According to a report from Hook’em.com, Texas head basketball coach Shaka Smart has interviewed top Michigan assistant, Luke Yaklich.
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Yaklich was brought in a couple of years ago to fix the Wolverines’ defense and he did just that, making them one of the top units in the nation for the past two seasons.
From Hook’em.com:
Texas coach Shaka Smart spent Thursday talking with Michigan assistant Luke Yaklich about filling the Longhorns’ current opening on the men’s basketball staff, two sources familiar with the interview said.
Yaklich, known as Michigan’s top defensive assistant on former coach John Beilein’s staff, could not be reached Thursday. He’s spent the last two seasons with the Wolverines and widely credited with engineering a defensive overhaul.
Michigan ranked third nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency during the 2017-18 season and second overall last year, according to Kenpom’s analytics.
Yaklich, who turned 43 earlier this month, has two decades of coaching experience, although most of it coming at the high school level. He became an assistant coach at Illinois State for the 2013-14 season and spent four seasons there before joining Beilein at Michigan.
One interesting aspect about this is that Smart has been reported to be a target to replace Beilein at Michigan. It could be possible that Smart is doing what he can to keep Yaklich in the mix just in case he ends up taking a job with the Wolverines.
