The 2019-20 season was an adjustment, to say the least for first-year Michigan basketball assistant coach Phil Martelli. After spending 24 years as St. Joseph's head coach, last season was the first one in which Martelli was an assistant coach since the 1994-95 campaign. Beyond not being in the head coach's seat, Martelli had never been a part of a high-major program until he got to Ann Arbor, another thing he had to get used to.
"To say ‘different’ would be understating it," Martelli told Jon Rothstein on the College Hoops Today Podcast. "It was exciting because of the people, because of Juwan Howard, who would go on a Mount Rushmore of human beings that I’ve been involved with in my life.
"Everybody there was striving for excellence, and obviously was much bigger than what I had been exposed to. Every day was exciting, every day was interesting and every day was challenging because [I was] trying to find my place. For so long as a head coach, you really have your voice, and you’re voice carries the day, whether it’s what time the bus leaves or academics or summer planning or camp planning, future scheduling. And now, there was a role. Everybody at Michigan and everybody at a bigger program had their responsibilities. I wanted to make sure that I stayed in my lane, that I gave as much as I was getting."
Martelli had the challenge of toeing the fine line between giving his input based on his decades of experience as a head coach and being too overbearing. He recognized he had to let Juwan Howard make the decisions, while still realizing that he was brought in for his knowledge.
"What I did was I kept a lot of notes, and at the moment in time when it was appropriate, when it could be one-on-one, I would go in and I would use terms like ‘I suggest,’ not ‘I would,’ because I didn’t want to bring that like ‘I would.’ I didn’t have all the answers, and what I would pick and choose my times. And, there were some things that I held onto Jon that now in the spring, as we’re connecting, I can bring up. There were many times in meetings and game prep, even at halftime of games, ’What do you think?’ And, I really appreciated being asked that. What I can say at the end of the day is I know I was heard, and that’s all I could ask for. I didn’t have to be listened to on everything, but as long as I was heard."
"It did take a while to pick and choose when to present … I chose to present more one-on-one than in group settings."
Although he's embracing his new role, Martelli said he's open to the possibility of being a head coach again, but only somewhere that could compete for national championships.
"Well, absolutely I aspire to be a head coach, and you know everybody in the country in this arena, and all of us are driven by egos, so all of us believe that we can do something special," he said.
"I say with great praise that at Michigan, every person that wakes up that’s involved with the basketball program, is pursuing a national championship. That’s been exciting, that’s been invigorating, it’s everything that you can imagine.
"So, as I look at what would be the next opportunity, I would say to somebody, I would like to know that everybody is all in on pursuing a championship. Not everybody can pursue national championships. The system’s not build that way. At Michigan, you can.
"To be in a locker room where you could turn around and say, ‘Come on fellas, let’s go cut down these nets,’ that would be the opportunity that I would be looking for, that I would listen to and I would again go back to the same approach as going to Michigan. I would talk to my family first, and make sure that they were comfortable with, ‘This is the next chapter in my book.’"
For now, he's a Wolverine, excited for his second year in Ann Arbor. He noted the challenge of replacing senior point guard Zavier Simpson and senior center Jon Teske, with the possibility of junior forward Isaiah Livers and sophomore guard Franz Wagner leaving early for the NBA.
"That’s not a worry, it’s a thought process," Martelli said of having to replace Simpson and Teske's production, also noting that he has a better understanding for the style of play in the Big Ten, which will make things easier for him in his second go-around in the conference.
"There’s an excitement, along with being a little bit of anxiousness, with Franz making a decision or Isaiah making a decision, because they are all-league players."
Helping with the replacement of some key players will be the highly touted freshman class that is slated to come in. The Wolverines have five commits so far in the class of 2020, and could still add one more.
Martelli said landing elite prospects in year one of the new coaching staff is a testament to Howard's ability to connect with recruits and their families.
"The human being," Martelli said after being asked what allowed Howard to reel in such a talented class. "Straight up, flat out, the human being.
"The connections that Juwan made as a parent ... obviously his sons played on the major summer and spring circuits. Juwan Howard was there as a parent, and he’s approachable, he’s the real deal. There’s nothing phony, there’s nothing ‘coach’ about him.
"Extraordinary in the way that he could build a relationship and that he could almost tirelessly communicate and connect with not just young people, but the people closest to them. He did a remarkable job from day one, on presenting what he was about, and what he was about was a family approach. He wanted to recruit families, and he made that clear and evident every step of the way.
"The campus visits at Michigan are led by Juwan, and to walk around with him and to see the students’ reaction to him, the staff on campus, the faculty, parents visiting, everybody had a story and he had time for every one of those stories. People took notice. Families took notice that he was first and foremost a good human being."
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