Michigan Hires Luke Yaklich As Assistant Coach

According to a report from the Michigan Insider, John Beilein and the Michigan Wolverines have filled the program’s last open assistant coach position. The team hired Luke Yaklich, who most recently coached for Illinois State.

Yaklich graduated from Illinois State in 1998 and spent the majority of the following years splitting his time between high school and AAU positions. In total, Yaklich worked as a high school head coach and teacher for 14 years.

Then, before the 2013-’14 season, Yaklich was hired as an assistant by Dan Muller for the Illinois State Redbirds. The team has won 18 games in each of the last five seasons, including 20 wins in two of the last three seasons.

Prior to last season, Yaklich was promoted to associated head coach. The team won a share of the Missouri Valley regular season title while putting together an impressive 28-7 overall record. The Redbirds made the second round of the NIT.

In May, Haynes was offered and accepted a position with Illinois State. Since Dan Muller took over the Illinois State program in 2012, the team has been one of the strongest in mid-major basketball. In fact, the Redbirds have won at least 18 games in each of the last five seasons, including an impressive 28-7 record last season. Simply put, the fact that he would hire Haynes speaks loudly about his potential as an assistant coach.

Yaklich will now join a Michigan staff that has seen significant turnover of its assistant staff in recent years. In fact, Beilein has had to replace two assistant coaches in each of the last two offseasons, which obviously means a lot of new faces around the program. Fans will be hoping that Yaklich can work to reverse that trend going forward.