Michigan Basketball: Stuart Douglass talks hoops, coronavirus, and more

The interview

Q: Before we catch up on old basketball stories, I feel it’s important to get this question out of the way: The coronavirus has devastated the economy and everyday life for the entire world. What has it been like overseas since the onset of this pandemic?

A: It hasn’t been quite as crazy as some of the videos you see of people lined up outside Costco and fighting over toilet paper. Israel is in a bit of a different situation than Europe. There are very minimal points of entry into Israel outside of the airport and Israel got on top of things relatively quickly in terms of shutting off flights from high-risk countries. That still hasn’t prevented cases but might have flattened the curve a bit. The cases have risen to a point where we just started a more strict lockdown of businesses and essential travel only. Otherwise, I’ve been pretty isolated and I don’t watch the news here so I’m not sure how everyone is reacting, but it seems to be a mix of calm while still taking it very seriously.

Q: Catch us up on the life of Stuart Douglass since leaving Ann Arbor.

A: The quick rundown is 1 year in Spain for my rookie season and now 7 seasons in Israel. I got my Israeli citizenship in 2013 and have sort of a second home here now. Bouncing around from country to country can really take a toll on guys so I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to stay in one country and build the level of comfort with this place that I have. I was going to do anything to make this life a reality, and I don’t know when this will end, but I will enjoy it for as long as I can.

Q: I feel obligated to ask this question: What’s your favorite memory of Crisler?

A: Hard to choose. It still pains me that I can’t answer this with “senior night when we finished the season undefeated and likely wrapped up a solo big ten title” BUT that night was still cool. The chance to have that is everything we wanted to build towards, and something very few thought we could achieve.  So screw it, that’s still my answer even though we lost.

Q: Stu, you might not know this but you are only a few months younger than me. So, if I were 6-foot-3 (and good at basketball) we could have been on the team together. Pretty cool, huh?

A: Hahaha I think we were already at capacity for 6’3” white guys, but I like the thought of it regardless.

Q: Aside from the 09-10 season, the Michigan teams you played on had winning records and made NCAA tournament appearances. What went right during the winning seasons?

Everyone taking responsibility for themselves. Coach’s philosophy essentially boiled down to making the least amount of mistakes possible, and that took people taking responsibility for their own actions, not pointing the finger, and working to improve it the next time around. Also, quite a bit of underrated talent. People take a bit too much stock into high school rankings to a certain degree.

Q: You arrived on campus the year after John Beilein took over the program. Tell me about the early years: his coaching, practices, and your relationship with him. Also, how has your relationship with him developed over the year?

He was really trying to establish his ways at Michigan. It’s never easy when a new guy comes in and shakes things up and is also very demanding. It worked my freshman year and didn’t my sophomore year. It happens. Like I said before his philosophy was minimizing mistakes. It wasn’t the way I pictured my college career going but I knew I had to buy in if I wanted to play. And I wanted nothing more than to play. Film sessions were long and all of the mistakes were pointed out. You can’t escape the video evidence. He was correcting us on practice reps. The man recorded us doing passing drills and corrected us in video sessions. It was a lot at times and I think a lot of his success after my time came with relenting some of that control and letting guys like Jordan Poole put shots up he isn’t going to always agree with but still demanding discipline and minimizing mistakes particularly on the defensive end. I haven’t talked to him in years. I think I’ve maybe seen him once or twice since I graduated.

Q: On January 27, 2011, you were on the court at Breslin Center up by just two points with less than 30 seconds left in the game. Darius Morris drove the paint and decided to kick it out to you for a three-point shot. I must know, when did you know it was going in? As soon as it left your hands or not until it fell perfectly through the net?

A: It felt great leaving my hands but Draymond blocked my view until right before the ball reached the rim. I typically watch the ball from my hand to the rim so I couldn’t really tell, but when I released it, it all felt right and calm.

Q: That shot is credited with the turnaround of Michigan and the nice runs John Beilein’s teams had. What are your thoughts on that?

A: Ya I don’t know how I feel about that. It was a big game for us mentally to turn a corner. You can’t say for sure we wouldn’t have made the tournament if we lost that game, but it was huge for us mentally. Plus, beating MSU always looks better to the fanbase than what a single regular-season win gives you in terms of resume building for the tournament. Especially when you win at their place after losing there for so many years. I’ve heard he was seriously on the hot seat that year, but I didn’t know until years after. My ego would love to take credit for it, but it’s probably best not to haha.

Q: I’ve listened to your Not Mainstream podcast on the website athletes post. I especially love episode 15 when you discuss how wrong people are when they tell kids not to bet on themselves and that they need to develop before making the leap. Are you going to continue the podcast when the world returns to normal and who was your favorite guest to date?

A: Oh man, don’t get me started on that subject. Ehhh maybe I’ll start that up again someday. No real plans to, but I always do love to voice my opinion. My favorite guest was definitely Mark Titus. This was technically before Not Mainstream and on my other podcast The Afternoon Nap with a buddy from the Indy area, but I’m going to count it for this answer anyways. I’ve always admired what he did with starting his blog and turning it into what he has. I played against him in high school and watched him toss a keg over the fence between turn 3 and 4 at the Indianapolis 500, so his personality and humor has always been of interest to me.  At the time he was sorta just hanging around at ESPN with nothing to really do since Grantland withered away when Bill Simmons left. I asked him how long it was going to be until he left for The Ringer and since he was still under contract he wasn’t quite comfortable with that question haha. I think that was the point at which he realized agreeing to do the interview was a massive mistake. He would not even help promote the episode on Twitter and I don’t blame him one bit but it was still cool to talk to him.

Q: You did an episode with your wife where you were both intoxicated and you called it DRUNK ONES. Would you consider doing more of those? That was legendary.

A: hahaha thank you that really means a lot because I love that episode. We should’ve done more. We actually got a review on iTunes I believe that condemned that episode for being super unprofessional and then saying my career in this was going nowhere. That sort of likable-hate is always welcome. If anything, to further reinforce the idea of never taking anything gravely serious.  I was sad to see them go.