? The one
that compelled him to shut
down Jordan Bohannon and
then therapeutically grumble his
name into submission afterward?
That was Luke Yaklich.
That disease?
Oh, it’s spread all right. Like
wildfire.
***
When
Yaklich
approached
Joliet
West
High
athletic
director Steven Millsaps about
a collegiate coaching offer in
2013, Millsaps wasn’t surprised.
“Luke’s such a student of
the game,” Millsaps said in a
phone interview last week. “I
remember clear as day, when
he was talking to me, we came
off a pretty good season when
he came to me and talked to me
about he got offered to go be at
Illinois State.
“He was very unsure —
obviously that’s a big jump.”
Yaklich
was
comfortable
at Joliet West. He had built
a successful basketball team
and was thriving as a history
teacher and content specialist,
overseeing many of his peers
on staff and implementing a
program called “Teach Like a
Champion.” His family was a
staple in the Joliet community,
with
his
son
Griffin
even
emerging into a talented young
basketball player himself.
“Teaching is a pretty good
gig,” Millsaps said. “We all
think we’re going to be in our
positions the entire time. Then
opportunity and life takes you
in other places.”
For Yaklich, life took him to
Illinois State, a program that
was 21-33 in conference play
the three years prior and, more
pertinent to Yaklich, a middling
defensive team even in its better
seasons. Yaklich was a coach
who ran a man-to-man scheme,
heading off to a program that
ran a 2-3 zone.
“You
have
to
design
a
system that best allows your
players to be successful given
their
personal
strengths
as
defensive
players,”
Yaklich
said recently. “You are looking
at your opponent’s strengths,
your own player’s strengths and
sometimes the sum of the parts
is greater than the whole.”
He took a group of parts at
Illinois State and undeniably
made them a greater whole,
branding a hard-nosed defensive
identity with a roster that
seemed hardly conducive for
such. Last season the Redbirds
had only one player taller than
6-foot-9, and he played just 12
games.
In his four seasons at Illinois
State, Yaklich led a resurgent
Redbirds defense, capping off
his tenure with an adjusted
defensive efficiency that ranked
19th in the country last season.
This
offseason,
when
Michigan coach John Beilein
was left scrambling to fill
two assistant coach positions
—
including
Billy
Donlon,
his
defensive
confidant
—
he sought assertiveness. He
wanted a defensive voice that
could command a gym in one
moment, and calmly instruct an
individual player in the next.
Yaklich
was
eager
and
qualified to oblige.
And he knew both he and
Beilein — both former teachers
—
shared
a
philosophical
wavelength in that regard.
But Yaklich wasn’t going
to
passively
wait
out
the
exhaustive hiring process. He
wanted to take matters into his
own hands.
“We didn’t know each other,”
Yaklich said. “So one of the
things (Beilein) wanted to know,
he used to always say, ‘Do you
have that voice? Do you have
command?’ ”
Yaklich instructed a video
staff member at Illinois State
to send him clips from practice
showing him in action, which
he then relayed to Beilein.
Player film is one thing. This
was coaching film. Beilein’s
skepticism
vanished
shortly
after.
“He goes, ‘Is that how you are
all the time?’ ” Yaklich recalled.
“It was a great line. I said, ‘Yes,
Coach. I’m comfortable between
the
lines
and
comfortable
teaching.’ … I knew when he
asked me that question, I said,
‘Man, if that’s the hangup, I
think I’ll be able to make a good
impression there in the first
couple days.’ ”
***
Yaklich was hired last August,
along with another Illinois State
assistant,
Deandre
Haynes.
Yaklich
instantly
immersed
himself in tape from previous
seasons. By the time the team’s
media day rolled around, he was
able to discuss, in length, the
team’s defensive strengths and
weaknesses, how he hoped to
deploy individual players and
tangible goals for the defense he
had already begun build.
In practice, his entire focus
was on the defensive side of
the ball, allowing Beilein the
freedom to work with individual
players.
“(Defense is) all he thinks
about,” Beilein said on Feb. 2,
the day before the Wolverines
played
Minnesota.
“That’s
really good for our coaching
staff. As a head coach you’ve got
to think of everything, but when
I’ve got a guy who doesn’t care
what we’re doing offensively —
he does care, but he (doesn’t)
worry about that — keeps me on
point toward what we have to
do. … We do almost everything
he suggests.”
Just 24 hours later, Yaklich
would make one his boldest
suggestions of the season.
The Wolverines trailed the
Golden Gophers 50-40 with
11 minutes left, as Minnesota
guards
Nate
Mason
and
Isaiah
Washington
made
Crisler Center their personal
playground. Yaklich implored
Beilein to unleash a previously
unused zone. It was a zone
Beilein
said
they
practiced
“every other day,” but had yet to
use. In the heat of the moment,
with an upset loss staring them
in the face, Yaklich decided the
time was right.
Minnesota went over three
minutes before scoring next,
allowing a sluggish Michigan
offense to regain its footing.
Over the next eight minutes,
the Wolverines strung together
a 17-6 run, capturing the lead.
