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Thursday, May 30, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

Report: Luke Yaklich to accept assistant coaching position at Texas

Luke Yaklich built up Michigan 
from a defensive liability to a 
defensive 
powerhouse. 
Now, 
he’ll try to work that same magic 
at Texas.
Shortly 
after 
coach 
John 
Beilein left Michigan to become 
the coach of the Cleveland 
Cavaliers, Yaklich, too, will leave 
after accepting a position as an 
assistant coach of the Longhorns, 
per a report from CBS Sports’ 
Jon Rothstein. A call to Yaklich 
went unreturned and a Michigan 
spokesperson did not respond to 
a request for comment.
Yaklich also interviewed for 
the Wolverines’ head coaching 
job on May 17, but was not 
offered the position. Instead, the 
job went to former player Juwan 

Howard — known as a defensive 
guru during his time as an 
assistant with the NBA’s Miami 
Heat. Beilein was primarily an 
offensive coach, necessitating 
the presence of someone like 
Yaklich to serve as a defensive 
coordinator of sorts. The same 
isn’t necessarily true of Howard.
Losing Yaklich hurts in more 
ways than one. He was a teacher 
at his core, and his specialty was 
getting even the biggest skeptics 
to care about defense. When 
he got buy-in at Michigan, the 
defense turned around in just one 
season. Having two defensive 
stalwarts 
in 
guard 
Zavier 
Simpson and center Jon Teske 
still in tow, and a new coach in 
Howard who has defense as his 
calling card, may prevent too 
big of a defensive drop-off, but a 
ripple effect could come in other 

ways.
When a head coach leaves 
in the offseason — especially 
in mid-May — it’s often the 
first domino that can lead to 
assistants subsequently finding 
new positions, as Yaklich did, 
and often causes a string of 
decommits and transfers who 
realize that the program no 
longer looks like the one they 
originally committed to. Yaklich 
was a strong recruiter who 
formed bonds with many of his 
players, and some could decide 
that without Yaklich, they’d 
rather be elsewhere.
Yaklich was originally hired 
from Illinois State prior to 
the 2017 season. With him, 
the Wolverines finished their 
seasons 
ranked 
third 
and 
second, respectively, in adjusted 
defensive efficiency, according 

to KenPom. In 10 previous 
seasons under Beilein, they had 
never finished better than 37th.
Reports 
have 
stated 
that 
Howard 
is 
looking 
for 
an 
experienced assistant to round 

out the first-time head coach’s 
staff.
But replacing Yaklich will be 
a mammoth task and now, the 
clock is ticking for Howard to do 
just that.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

KATELYN MUCALHY/Daily
Michigan assistant Luke Yaklich accepted an assistant coach position at Texas.

How Juwan Howard secured Cole Bajema’s recommitment

The past week has been, as 
Shane Bajema puts it, quite 
simply “a blur.”
But at the end of it all, Cole 
Bajema — Shane’s son and a 2019 
four-star wing — recommitted 
to the Wolverines on Friday 
night, 11 days after John Beilein 
left Michigan to become the 
Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coach.
With the decision to recommit, 
Bajema currently stands as new 
coach Juwan Howard’s only 
commitment in the 2019 class, 
making him a critical piece of 
Michigan’s puzzle for 2019 and 
beyond.
“The 
departure 
of 
Coach 
Beilein came as a big surprise,” 
Bajema tweeted Friday night. 
“Given coach Beilein recruited 
me, I am sad to see him go but 
fully support him in his new 
venture at the Cavaliers. I cannot 
thank 
the 
entire 
Michigan 
basketball staff enough for their 
support.
“Having patiently waited for 
Michigan to name its new head 
coach, I am very excited Juwan 
Howard is the new head coach. 
I believe he will uphold the 
great culture, that is Michigan 
basketball. I know there’s a lot 
of speculation out there but I 
am ALL IN for coach Howard 

and ready to report in June! Go 
Blue!”
The decision to recommit, 
though, wasn’t always so simple. 
Bajema has been committed 
to 
Michigan 
since 
Aug. 
14 
of last year, but the original 
commitment came to Beilein, 
who Shane described as having 
done “a great job of preparing 
Cole 
for 
the 
entire 
college 
experience.” But after 11 days of 
calls from Beilein and Howard, 
as well as athletic director Warde 
Manuel and the Wolverines’ 
assistant coaches, Bajema felt 
confident that the program he 
will be entering next season is 
the same one he committed to 
nearly a year ago.
Bajema did not respoond to 
a text from The Daily Saturday 
morning. He has yet to make 
any public comment outside of 
Twitter since Beilein announced 
his departure.
“The key factor in Cole coming 
to the University of Michigan was 
really a coaching compatibility 
decision at a great university,” 
Shane told The Daily. “Then, 
when that transition goes off 
and you wonder what’s gonna be 
next, it’s all about relationships 
and trust and continuity with 
the next coach. … But I think 
they made a great decision in 
choosing another person to carry 
out the legacy, of what is more 

than just Beilein’s legacy, but the 
Michigan legacy.”
Critically, Howard was not the 
only one to reach out to Bajema 
after his hiring. Amidst the 
blurred flurry of conversations 
with those inside the program, 
Shane doesn’t remember exactly 
when the first call came, but he 
knows it came from Manuel. 
And as Manuel talked, Shane’s 
confidence in Michigan came 
rushing back.
Going 
into 
the 
call, 
he 
wasn’t familiar with Howard 
as a person, but he quickly 
felt 
Manuel 
made 
a 
“great 
decision,” continuing the legacy 
and culture that Beilein built. 
Shortly 
thereafter, 
Howard, 
too, reached out, confirming his 
interest in Cole as a key player in 
the transition from Beilein to the 
future.
“Juwan and (Cole) had a 
conversation 
and 
basically 
agreed that Cole’s his first real 
recruit in his college coaching 
career,” Shane said. “The baton, 
basically, handed from Beilein 
to Juwan in recruitment of Cole 
and that’s what really put Cole 
over the edge and reassured that 
he could become Juwan’s guy 
too.
“… It was genuine, it was real, 
it wasn’t this recruiting talk. 
(Howard) is genuinely ecstatic 
to be the coach. And he seemed 

genuinely pumped to have Cole.”
And 
when 
Beilein 
called, 
telling the Bajemas that “Juwan’s 
gonna be a great guy,” and calling 
it “a perfect fit,” the comfort 
level only grew.
Then, 
Friday 
afternoon, 
the final boost came when 
Howard announced that Jon 
Sanderson would be staying on 
as the Wolverines’ strength and 
conditioning coach. Sanderson 
and Shane have developed a 
close relationship throughout 
the recruiting process, as he 
has become one of Cole’s key 
recruiters.
And though Cole’s workouts 

with Sanderson haven’t begun 
yet, his personal trainer back 
home is a friend of Sanderson’s 
and has helped him add 22 
pounds over the past seven 
months.
“As a future mentor of players 
and our son, Cole, I can not 
say more good things about 
(Sanderson),” Shane said. “Could 
you ask for a more ideal person to 
train Cole’s physical body in the 
future?”
Starting a few weeks from 
now, when Cole reports to Ann 
Arbor for Michigan’s summer 
bridge program, Sanderson will 
be doing just that. Officially.

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor

Courtesy of Getty Images
Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard retained incoming recruit Cole Bajema.

