‘It’s really slowed down for me’: How Jon Teske grew beyond his height
Jon Teske warms up down
below as his grandfather sits.
It’s a Sunday in mid-January at
Crisler Center and Jim Zuidema
is up in the corner wearing a
Michigan pullover, sitting near
the aisle.
Zuidema grabs his phone
and pulls up his texts, looking
for one in particular. It’s to his
grandson and it’s a message to
play “Teske basketball.”
Three hours later, a victory
over Northwestern in hand,
Teske has 17 points and 11
rebounds to his name. He hit
three 3-pointers and blocked
two shots, affecting the game on
every level. This, in the months
before and since, has become
Teske’s norm.
“I think it’s like (John) Beilein
says,” Zuidema says on the phone
the day after that game. “It takes
a couple years to learn. And Jon,
I think Jon’s right on course
from what Beilein told me a few
years back, how he thought Jon
would progress.”
How Teske has progressed is
this: Two years ago, he came to
Michigan and his biggest skill on
a basketball court was being tall.
He got his ass kicked in practice
and rode the bench in games. On
the year, he played 60 minutes,
made one field goal and blocked
seven shots.
Since then, his development
has proceeded with the slope of
a 45-degree line. The next year,
Teske backed up Moritz Wagner
and looked good doing it. Then
Teske broke out at the Big
Ten Tournament final against
Purdue, creating the lasting
image of the game by dunking
on Isaac Haas and yelling into
oblivion. When Wagner went
to the NBA last summer, Teske
stepped into the starting role
seamlessly.
He started every game of
the regular season, averaging
nearly 10 points and swatting
away 7.8 percent of shots while
affecting countless more, the
backbone holding up a defense
that ranks second in the country
in adjusted efficiency.
“It’s really slowed down for
me,” Teske told The Daily. “I
think it’s just taking time. Some
people get it right away, but
others don’t.”
Teske’s path is rarely followed
in college basketball nowadays,
but it’s one that fits him. “I know
Jon will hate anything that I
said about him, that you write,
OK,” Zuidema says toward the
end of our conversation, and he’s
doubtlessly right.
Zuidema
talks
the
way
grandfathers are supposed to
talk about their grandsons. He
adulates and adores, all while
staying level about what his
grandson wants and about his
role in guiding him on the path.
He is more interested in talking
about Jon Teske than Jon Teske
himself, which is both expected
and defining.
Teske is one of few people
on the planet who stands over
seven feet tall and doesn’t
automatically dominate every
room he steps into. He’s cautious
and
circumspect,
thinking
through every word he says in
front of a camera and falling
back on polite clichés when
the real answer has a chance of
being twisted or misconstrued.
When I ask when he knew
Wagner would leave, meaning
he would start, Teske rejects the
implicit assumption that there
was no competition at center
coming into this season.
“I knew the job would be
open, that spot would be open,”
Teske said. “Austin (Davis) and
I, we worked hard all offseason.
We knew Colin (Castleton) and
Brandon (Johns) would be ready
to come in, too, possibly. So I just
knew we had to continue to work
hard and try to help the team
win. Just be ready for whoever
won that spot to just go in there
and do their job, right?”
The result of his demeanor
is two-pronged: Teske doesn’t
cause
controversy
or
make
himself a target for opposing
teams or fans. He also doesn’t
get the media attention that
should naturally come to the
anchor of one of the nation’s best
defenses.
But Teske deserves that level
of attention, even if he doesn’t
want it, because he is just that.
***
“No one wanted Jon on their
team,” says Drew Zuidema,
Teske’s cousin. “Not at the
young age.”
There are 18 cousins on
Teske’s mother’s side of the
family, nine boys and nine girls.
At a young age, living in Grand
Rapids, they spent the summers
at their grandparents’ house,
with a hoop in front and a pool
out back.
While everyone else swam,
the boys played in front —
basketball, football, wiffle ball
— as their grandmother fretted
about little kids near a busy road.
It would be an idyllic scene, had
Teske been on the winning team.
At
that
elementary-school
age, Teske was gangly and
uncoordinated. He would take
the ball and run with it instead of
dribbling, and when the cousins
split up, old versus young, he’d
be on the losing team.
“They’d kinda push and blow
their way to wins,” Teske said.
“Sometimes cheat their way to
wins.”
Drew, in contrast, speaks
with the verve of a winner.
“He was at that awkward
stage and didn’t know what he
was doing,” Drew said of Teske.
“He was always very tall and
gumpy.”
But Teske has always been
tall. When the boys would lower
the 10-foot hoop to try and touch
the rim, he was the only one who
could dunk. The rest, that came
later.
