00:00Hello, everybody, and welcome to a different edition of Coffee with the Assistant Coach
00:06this time around, Michigan Wolverines College Basketball Assistant Coach.
00:10Please welcome Akeem Miskadeen.
00:12How are you doing, sir?
00:13Doing great.
00:14Doing great.
00:15How about yourself?
00:16A little nervous that first half for those damn pesky gophers.
00:20How about you?
00:20How did you feel that whole first half?
00:22Yeah, I mean, it's a unique style.
00:25You know, we haven't played a team that committed to just playing 2-3 the whole game,
00:30so it was definitely an adjustment for our guys, but we felt confident the entire game
00:37because of our talent level and our capacity to wheel our way to winning games.
00:42It was 77-67.
00:45Now, the second half, you kind of got control.
00:47What were you most worried about?
00:48Were you worried about the impressive defense on the three-point press?
00:54What were your thoughts going into the second half?
00:57They're one of the slowest teams in the country, so they dictated tempo,
00:59and we couldn't get offensive rebounds.
01:02They did a good job of blocking out.
01:04They took away our transition.
01:07They didn't send anybody to the glass.
01:09If you look at our defensive rebound, we got every defensive rebound besides like maybe one.
01:14So we were trying to just make shots.
01:17They did a good job of collapsing in the lane, so it was hard to get our big guys the
01:21ball.
01:21So we wanted to stay confident and make some shots and get open ones,
01:26and we got a bunch of open shots.
01:28Trey McKinney, LJ Kayson, Elliot Cadeau, they made some open threes, which helped us win the game.
01:34Kind of helps to have a real tall guy on the team too, doesn't it?
01:37Yes, yes, all the attention.
01:39You know, it's kind of, we call it indivisible plays,
01:43and by him being at the basket, he attracts so much attention
01:47that we can spray the ball out and shoot threes.
01:49Now, coming up Friday, your next game at Illinois,
01:52what's the homework assignment that the boys can expect to do?
01:55Man, one of the top, they're the number one offensive team in the country.
02:00I don't know, I think they're number one or number two offensive rebounding too.
02:04So we got to take care of that glass.
02:06They're going to make some threes.
02:07Obviously, when you shoot a bunch of them, you're going to make them.
02:09But we got to take away their offensive rebound and kick out threes.
02:14So that's our number one key.
02:15We have to rebound.
02:16Now, I've noticed those last three or four games,
02:21it's been getting pretty tense out on the basketball court,
02:25almost to the point of fisticuffs.
02:27Now, for you as an assistant coach, what are your duties?
02:31Do you protect the players?
02:32Do you protect Dusty?
02:34Does it matter the situation of the game?
02:36And I know you're not going to throw a punch,
02:38but I'm pretty sure you're going to grab somebody.
02:41What are your duties when that happens?
02:43I don't have to worry about Coach.
02:44Coach, he has a come demeanor.
02:46None of us have to worry about Coach.
02:48Our job is to make sure our players don't run off the bench, number one,
02:51because we don't want any of our guys losing games for running off the bench
02:55and make sure our guys on the court are away from their team.
02:59So that's what we would do.
03:01But we got really smart guys, and they're not going to do anything.
03:04We played at Michigan State.
03:05It was things going on there, and our guys kept their cool.
03:09So our guys, they're smart.
03:11They're not going to do anything that's going to tarnish their legacy here or their name.
03:16Now, what's practice looking like before the game on Friday?
03:19With these games in February, it's only so much you can do.
03:23It's more film and walkthroughs than shooting as opposed to practice.
03:28So we had, what, we had 10 days, and we played Purdue, Duke, Minnesota,
03:36and now we're about to play Illinois in 10 days.
03:38So it's only so much you can do.
03:39We want to have our guys have fresh legs.
03:42So we'll just shoot, walk through some stuff, and watch them film.
03:45Now, you've got quite a resume yourself under your belt,
03:48being with University of Florida, Georgia, Kent State, and many, many more.
03:53Now, the untold story, what is it really like working for Dusty?
04:00It's really great.
04:02I mean, he lets you do your job.
04:05One thing that I think his superpower is he's very inquisitive.
04:10He's always trying to learn.
04:12And obviously, he works harder than anybody I've ever seen in my life besides my father.
04:17But, man, I've learned so much from him.
04:21It's great.
04:22You know, he lets you do your job.
04:25So it's great.
04:26I'm glad to call him a friend, a mentor, and I'm glad to call him my boss,
04:30even though he will never, he will hate when somebody ever say that.
04:33But I'm glad that I work for him.
04:35I'm really fortunate to work for him and learn from him every day.
04:38Well, it's coffee with the assistant coach, Akeem Miskadeen.
