Michigan Basketball: Defensive woes related to Loss of Luke Yaklich

2020 has not been kind for the Michigan basketball program, to say the least. The Wolverines have started the new year 1-4, with losses to Michigan State, Minnesota, Iowa, and most recently to Penn State at the Crisler Center.

While the blame can be placed on the injury of Isaiah Livers leading to Michigan basketball’s troubles, or the fact that Juwan Howard is still getting accustomed to being a head coach for a team for the first time in his career, however, the blame cannot be placed on the injury to Michigan’s star player or due to the lack of experience from Howard.

Following the hiring of Howard, the former member of the ‘Fab Five’ managed to retain assistant coach Saddi Washington, but unfortunately could not convince the other assistant, Luke Yaklich to stay on the staff. Instead, Yaklich decided to move him and his family to Austin to become an assistant to Shaka Smart at the University of Texas.

With that being said, the loss of Yaklich has been more than noticeable now that Michigan has been struggling on all facets, especially defensively.

In his two seasons with Michigan basketball, Yaklich changed the culture of a John Beilein-led team, where the Wolverines’ focus and strengths as a team would happen on the defensive end, rather on the offensive side, where Michigan was infamous for.

Under Yaklich, the Wolverines had one of the best defensive systems in the country, particularly in 2019 where Yaklich’s defense would have a defensive and defensive efficiency rating that was good for third in the country (per TeamRankings), limiting teams to shooting just 39% from the field with just a success rate of 29% from behind the arc.

Leading that defensive powerhouse that the Wolverines had just a year ago were the likes of Zavier Simpson creating havoc against the best guards that the Big Ten had to offer, Charles Matthews elite skills as one of the best perimeter defenders in the country, and Jon Teske anchoring the paint and creating problems for the fellow big men that he had to compete against.

Flash forward a year later, and Matthews has graduated, and Simpson and Teske have not been playing the same defense that they were a season ago.

Teske carries a defensive rating of 90 this season, a mere six points below his rating of 84 in 2019, that ranked fifth in the entire country. In 2020 it has been a different story, as Teske has been tasked with being put on an island against some of the best post players in the Big Ten, and it hasn’t gone as planned for him.

Opposing Centers/Forwards have had field days against Michigan, earning career-highs in points against Teske from the likes of Daniel Oturu (30), Luka Garza (44) (33), Kofi Cockburn (19), and Trevion Williams (36).

While it’s fair to assume that it is due to the new defensive scheme that the Wolverines have had to adjust to since losing Yaklich, Teske has been left alone to deal with the opposing team’s big man, and rarely deals with the help of using double-teams, nonetheless, it has not worked well for Michigan basketball this season.

The same can be said for Simpson, as he has looked a shell from his former self on the defensive side of the basketball this season. Simpson has been picked on by some of the best guards in the country in recent memory.

Although it’s already a tough task in itself to limit the offense that these particular players are capable of, it is important to keep in mind that Simpson has always been considered as an elite defender, it’s just been a struggle.

This was shown particularly in the performances defensively against Oregon’s Payton Pritchard and Michigan State’s Cassius Winston.

In the overtime loss to the Ducks, Pritchard was able to torch Simpson down the stretch for 13 consecutive points with Simpson as the primary defender, coming out of Ann Arbor dropping 23 points and the victory.

A month later, Simpson would be dealt with shutting down Winston in East Lansing, however, the All-American would drop 32 points against Zavier and the Wolverines, handing them their fourth consecutive loss against Michigan State.

With that being said, this does not change the fact that Teske and Simpson are poor defenders, which is far from the truth, yet, this certainly points to the change in defensive philosophy under Howard and Michigan basketball assistant, Phil Martelli.

If Michigan wants to get back on track, the defense will have to make a drastic improvement in a small time-frame, and while adding Livers back into the lineup in the near future would help significantly, the loss of Yaklich remains to become quite an issue for the Wolverines.