Nebraska Basketball: 5 candidates to potentially replace a fired Tim Miles
Luke Yaklich, Michigan assistant
While hiring a guy with head coaching experience is always preferable, sometimes you have to take a chance and someone worth looking at, if Miles is indeed fired, is Michigan assistant coach Luke Yaklich.
Yaklich has served as an assistant under John Beilein and since his hire, Michigan is 59-12 with two Big Ten tournament championship and Sweet 16 berths. Obviously, Beilein and a talented roster deserve much of the credit, but there is no doubt that Yaklich has made a tremendous impact in his role as defensive coordinator.
He may not have that title officially, but that’s what he is for Beilein. He focuses on the defense and that allows Beilein to tune more to the offensive end, which is his specialty.
This has been a topic that my friends & I have talked about for a few years. Theres no right or wrong answer. For me, I think LaVall Jordan, Luke Yaklich, and Patrick Beilein are the 3 names that would make the most sense to me. I dont see guys like Painter or Wright coming to UM https://t.co/Tr3GsyY4al
— Idiot With So Many Followers Corner (@WolverineCorner) February 28, 2019
During Beilein’s tenure at Michigan, he had a few defenses rank in the top 40 in scoring defense, but never any higher than 33rd. However, with Yaklich, Michigan ranked eighth in 2017-18 and are third in the nation in scoring defense this season.
The transformation has been remarkable and it’s a big reason why the Wolverines are playing for a shot at the Big Ten title. Yaklich, who has 14 years of head-coaching experience in high school, as well as four seasons as an assistant at Illinois State, could follow in the footsteps of Chris Collins, an assistant given a head-coaching job and for Northwestern, it has worked. It could for NU too.