Michigan Basketball: Should the Wolverines keep Luke Yaklich?

Michigan basketball fans are interested in Juwan Howard keeping former John Beilein assistant Luke Yaklich on staff but here’s why it could be trouble.

Juwan Howard was announced as Michigan basketball coach last week and in a few days time, he will be introduced as the Wolverines head coach at a press conference.

Hopefully, at that time, Howard will also have his coaching staff in place so Michigan basketball can shift the focus towards the 2019 and 2020 recruiting classes.

Certainly, Howard has probably already invested time recruiting players and coaches to come to Michigan. One would hope that he has reached out to Jalen Wilson, the former gem of the 2019 recruiting class, who indicated he might still be open to Michigan basketball.

More importantly, though, Howard is trying to put together his staff and on that front, it has been quiet for a few days as everyone tries to figure out what is going to happen with Michigan assistant Luke Yaklich.

Yaklich was brought on by Beilein and ran the defense for the past two seasons. His contributions were vital and he has also proven to be an effective recruiter. That’s why he was in the running the for the Wolverines head coaching job.

There are a lot of reasons to believe Yaklich would have done a fine job. But Howard just seemed to make sense for the Wolverines. If he can capitalize on Beilein’s success and build a recruiting juggernaut, Michigan could potentially keep winning, just in a different way.

While recruiting is essential for any college coach, being able to adjust to the college game will be huge for Howard, who has spent the last six seasons as an NBA assistant and the previous 19 years before that playing in the league.

It does seem like there is starting to be more crossover between the NBA and college hoops and Michigan is a great example. When Beilein arrived in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines ran a lot more sets, did a lot more screening and schemed more to get shots.

That certainly still happened but Beilein also went to an offense focused much more on ball screens and isolations. After all, the more talent you have, the easier things get. That transition took place on defense too as UM went away from the 1-3-1 to a mostly man-to-man look.

At any rate, it’s no secret that the Wolverines want Howard to have an experienced staff. An assistant with previous experience as a college head coach would be ideal. No one on the staff has that right now, so that makes you believe at least one assistant out of Yaklich, Saddi Washington and DeAndre Haynes will need to leave.

There is a strong sentiment among some fans to keep all three but that’s just not realistic. Howard is a different coach than Beilein. They have vastly different strengths and weaknesses and that should be reflected in their staff.

It would be surprising if all three assistants are back for the reasons outlined above and when it comes to Yaklich, there are even more reasons to be wary about him staying onboard.

Yaklich is a bright, young coach. However, he was passed up for the same job that Howard got and like it or not, that could cause some resentment. Yaklich reportedly interviewed with Shaka Smart and has an offer to coach at Texas. His wife has been active on Twitter and while she claims they haven’t made a decision, she at one time like a tweet that said UM should have hired Yaklich.

That’s exactly that kind of thing that should make Howard want to go in another direction. He needs loyalty, not someone gunning for his job. There are no indications that a decision has been made but it certainly seems like Michigan basketball wants to retain Yaklich, as there have been rumors of a big-money offer to keep him.

However, at the end of the day, it’s hard for me to see Howard and Yaklich on the same bench. Yes, he’s a brilliant coach but he just doesn’t feel like a great fit for Juwan Howard.