They finished the game in the
zone, pulling out a 76-73 win in
overtime.
“That was Luke Yaklich all
the way,” Beilein said after the
game.
Before
Yaklich
arrived,
Michigan had never finished
higher than 37th in adjusted
defensive
efficiency
in
the
Beilein
era.
This
year
the
Wolverines are 25th.
They
didn’t
do
it
by
reinventing the wheel, either.
Yaklich came in wanting to
rebound at an elite rate and
contest every shot.
“You
can’t
emphasize
everything
defensively,
you
have to hang your hat on one or
two things,” Yaklich said. “You
have to be able to guard the
dribble and rebound the first
shot. I think those two things
take you a long way in February
and March.”
Check and check.
Yaklich
inherited
a
historically poor rebounding
program — and a frontcourt
with
plenty
of
rebounding
deficiencies.
He
aimed
to
have a defensive rebounding
percentage over 75 percent. The
team’s
defensive
rebounding
percentage currently sits 13th
nationally at 78.8 percent. The
previous best in the Beilein era
was 2015, when the Wolverines
finished 49th nationally at 75.6
percent.
Michigan is also allowing just
63.7 points per game, the fewest
the Wolverines have averaged
since the 2012-2013 national
runner-up, when the shot clock
was 35 seconds.
The
prudent
defensive
adjustment against Minnesota
was “Luke Yaklich all the
way.” And maybe this is all
Luke Yaklich. Maybe this is the
emergence of a future high-
end head coach. Maybe — just
maybe
—
Beilein
stumbled
upon one of the pre-eminent
defensive minds in the small
town of Normal, Illinois.
***
Yaklich cracks a wry smile,
breaking through his even-
keeled demeananor when he
hears the story about Simpson
and Bohannon. He can’t help
himself.
“X is great,” he says, before
jolting
back
into
character,
diving
into
a
psychological
breakdown of his defensive
mentality.
Yaklich
doesn’t
say
whether
the
Bohannon
saturation was an intentional
motivational tactic. He doesn’t
have to.
“(Simpson) brings it each and
every night, and I’m glad he
takes some of those challenges
from
the
coaching
staff
personally.”
Simpson
is
a
player
engineered to play for Yaklich.
But while there’s a degree
of predictability in a close
relationship between the most
avid
defensive
competitor
and the de facto “defensive
coordinator,” the rest of the
team came into the season with
defensive questions littering the
roster.
Yaklich’s
biggest
accomplishment
doesn’t
rest
in an uber-motivated Simpson,
but in a team-wide attitude
shift. Michigan has had elite
defenders under Beilein — D.J.
Wilson, Jordan Morgan and
Zack Novak spring to mind.
But it’s not simply a rarity for
a Beilein-led Michigan squad
to have an elite team defense.
It has never had an elite team
defense.
“We
were
either
pretty
good offensively or bad in both
(offense and defense),” said
former
Michigan
basketball
player Anthony Wright in a
phone interview. Wright played
under Beilein from 2007-2010.
“Before, Beilein would always
say, ‘Hey, look, you may have
a mismatch when we have to
guard bigger guys, but they’re
going to have to guard you, too.’
That was the mindset.”
That transformation extends
far beyond some overhaul of
the previous system or grand
change in scheme. This has
been about a renewed emphasis
and hyperfocus, not exhaustive
change.
For the players, the attitude
comes with a dose of direspect
and
a
modicum
of
talent
compensation.
“We may not have the same
talent offensively as years past,”
said senior guard Muhammad-
Ali Abdur-Rahkman after a
58-47 win over Northwestern
Jan. 29. “But we’re still a good
team. We’re just playing to
our strength — we have a lot
of athletic guys that can play
defense. So we just play to our
strength.”
The sky is orange. Water is
dry. Michigan’s defense is its
strength.
“Coach Yaklich was really on
that from the beginning of the
year, ‘We’ve got to play defense,
we’re not going to win games
if we don’t play defense,’ ” said
freshman guard Jordan Poole.
“But then the players started
buying in, saying, ‘All right, he’s
right, but we’re the ones playing
out there so we’re the only ones
that can really make a difference
about this.’ ”
It made a difference in a
stifling performance in a 59-52
win at Texas, in the marquee
non-conference
win
of
the
season. It made a difference
in a 58-47 rockfight against
Northwestern at home. It made
a difference in the one-point
victory over Maryland. It has
made a difference all season
on one of the worst offensive
squads of the Beilein era.
Twenty-seven games in — 20
wins later — this is no longer a
mirage. It’s February now. This
is who the Wolverines are.
“I think we have the right
personnel, the right mentality
(defensively). … That’s the way
we practice, that’s the way we
play,” said junior center Moritz
Wagner
before
pausing
to
consider the peculiarity of what
he — a team captain and the
voice of the team — said next.
“It’s kind of our identity.”
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Michigan assistant coach Luke Yaklich has focused entirely on the Wolverines’ defense, and it’s resulted in a drastic improvement from past seasons.
MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Sophomore guard Zavier Simpson’s tough style of play has married well with Yaklich’s defensive vision.