The 2020-21 Michigan Wolverines basketball team is still facing uncertainty about a season in a time of Covid, but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing to prepare. The pandemic has created a “new normal” for everyone in the building, assistant coach Saddi Washington said Tuesday, and everyone has learned to adjust.
“As coach Juwan always says, we’re ‘embracing the suck,’” Washington told MGoBlue.com. “It’s allowed us to get creative in the way we go about our business and be more efficient in the way we recruit.”
They’ve added some tactics, including online meetings, that they’ll keep in their repertoire going forward.
“From a recruiting standpoint, if definitely makes this efficient both timewise and cost-wise. Instead of either having to fly out to go see a recruit or fly them in and go through the process of having the visits, we can virtually bring the University and the program to the family’s computer screen.
“I think we’ll probably in some form or facet continue a lot of what we do. It doesn’t replace the personal touch, and I think that’s big, especially with our staff. I like to think we’ve all got pretty great personalities that people can feed off of. I do think there’s some value that’s been added to doing business this way.”
Washington and the other coaches were excited to get their players back on campus. They all go through rigorous testing and precautionary measures before and after workouts for safety purposes, but all are doing well.
“It was very cool, but also very strange in some regards because you’re just happy to see the guys,” he said. “For most of them, our last team meeting was about four or five days after the end of the season. Then we’ve been in contact with guys on a weekly basis … calls, facetime, zoom and coach and leadership meetings.
"But it’s another thing to see a guy face to face. I was teasing [sophomore wing] Franz [Wagner], ‘you need to get a haircut, guy. It’s time.’ Or the newbies that have come on and being able to see them face to face and their parents for the first time. Do we dap, do we hug … elbows? We were going through a range of emotions, but it’s good for all of us to get on campus and work toward whatever this new normal is going to be.”
There’s been talk of a shortened season, even chatter that the season might start early so the kids could have the month of December off in case of a second wave of pandemic. For now, though, it’s as close to business as usual as possible.
NOTES
• May 22 was the one-year anniversary of Howard’s hiring.
“We had a zoom call … it was the one-year anniversary of Coach getting hired. [Assistant] Howard Eisley was coming on to say happy anniversary coach … wow, it has been one year.
Howard and Eisley both learned quickly, Washington said.
“From the collegiate atmosphere to pace of recruiting, to working with our guys … and now, us having more of an identity so when we go into these recruiting presentations, it’s not so much, ‘oh, this is what Michigan is going to look like’ because we didn’t have any material, game or practice footage to show ‘hey, this is what you’re walking into.’
“Now fast forward a year later and we’ve got all kinds of information we can feed to our prospects and their families.”
• The freshman class has been impressive in the early going.
“They bring a level of toughness to them; a level of swag to them I think is going to be much needed, especially with a guy like Zavier Simpson having graduated and being gone, kind of being the heartbeat of the team,” Washington said. “I’m really excited about the returning guys and who is going to fill that leadership vacuum Jon [Teske] and Zavier Simpson left.”
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