Plenty has been made about the culture that Joanne Howard has created within Michigan

Men's Basketball's program, and most certainly that's understandable, but you're not born with

quote-unquote culture, right? You develop your own culture, your own values, thanks to the

experiences you have, and probably more importantly, the people you encounter and the people

who truly have an impact on you.

For Joanne Howard, the Miami Heat Organization is certainly a huge part of it, but he has

made this program his by leaning on a wealth of experiences with a ton of different people.

There are a few instances of someone being part of that developmental process and a part of the current program.

One of those examples is Jay Smith, our guest today.

Jay was an assistant at Michigan during the Fab Five era.

He is now Michigan's director of player personnel and development,

one of Juan Howard's first hires when he got the job here in Ann Arbor.

During this conversation with Jay, you'll hear about his passion for Michigan,

his passion for Juan, and his passion for this program.

And I'm sure you've heard the phrase plenty in sports, buy-in.

That's something that's brought up a lot.

I think the way people interpret that is, oh, well, a player has to buy into the

coach's teaching, and an assistant has to buy into the head coach's way. And I don't know if

that's necessarily always linear. It doesn't have to be a buy-in of someone, quote-unquote,

below someone in the program. As you'll likely gather during this conversation, with

Juan Howard and Jay Smith, it's not really a one-way buy-in. Coach Howard and Coach Smith bought

in to each other. Joanne is a player when Jay was the assistant, and now decades later,

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