Zuidema
likes
to
tell
a
story from when Jon was an
underclassman at Medina High
School in Ohio, playing under
Anthony Stacey. A former player
and current assistant coach
at Bowling Green, Stacey was
tough
and
demanding.
The
Teske family moved from Grand
Rapids to Medina when Jon was
in middle school, and Stacey saw
the potential in him right away.
After eighth-grade graduation,
Teske estimates it was less than
a week before he started for the
summer high school team.
On this day, Zuidema sat in the
stands and watched as Jon stood
at the top of the key and checked
the opposing point guard. “I
about fell off the bleachers,”
Zuidema said. It’s important
to note here that Zuidema has
kept relationships with all of
Teske’s coaches, calling them
after games, and isn’t afraid to
let them know what he thinks.
Stacey came up to Zuidema
after that game to get his
thoughts.
“Well,
I
got
a
question,” he responded. “Why
you got Jon out at point guard?”
“I’ll tell you why,” Zuidema
recalls Stacey responding. “I
know Jon’s gonna become a
player in college. I don’t know if
he’ll play Division I, II or III, but
he’s gonna play somewhere. And
I want him to learn how to play
defense and move his feet.”
Near
that
time,
college
coaches began taking notice.
First a trickle of MAC schools,
then a slow but steady increase.
By the end of his sophomore
year, Teske had Big Ten coaches
calling him, and that summer,
John Beilein started roaming
the sideline at his AAU games.
***
The decision to come to Ann
Arbor, when it came down to
it, was easy. Teske made it in
the first few weeks of his junior
year.
Michigan
was
close
to
both
Medina
and
Grand
Rapids. Beilein had a record
of developing players, and he
— along with then-assistant
coaches Bacari Alexander and
Jeff Meyer — did the legwork
in building a relationship with
Teske and his family.
There’s also the education
aspect of it. When you ask
Teske, and those close to him,
about his recruitment, words
like, “degree” and “graduate”
become motifs. On one visit, a
coach showed Zuidema a trophy
cabinet.
“He
said,
‘I
want
your
grandson to win me another
trophy,’ ” Zuidema said. “And,
that didn’t go over very well
with his grandma.”
When
Zuidema
sat
with
Beilein, the Michigan coach told
him that yes, he wanted Teske to
help him win games, but there
was more to his pitch than that.
“He’s gonna be with you four
years, coach,” Zuidema recalled
saying. “You do what you have
to. Remember, I don’t want him
here just to win trophies for
you.”
Of course, the decision wasn’t
Zuidema’s to make, and nor is
the one that will be in front of
Teske when the season ends.
Back then, he was a three-star
recruit. Now, if he wants to go
pro, he can.
It’s easy to see the Big Ten
Tournament
final
against
Purdue last season, when Teske
scored 14 points off the bench,
dunked on Haas and helped
Michigan to a trophy on a
postseason stage, as the turning
point of his college career.
“I know that everyone talks
about the Purdue game being my
coming out party,” Teske said,
stopping short of answering
whether he himself sees it that
way. That’s fitting.
“It just kinda showed people
what I think I’m capable of,” he
said. “Obviously my teammates
and coaches have always seen
that in me, since I’ve gotten
here. I think it was just, for me,
just go out there. Just on that big
a stage, and Moe being in foul
trouble, it all kinda came out to
be like that.”
Teske isn’t brash — he’s not
Ignas
Brazdeikis
or
Jordan
Poole. He won’t say he’s the best
free-throw shooter in the world,
or that he expects every shot
he takes to go in. He’s caught
off-guard when asked about the
decision in front of him after
this season, but knows full well
he’s earned the chance to make
it.
“Um, I wouldn’t say that
(decision
has)
changed
anything,”
Teske
said,
swallowing his sound. “I think
just coming in, I knew I wanted
— I wanted to go somewhere
that had a good place I could go
get a good degree at. Just coming
in here, I knew I was capable of
doing it. And so we’ll just see
what happens.”
In
October,
the
question
of whether he could replace
Wagner seemed as if it may
define Michigan’s season. It
took Teske all of a couple games
to answer, and the question
soon shifted to whether the
Wolverines are better off with
Teske, and whether he deserves
All-Big Ten honors.
But Teske’s story is one of
linear development. He’s built
strength and conditioning with
Jon Sanderson in the weight
room to the point of being able
to play up to 35 minutes at 85
inches. He’s gone from a one-
dimensional hand in the face
to an all-around threat on both
sides of the ball.
That shift, more than height
alone, has come to define Teske
basketball.
ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Junior center Jon Teske grew up playing playing pickup basketball with his 18 cousins at his grandfather’s house.
8A — Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com