ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In four decades as a college coach, John Beilein says it’s happened only a few times before, these moments when a transformational personality arises and changes everything. One was a guy named Javone “Bam” Moore. He hailed from Brooklyn, was parentless by age 4 and went from playing at the legendary “Cage” at West 4th Street in New York to being the all-time leader in assists at Canisius College. Another is J.D. Collins, a Houston native who never expected to land at West Virginia, but ended up taking a 36-hour bus ride to Morgantown to play for a coach he hardly knew, and damn-near quit the team as a freshman before captaining the Mountaineers to the NCAA Tournament as an upperclassman.
The latest one? He stood in a scrum of media late Tuesday night, a crowd lined five deep after Michigan beat Ohio State, 65-49. He was asked about how he measures an opponent during a game. “I’m reading them, a lot,” he said. “Guys are tough with their mouth, but they’re not tough with their play.”
Zavier Simpson was tough again on this night and he spoke with his usual contempt for those who were not. He recounted a pregame dust-up, when he and an Ohio State player brushed shoulders.
“Oh yeah, yeah, got a little chippy,” Simpson said, eyes trained forward. “You know, everybody is tough on the court, till things really get deep. That’s when you know who is really tough.”
Even after two years of Simpson-brand basketball leading Michigan, it’s still jarring to hear a U-M basketball player speak this way. Simpson is often called the alpha, but perhaps that’s a short-sell. In reality, Simpson not only leads Michigan, but has grown to become the manifestation of this program — one rolling with a 20-1 record, fastened in a first-place tie with Michigan State in the Big Ten (9-1).
Like with Moore and Collins — a pair of diminutive point guards — Beilein has relinquished control of his team’s personality.
“They weren’t big-time shooters, but they ran the team,” Beilein said of those who came before Simpson. “Those two, they had the locker room, all the time. That was big. And he (Simpson) has the locker room. Coaches can only have so much of the locker room. It has to be player-led. He leads it.”
This night was only the latest example. Simpson left the floor Tuesday to a cacophony of chants. “Zayyyyy-vier, Simp-son!” He walked with a defiant stride as the sixth player in Michigan basketball history to officially record a triple-double. (Rebounds weren’t counted as a stat until 1958-59, and assists didn’t come until 1977-78, but that’s neither here nor there.) Simpson scored 11 points on a mixed bag of scoops and hooks, plus one dead-eyed, step-back 3-pointer. He handed out 12 assists, luring Ohio State’s defense in one direction, finding the open man in another. He grabbed 10 rebounds, despite being the shortest player on the floor.
And, like always, there was all the other stuff — the stuff that leads an opposing coach like Ohio State’s Chris Holtmann to say, “He deserves a lot of credit for how he impacts winning.”
Simpson delivered his usual stifling defense. He tracked down loose balls. He dictated the night’s pace and flow on both ends. He stepped chest-to-chest (so to speak) with 6-foot-9, 270-pound forward Kaleb Wesson when things got hot in the second half, a reminder that some grudges don’t die. Back in 2016, when Simpson led his Lima (Ohio) High School team to an undefeated regular season, it was Wesson’s team from Westerville, Ohio, that ended the winning streak in a painful state championship game loss. Simpson bitterly remembers the game to this day. That, in part, is why he was having none of the Buckeyes’ yapping.
“Guys like to talk, which I appreciate,” Simpson said. “I mean, we feed off that. That gets us going. So when they do that, we’re only hungry for more. We’re hungry to get the next stop, make the next open pass and just try to win.”
Simpson’s disposition is the common chord of Michigan basketball. When Wesson barked at Simpson, and Simpson barked back, all four Michigan players rushed into the fray, looking for a scrap. One was Jon Teske, once a timid fawn, who was now shoving Wesson and waving for the crowd, whipping it into a frenzy. Who are these guys, you wondered.
They’re Zavier Simpson.
“Going into the game, we knew he’s the head of the snake,” said Ohio State point guard C.J. Jackson.
What’s interesting is how willingly Beilein, a man in constant control, has handed over the reins. He doesn’t do so with everyone.
“It’s not easy to do, but (it comes) once you have enough conversations and you build your relationship through thick and thin,” Beilein said. “This relationship has been built. It always hasn’t been a bowl of cherries with he and I. You remember his freshman year and things like that. Once you get this give and take, he understands what you’re trying to do.”
Bam Moore, now 42 years old, clashed with Beilein as a freshman, too, back in 1993. What he remembers is how time transformed the relationship. Moore bought into Beilein’s obsessive preparation and came to believe in the system. Once he did, everything else became second nature. Moore thinks back and says: “Being with Coach Beilein on a day-to-day basis, as his point guard, I became him. I thought like him. In games, I never had to look over to him. It was a natural progression. I knew what we had to do because I knew what he wanted to do.” Some 20 or so years from now, Simpson will probably realize the same.
Similarly, like Simpson now, Beilein handed Moore the keys to Canisius’ locker room. The 6-foot point guard ended up taking the program to the 1995 NIT Final Four and the 1996 NCAA Tournament. He was later inducted in the school’s Hall of Fame. Moore explained the transfer of power as a matter of trust.
“It’s really important,” Moore said. “He coaches his staff and lets the captain get his message across. He’s not a rah-rah guy. That’s on someone else. Typically, on his teams, it’s the point guard. Sometimes you have to let the leader lead and (Beilein) has a way of knowing what to do and when to let go.”
Beilein let go of Simpson sometime late last season. He ended up taking that team to the Final Four. Who knows where this one will go.
It should be pointed out that, growing up, Simpson fell into all sorts of trouble as a kid for fighting in school. He was stubborn on the court and in the classroom. He matured as a teenager, but still carried some uncompromising contrarianism with him. In three years at Michigan, that personality hasn’t changed, but has instead transformed and evolved. He is his own person and this team is his avatar.
That’s only possible, though, because Simpson is earning a unique level of trust from Beilein. In a telling moment late Tuesday night, Simpson was asked about that pregame shoulder brush during warmups. Whether he meant to or not, in that moment, the player sounded an awful lot like his coach.
“It’s not about those type of plays,” Simpson said. “It’s about who’s gonna take the charge, who’s gonna grab that rebound, who’s gonna dive on the floor, who’s gonna make sure the team’s mindset is great.”
The captain summed things up. “That,” he said, “is real toughness.”
