Former Illinois State assistant given credit for Michigan's improved defense

There are quite a few Illinois State connections in the Loyola-Michigan matchup.

Ramblers coach Porter Moser was head coach at Illinois State from 2003-07, and last year during the offseason, Michigan coach John Beilein hired not one, but two new assistants from ISU.

One of those former Redbird assistants, Luke Yaklich, has gotten plenty of praise for the Wolverines' stellar defense this season. Beilein talked about the process Thursday as the Final Four teams met reporters for the first time in San Antonio.

Two years ago, when Michigan lost two assistants to head coaching jobs, Beilein decided he wanted to hire a coach to work strictly on defense and landed former Glenbrook North star Billy Donlon. When Donlon opted to join Chris Collins at Northwestern, Beilein was looking again to fill the role and got a recommendation from Illinois State head coach Dan Muller.

"Dan called me from Illinois State and told me about Luke," Beilein said at his news conference. "I said no, I'm not going to hire somebody I don't know. I want to research this.

"And then when I heard about DeAndre Haynes as well, 'I can't take two guys from the same school. I couldn't do that to anybody.' And Dan was such a champion through it, saying, 'Coach, these guys deserve this opportunity. They want to play in the Big Ten.'"

Haynes, a Detroit native, worked at Illinois State for only a couple months, but Yaklich, a 1998 ISU grad, had been there four years. Yaklich had an interesting career path, teaching high school at LaSalle-Peru, his alma mater; Sterling and Joliet West before landing his first college job.

Beilein took his time with the process and eventually decided Yaklich was his guy, getting a recommendation from a high school principal along the way.

"I just felt - I wanted a teacher, right? I wanted a guy that thought defense and knew defense, a relationship-builder," Beilein said. "He's a high school teacher and a brilliant one.

"It's a great story. And I still can remember when I offered him the job, tears were in his eyes. And it was - it's great."

Moser opens door to campus:

One of Porter Moser's most successful strategies at Loyola was prying open the pipeline from the Chicago Public League.

The current team features senior Donte Ingram from Simeon and freshman Lucas Williamson from Whitney Young. Moser talked about the breakthrough of getting Milton Doyle from Marshall, who finished his Loyola career last year.

"When I got the job seven years ago, we are Loyola of Chicago and we had one Illinois player on our roster, and we had no Chicago Public League players for an 11- or 12-year run," Moser said. "No Public League player. Think about that."

Moser thought back to his own experience as a Naperville native who used to play summer league games a few blocks away at Loyola Park, but he never really visited Loyola's campus.

"When I got involved in the (coaching) job, I walked around and said, 'I can't believe this is here,'" Moser said. "We started the process of bringing coaches and AAU coaches and walk around the campus, walk around the lake, see all the new buildings.

"If I've heard it one time, I heard it a thousand times. I'm from Chicago. I had no idea Loyola's campus was this nice."

Loyola facilities expand:

Loyola's basketball facilities will be substantially better in about 16 months, according to coach Porter Moser.

For several years after the Ramblers moved into the Gentile Center, they still had Alumni Gym available next door. But then Alumni Gym was demolished to make way for a student center and gym time became an issue. Loyola has a big-time men's volleyball program that shares the gym, along with the women's teams.

"Our guys love to shoot," Moser said. "It's been a negative - like Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson, those guys, Marques Townes, they want to shoot. Every road trip we go on, they want to get in and get extra shots."

The lone gym at Loyola wasn't always available, so it wasn't an ideal situation.

"I had my immature stage where I (complained) about it for a long time," Moser said. "And then I matured a little bit because the message I was always telling our guys is you've got to control what you can control. And we couldn't control it."

Along the way, Moser found the right person to complain to, mainly former Loyola basketball player Al Norville.

"Every Final Four we had breakfast about this practice gym," Moser said. "They're breaking ground this spring for the Alfie Norville Practice Gym."