The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/970722
26 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2018 "I changed our seat- ing. I put the guy right next to us, so I could hear it. I did that with [former assistant] Billy Donlon, and I thought it worked really well. When I did it again, it was a no-brainer. But I had to find that guy." Beilein had to find the guy last summer, after Donlon left after one year to take a job at Northwestern. Here's where the Michigan boss showed extreme flexibility. Not only did he hire another defensive spe- cialist, he wound up incorporating someone he hadn't previously known. That's a stretch in the coaching busi- ness, where familiarity often slams to the table as a trump card. That doesn't mean Beilein didn't do his homework. It started when Illi- nois State head coach Dan Muller dialed up Beilein to recommend one of his coaches, Luke Yaklich, of whom the Michigan boss was wholly unfamiliar. Beilein got to know plenty in an initial hour on the telephone with Yaklich, investigating work ethic and teaching emphasis. Yaklich helped make Illinois State a perennial defensive stalwart, war- ranting more research. Beilein spoke with a host of others who interacted with him, from high school to college. Yaklich even had to submit video of him actually teaching in practices, so Beilein could get a feel for how he con- veyed information. Yaklich delivered, going so far as to submit reports on Michigan's players who were coming back this season. Michigan then hired Haynes, and Beilein didn't want to poach two coaches from the same school. But Muller, Beilein noted, was a "cham- pion" about it, opening the door for a strong defensive hire who felt like he'd won the lottery. "I still can remember when I offered him the job," Beilein recalled. "Tears were in his eyes. It's great. You've got to pride yourself in finding the right fit as a coach." The right fit might be an understate- ment. Michigan opponents averaged 63.3 points per game this season, the defensive mark stood No. 8 in the na- tion and best among Big Ten squads. It's inaccurate to state Beilein teams didn't play defense before, and the numbers bear that out (there were a half-dozen squads yielding an aver- age of 65 or fewer points at Michi- gan). But there's no question this crew played with an edge, in terms of toughness and on-ball defending. The Wolverines enjoyed one lights- out shooting contest on the way to the NCAA title game, the 99-72 blow- out over Texas A&M. Their other four NCAA wins featured defensive coarseness like 60-grit sandpaper: 61- 47 over Montana, 64-63 over Hous- ton, 58-54 over Florida State and 69-57 over Loyola Chicago. Beilein adjusted, and Michigan flourished. INTEGRITY AND HEART Beilein draws plenty of attention for garnering CBS Sports' designation as the "Cleanest Coach" in college basketball, ac- cording to an informal poll of college coaches a year ago. He waves off any exclusivity, preferring to think the best in an era where the FBI is making as many headlines as the RPI. "I think I represent hundreds of Division I coaches that are doing things the right way," Beilein said. "That was not an exact poll, that was a very ran- dom poll, but we do everything we can to make sure we follow the very spirit — not just the NCAA rules, the spirit of the rules of the NCAA." But integrity in the sport goes well beyond not funneling money to recruits, not allow- ing them to be influ- enced by strippers and not recruiting the kind of young men who wind up accused of sexual assault. Ask Austin Hatch. He'll tell you ev- erything you need to know. Hatch enjoyed a roaring, apprecia- tive Senior Day reception at Michigan this year. That's because Beilein hon- ored his basketball scholarship when he didn't have to do so. At one point in his all-too-brief bas- ketball career, Hatch might have been Michigan's Donte DiVincenzo of the title game, dropping in 31 points off the bench and delivering a national championship. Hatch was a high school superstar in Indiana, ready to tear it up at Michigan and beyond. Two airplane crashes tore those dreams apart. He lost his family in the tragedies. He lost his basketball career. He worked mightily to merely regain his ability to walk and talk, after the ravages of a traumatic brain injury. Hatch is about to become a Michi- gan graduate. This summer, he'll marry former U-M volleyball player Abby Cole. They met, in part, because Beilein didn't turn Hatch away when In Beilein's first three years at Michigan, he went 46-53. Since then, he has won nearly 70 percent of his games (202-90, .692) with a 16-6 mark in the Big Ten Tournament and a 17-7 record in the NCAA Tournament. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN