Recalling the Day COVID Ended March Madness, Michigan Careers of Simpson, Teske
March 12, 2020 was unforgettable. But life moved on, and both 'X' and 'Big Sleep' have moved onto professional basketball careers.
Jon Teske’s parents, Julie and Ben (left), and his youngest sister, Abby, posed with the 2020 Big Ten Tournament bracket that never got completed.
By Steve Kornacki
It has been 365 days since I spoke with Zavier Simpson and Jon Teske about their college basketball careers coming to an abrupt end on March 12, 2020.
We talked in the lobby and coffee shop of the team hotel, and I conversed with other players as well. Parents and family members were there, too. It was a somber time. Most teams part ways for the final time after a lost game, not a lost postseason.
I had Teske’s parents, Julie and Ben, pose with his younger sister, Abby, in the lobby with the 2020 Big Ten Tournament bracket that never got completed.
Simpson and Teske won 108 games in four years at Michigan, four more than any other Wolverine ever had. They went to one Final Four and won a pair of dramatic Big Ten Tournament championships.
They were part of a group that I spent much time with. We’d survived a plane crash on an aborted flight at Willow Run Airport before they won the 2017 conference tourney. I’d been there with them when they laughed and doused Coach John Beilein with water bottles after big wins. And I saw them cry, too, after losing a national championship game to Villanova in San Antonio.
So, it was an odd way to say good-bye to two great guys I’d seen come in as freshmen and grow so much.
Neither “X” (Simpson) nor “Big Sleep” (Teske) went in the NBA Draft, but both signed as free agents.
Teske has played in one game for the Orlando Magic, grabbing four rebounds in five minutes without taking a shot. The 7-foot-1 center is averaging 6.7 points and 3.5 rebounds for the Lakeland (Fla.) Magic of the NBA’s G League.
Simpson is playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s G League entry – the Oklahoma City Blue. The hard-driving point guard averages 9.8 points, 6.1 assists and 4.3 rebounds.
I was writing last year for the University of Michigan Athletic Department website, MGoBlue.com, and here’s a link to the story from that day:
A hard, hard time. Thanks for sharing Steve.