Mike Jackson, an assistant basketball coach at Michigan since 2005, has suddenly decided to leave the program to be an assistant at Purdue. The move was rumored over the weekend and became official today. Here is what John Beilein had to say about losing an assistant in the middle of the offseason:
"We appreciate the positive contributions that coach Mike Jackson has made to Michigan Basketball," Beilein said. "We wish Mike nothing but the best in his future professional endeavors. My intention is to move quickly and efficiently to fill this coaching staff opening. Currently, we have an energized and proven staff in place. My focus is to add another experienced and knowledgeable teacher of the game, who has college recruiting experience both here in Michigan and throughout the Big Ten footprint."
Jackson originally came to Michigan when Tommy Amaker was the head coach, but Beilein retained him when he took over the program. Part of that was because of Jackson's strong ties to Detroit. He was a very good recruiter for Michigan, especially in the Detroit area, which makes sense since he went to Detroit Mercy and was an assistant there for five years.
The Michigan coaching staff for the 2010-11 season will look quite a bit different than the one that was in place at this time last year. In addition to losing Jackson to Purdue, Jerry Dunn and Jeff Mahoney left the program back in April. Those vacancies were filled by Jeff Meyer, who was already with the program, and Bacari Alexander, who previously coached at Western Michigan. Now that Jackson is gone, John Beilein will have to hire yet another new assistant coach.