Anaheim, Calif. — DeAndre Haynes is a father of three boys, all of them elementary-school age.
But most days, it feels as if there’s one more for Michigan’s young assistant coach. And it’s that one, over there, he says, nodding to the other side of a cramped locker room Wednesday, where sophomore shooting guard Jordan Poole is holding court with a group of reporters on the eve of the Wolverines’ NCAA regional semifinal.
“I tell everybody,” Haynes said, “he’s like my fourth son.”
Then he starts rattling off the latest examples from a frenetic few weeks of basketball, as Michigan’s postseason march beats a similar path — this Sweet 16 trip to southern California feels like déjà vu, “and it’s the kind of déjà vu I like,” jokes U-M athletic director Warde Manuel —with a few players cast in different roles.