A Special Coffee with Michigan Assistant Coach Akeem Miskdeen

Akeem Miskdeen is the Michigan Wolverines Assistant Coach under Dusty May. I had the pleasure of speaking with Akeem about recent and forthcoming games.

In April of 2024, Akeem Miskdeen joined the University of Michigan basketball program as an assistant coach, reuniting with U-M coach Dusty May. Miskdeen and May had previously worked together at Florida Atlantic University for three years between 2018 and 2021.

Miskdeen has nearly two decades of coaching experience and is known for his player development as well as his successes on the court. He has captured two regular-season titles, and three conference tournament championships and has led his team to seven postseason trips, including four to the NCAA Tournament (3 Division I, 1 Division II) during his 17 seasons on the sidelines.

In his first year at Michigan, Miskdeen helped U-M more than triple its win total from the previous season. The Wolverines posted a 27-10 overall record and finished tied for second in the Big Ten with a 14-6 record, earning the three seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

 Michigan Wolverines College basketball assistant coach. Akeem Mesquite. How are you doing, sir? 

Doing great. How about yourself? 

(Screamin) Ah, a little nervous that first half for those damn pesky gophers.  How about you? How did you feel that whole first half? 

(Akeem) Yeah, I mean, it's a unique style. You know, we haven't played a team that committed to just playing 2-3 the whole game. (0:47) So it was definitely an adjustment for our guys. But we felt confident the entire game because of our talent level and our capacity to will our way to winning games.

(screamin) Well, those damn gophers, it was 77-67. Now the second half, you kind of got control. 

 What were you most worried about? What were your thoughts going into the second half? 

(Akeem)Just that they dictated tempo. They're one of the slowest teams in the country.  So they dictated tempo and we couldn't get offensive rebounds. They did a good job of blocking out.

 Also took away our transition. We didn't send anybody to the glass.  If you look at our defensive rebound, we got every defensive rebound.

 But it sounds like maybe one.  So we were trying to just make shots.  They did a good job of collapsing in the lane.

 So it was hard to get our big guys the ball.  So we wanted to stay confident and make some shots and get open ones.  And we got a bunch of open shots.

Trey McKinney, L.J. Kason, Elliot Cadeau, they made some open threes, which helped us win the game. 

(screamin) And it helps to have a real tall guy on the team, too, doesn't it?

 (Akeem)  Yes, all the attention. You know, it's kind of, we call it indivisible plays. And by him being at the basket, he attracts so much attention that we can spray the ball out and shoot threes. 

(screamin)Now, coming up on Friday, your next game is against Illinois.

What's the homework assignment that the boys can expect to do? 

(Akeem) Man, one of the top, they're the number one offensive team in the country.  I don't know. I think they're number one or number two in offensive rebounding, too.

So we got to take care of that glass.  They're going to make some threes. Obviously, when you shoot a bunch of them, you're going to make them.

 But we got to take away their offensive rebound and kick out threes. So that's our number one key.  We have to rebound.