4 First-year players and first-year head coaches may think they’re ready for everything college basketball and a new program will throw at them. Then reality hits.
So again this offseason, The Athletic will check in with select freshmen and head coaches about their first year the things they learned in Year 1 that will shape Year 2 and beyond. Next up: Illinois-Chicago’s Luke Yaklich, who swiftly rose from high school coach to top-tier assistant to John Beilein at Michigan and Shaka Smart at Texas before taking his first college head coach gig in the midst of a pandemic. The Flames demonstrated some of Yaklich’s trademark defensive stinginess but still have climbing to do after a 10th-place finish in the Horizon League.