The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/888498
NOVEMBER 2017 THE WOLVERINE 11 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS New Michigan basketball assistant Luke Yaklich has hit the ground running in his new position after coming over from Illinois State to join John Beilein's staff. He talks about his role and more in this Q&A: The Wolverine: What were your first impressions of the Michigan program when you first arrived? Luke Yaklich: "It took only about four days to really understand what this pro- gram is all about, and that's a testament to the culture that is present and acted upon each and every day. It was one session on the court — you understood how things are going to work, and then just being in the office and understand- ing the relationships, the good people that are here every day and making the program work. "[Assistant] Saddi Washington and Coach B [John Beilein] on a personal level were so welcoming and genuine in their outreach in wanting to make this as seamless and smooth a transi- tion as possible, welcoming the family and everything." The Wolverine: What position are you coaching specifically? Yaklich: "My emphasis during prac- tice is to be the eyes and ears of the defense, and then to be working with a lot of the wings and forwards." The Wolverine: How has it been like working with Coach Beilein? Yaklich: "Coach Beilein has been unbelievable. He just embraces everybody doing their role and hav- ing a voice. That's what's incredibly fun about being on the staff. Everybody has ideas, and Coach B has given me that defensive voice, to put a stamp on practice every day, any way that I can. "I think we're slowly making strides each and every day. There's a mindset that these guys want to be good and can be good, and they're committed to working on that every single day." The Wolverine: How important is the center position in what you're trying to accomplish defensively? Yaklich: "The five man is used a lot of times as the ball screen, and then obvi- ously scoring with his back to the basket still. It's key for any team's five man to be able to guard the ball screen and be able to defend on the block, wall him off, make him score over you, ultimately finish possessions with rebounds in and out of your area. "Our guys are really buy- ing into that concept, and I think through individual reps over the next five or six weeks, we'll be sound fun- damentally at those things and just keep building." The Wolverine: Strength coach Jon Sanderson said there seems to be a tough- ness about this group ahead of where it's been on past teams. Have you sensed it? Yaklich: "There is a toughness to us, and yet your toughness as a team is always going to be challenged the first time you face adversity, a tough loss, things like that. " Toughness is always something that's going to be built, but for right now, the foundation, the bricks of this team, you could label one of those bricks toughness. "Hopefully we can add some more toughness bricks to the wall that we'll call the 2017-18 team." — Chris Balas Sitting Down With Michigan Basketball Assistant Luke Yaklich It's not just those that bleed maize and blue who are watching Michigan football games. The game at Indiana Oct. 14 surprisingly was the highest-rated game of the week across all networks and tied as the best rating for a game with a noon ET kickoff this season across all networks, according to ESPN. The game, broadcast nationally by ABC, earned a 2.9 Nielsen overnight rating. It's not the first time this year U-M provided the top television draw of the weekend for college football. The first Michigan-Michigan State matchup in pri- metime resulted in huge numbers on ABC Oct. 7. The broadcast drew 6,628,000 million viewers and a 3.9 over- night rating to mark the most watched game of week six across all networks, according to ESPN PR. The network also noted that the 6.6 million-plus viewers ranked 18 percent higher than the equivalent broadcast from the year prior (Florida State at Miami). The television audi- ence peaked at 8,858,000 viewers while the Wolverines drove for a potential game-winning touchdown from 11-11:15 p.m. At the time, MSU-Michigan ranked as the fourth-most watched college game of the season. It trails only the Oklahoma-Ohio State game in week two (8.225 million viewers), and two contests from week one — Michigan- Florida and Alabama-FSU. The Wolverines' season opener, which kicked off at 3:30 p.m., was the second-most watched game of the weekend across all networks, drawing a total live audi- ence of 7,805,000 (compared to the 12,557,000 that tuned in to watch FSU and Alabama, which started at 8 p.m.) and 5.0 overnight rating. The contest ranked as ABC/ ESPN's highest-rated non-primetime kickoff weekend game ever. The Cincinnati at Michigan contest Sept. 9 was not the most watched game of the weekend, but it did draw 3,693,000 viewers to post the biggest audience in the noon game window across all networks for that week. Its Nielsen overnight rating was a 2.8, and between weeks three and six it was topped by just one noon game, North Carolina State versus Florida State or Texas Tech versus Houston Sept. 23 on ABC (3.850 million viewers). — Ryan Tice TWO OF MICHIGAN'S FIRST SIX FOOTBALL GAMES ARE COUNTRY'S MOST WATCHED OF THE WEEKEND LUKE YAKLICH