04:41I want to ask you, March Madness, is it in the back of your brain right now,
04:46or is it focused on forward that it's getting a little closer?
04:51Well, it's in the back of my brain.
04:53I think we want to win the Big Ten outright.
04:56And obviously, we want to win the Big Ten tournament.
04:58You want to win as much as you can, man.
05:00We take every possession, every game seriously.
05:04That's in the front of my brain.
05:05In the back of my brain, of course.
05:06You know, I'm human, so I'm going to think about March Madness.
05:09But right now, it's on to Illinois.
05:11I'm from Illinois.
05:13You know, one of my close friends growing up was Dee Brown.
05:16So I want to go beat Illinois and say, you know, I was able to win it in Illinois at
05:21Champaign.
05:22And to me, that would be a big-time honor.
05:24I'm sure Merez and everybody else on our team and our staff, we want to beat Illinois so we can
05:28win the outright championship.
05:29So that's all our focus is on Illinois right now.
05:33Now, I want to ask your opinion on the difference between last year's team and this year's team.
05:40What big difference do you see in the boys?
05:42I would say our depth.
05:43Our depth is unique.
05:45I mean, everyone has said it throughout media.
05:47We have one of the best benches in the country.
05:50You know, we can go nine deep.
05:51So that's the biggest difference.
05:54Now, being a coach, do you find yourself getting advice from friends and family?
06:02And even people that have watched the movie Hoosiers too many times.
06:07Do you ever get people that's like, hey, Akeem, what if you guys did this pick and roll thing?
06:13And, you know, try to – does anybody often pass along some advice for you?
06:19All the time, like any job, everybody's going to give you some advice all the time.
06:26I got a big family.
06:28I got a lot of friends that coach, a lot of friends that think they can coach.
06:32So they always give me advice.
06:34You know, I always humbly listen.
06:37But, you know, I'm going to do what our team needs me to do and what Dusty needs me to
06:43do to help this team win.
06:44So I'll listen, but that doesn't mean I'm going to apply it.
06:46Well, I can just imagine, Akeem, your schedule is just utterly crazy at times.
06:52Did you get a chance to see the men's or women's Olympic hockey at all or just the highlights?
06:59So I saw the ending.
07:00Yeah, I saw the ending actually in the hallway here at Chrysler and PDC here.
07:05I saw the ending and, you know, I love it.
07:09I love it that we're able to win a gold medal in hockey.
07:12You know, that's big for young hockey players, just like when I was growing up and I saw the Olympic
07:17team in basketball, like young hockey players around the country.
07:21You know, that's going to inspire these guys to, you know, go to the missions of the world and compete
07:28and possibly win the next Olympic title.
07:30So, yeah, I was able to watch some of it and I'm proud that we won the Olympic medal and
07:37I'm rooting for our hockey team.
07:38You know, I got to experience my first hockey game a couple of weeks ago and it was, man, we
07:43played Michigan State and we beat them and it was big time.
07:46And I'm excited about all of that.
07:48Now, the reason I ask that question is the hockey team had a theme song.
07:53They used Freebird a lot from the band Leonard Skinner with you being so close to your teammates there.
08:01Besides Hail to the Victors, of course, is there any specific song that you hear the team like or gets
08:10pumped up playing that we don't know about?
08:13Man, our guys are so different.
08:16They love all types of music, like Yaks likes slow R&B.
08:21They're all over the place with their music.
08:25So I don't know.
08:26Individually, they have different musics, but I don't think together they get pumped up over any song.
08:32I think they just get pumped over our matchup, who we play.
08:35All right, to light the load, we're going to do some rapid fire questions.
08:38And you tell me either or real quickly.
08:40Christmas or Halloween?
08:42Christmas.
08:43Okay.
08:43Folling.
08:44Have you ever heard of foaling where it's the football into the bowling pins?
08:47Folling or Canadian curling?
08:50Neither.
08:52Steak or seafood?
08:53What do you like better?
08:54Steak.
08:55Cats or dogs?
08:56Dogs.
08:57Favorite season of the year, winter, spring, summer, or fall?
09:00Summer, easily.
09:01Morris Day in the Time or Grandmaster Flash?
09:06Oh, man.
09:07Either.
09:08Either.
09:08Okay.
09:08And the last one, it's a trick question.
09:11Ohio State or Michigan State?
09:13Neither.
09:15Well, thank you so much, Akeem, for taking some time.
09:18It's indeed a big pleasure.
09:21Best of luck to you Friday, as well as down the road and for the tournament.
09:26Thank you so much.
09:28Akeem Miskuddin, the assistant coach for the Michigan Wolverines basketball.
09:33This is Coffee with the assistant coach with me, Screaming Scott.
09:37Thanks, Akeem.
09:39Go Blue.
09:40Go Blue.
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