U-M’s newest PG ready to make up for lost time
Pandemic consequences cost Jaelin Llewellyn 18 months
Jaelin Llewellyn looked up in the winter of 2020 and still couldn’t believe where he was — back in the gym at Virginia Episcopal High School, working as an assistant coach for his alma mater in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The coronavirus pandemic had already wiped out the NCAA postseason in March and eight months later, his Princeton Tigers still weren’t going to get to play, as the Ivy League was the lone Division I conference to cancel the 2020-21 season.
“It was the hardest year of my life,” Llewellyn said, reflecting on his journey from Princeton to Michigan basketball as he fielded questions at Crisler Center on Friday. “I went 18 months without seeing any of my teammates or my friends from school and I was just really excited to get back and get back to regular life, and I think that’s what kept me going.”
It’s clear Llewellyn is still hurt by what happened: Missing out on what would’ve been his true junior year and not getting to send his senior class off the way he’d hoped only added to the general loneliness he felt.
The Canadian border was closed and Llewellyn, an Alberta native whose family lives in Ontario, didn’t have a way home or what felt like a place to call home with his season canceled.
Still, he tried to look at the positive, practicing heavily to keep his game sharp.
“I had 24-hour gym access,” Llewellyn said. “I’m like, ‘What else am I going to do?’ so I just stayed in the gym as much as I can.”
The positive is a lot easier to see now that he’s getting that year of basketball back, as he’s expected to be Michigan’s starting point guard after transferring from Princeton.
“Sometimes I find myself angry that the COVID year happened,” he admitted. “But I think about how it gave me the opportunity to come here. I had a great senior year, but this is another opportunity to do it at another place with a different meaning and chase something even bigger.”
The transfer transition
Michigan had two four-year point guards — Derrick Walton Jr. (2013-17) and Zavier Simpson (2016-20) — overlap and bridge the end of the John Beilein era and the beginning of Juwan Howard’s tenure in Ann Arbor; they developed as Wolverines, grew into their roles and were known commodities within the program.
But Howard in his second and third seasons with the Wolverines has brought in experienced guards via the transfer portal, getting a season from Columbia’s Mike Smith (2020-21) and then Coastal Carolina’s DeVante’ Jones.
Now Llewellyn will have a season at the helm, after guard Frankie Collins opted to transfer to Arizona State soon after his transfer from Princeton.
“It’s not easy when you have a freshman point guard or a grad transfer come in and step in right away and be able to pick up a new system than what they’ve been accustomed to,” Howard said Friday. “But that’s where we as coaches, we embrace the opportunity to teach, learn and grow and we learn too as coaches as far as learning your players.”
As Michigan courted Llewellyn while he was in the portal, he reached out to someone with a similar experience: Smith, who averaged nine points and 5.3 assists in his lone season in Ann Arbor, walked him through the Michigan culture and program.
“I had a quick conversation with Mike
(Smith), he had nothing but support for me,” Llewellyn said. “It was great to know a fellow Ivy League guy came in here and had some success.”
‘Wow, I’m really representing Michigan’
Llewellyn’s game is similar to Smith’s — asked to drive the offense with his scoring at a mid-major. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound guard averaged 15.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game last year, shooting a career-best 38.6% from beyond the 3-point arc.
But just as Smith transitioned from a scorer to a passer in Ann Arbor, the expectation is for Llewellyn to create shots for his teammates, too.
Michigan assistant coach Saadi Washington said it’s not a coincidence; Howard’s staff looks for similar characteristics in its transfer guards.
Consistency is near the top of the list. The right attitude is paramount. Maturity is essential.
Llewellyn has shown all of them since joining the program this summer.
“Yeah, they’ll have some new things they’ll have to learn here, terminology, maybe different schematic things offensively and defensively,” Washington said. “But for the most part, a guy who’s been in school that long, they’ve kind of been through the paces and just need to get caught up to how we do things around here.
“Jaelin has been really good from the standpoint of having early leadership and being a steady guy. You need consistency, predictability and there is comfort in having an older guy in the locker room who’s been there and done it before.”
The Wolverines are hoping the parallels don’t stop there. Smith was one of the Big Ten’s surprise successes and helped lead the Wolverines to a regular-season conference title and a run to the Elite Eight in the 2021 NCAA tournament.
Llewellyn’s first big maize-and-blue moment happened on the team’s trip to Europe this summer, the first time he laced up his shoes against competition in Paris.
“We put the practice jerseys on and started playing against someone else, it kind of really made me feel like, ‘Wow, I’m really representing Michigan,’ being overseas,” he said. “You play against each other every day, it’s a grind, but when you play someone else, it’s like, ‘I need to go hard for what’s across my jersey.’ ”
Llewellyn said choosing Michigan was a pretty easy decision.
Howard always made him feel cared about, even before he’d committed. Secondly, there was a clear hole at point guard with Jones departing. The staff explained their plans for him and that void, which matched with his vision.
But another part of the decision came down to — as they say in real estate — location, location, location.
“Being a little closer to home is a lot nicer,” he said, smiling. “I went to high school in Virginia which is real far, then (New) Jersey is kind of in between.
“But now, my parents can start coming to some games.”