Scout.com’s Josh Henschke has learned that Michigan will hire Illinois State assistant Luke Yaklich for its open vacancy:
It was also earlier reported that the Wolverines will hire DeAndre Haynes, who also worked at Illinois State.
An Illinois State alum with invaluable Illinois high school and AAU ties, along with more than a decade of head coaching experience, Luke Yaklich (pronounced YOCK-litch) joined the ISU men’s basketball team as an assistant coach prior to the 2013-14 season.
Yaklich was promoted to associate head coach ahead of the 2016-17 campaign in which the Redbirds won a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title and set program records for overall victories (28), regular-season wins (25) and conference triumphs (17). In his first four years with the Redbirds, Yaklich helped guide Illinois State to an 86-50 record and three postseason berths (2017 and 2015 National Invitation Tournament and 2014 College Basketball Invitational).
Yaklich is in charge of ISU men’s basketball academics along with assisting in recruiting, scouting and working on skill development. In the fall of 2014, ISU established a team grade-point average record with a 2.99 GPA, breaking the previous mark by 0.13 points, and in 2016, Justin McCloud earned a spot on the MVC Scholar-Athlete Second Team.
Yaklich was previously the head boys’ basketball coach at Joliet Township High School in Joliet, Illinois, for six seasons (three in the combined Joliet Township program and three at Joliet West), and also as a coach for the Joliet Pride and Illinois Wolves AAU teams. In total, Yaklich worked as a high school head coach and teacher for 14 years.