Tai Streets admits that Morez Johnson Jr. caught more bass than him the last time they went fishing. And he’s been around his former pupil long enough to know that he was going to catch major flak for it. He always does. For that reason, the excuses started to fly.
“He caught more but that’s because he had real rods, I had to get mine from Meijer,” Streets, a form er star wide receiver for the Michigan football team, told The Michigan Daily. “I’m gonna get him back, though.”
The fishing trip was over the summer in Ann Arbor with some of Johnson’s new teammates on the No. 2 Michigan basketball team, at one of the nearby golf courses. Which course, exactly, wasn’t information to be shared. Graduate forward Will Tschetter has himself a spot he’d like to keep hidden.
“I don’t want to give up our secret location, Tschetter would get mad at me,” Johnson told The Daily. “When I asked him to take my picture (with a fish) he said, ‘I’m gonna edit the background so nobody knows (where we are).’ ”
Regardless of where exactly in Ann Arbor, that covert watering hole is roughly a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Ill., just south of Chicago. It’s the school Streets once graduated from on his way to a career in the NFL — and the place he now coaches his own young athletes with similar professional dreams.
One of those athletes was Johnson, the now-starting forward for the Wolverines in the midst of a breakout season. Johnson was coached by Streets two times, during his senior season at Thornton and his 17U AAU season with MeanStreets, the prestigious Chicago-area basketball program Streets founded back in 2001 that has developed the likes of Derrick Rose, Anthony Davis and Patrick Beverly.
Streets made a living playing football, but he’s made a lasting impact on his hometown through his years of coaching basketball. And before he did either, he attended the University of Michigan, where Johnson is now once again following in his footsteps.
Both athletes are Chicago born, attended the same high school and college, and possess an eerily similar competitive spirit that drives their lives forward. It’s no wonder they’ve become such good friends, they have so much in common.
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After the Michigan football team’s loss to Ohio State in November, Streets took Johnson out to eat at the Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Ann Arbor. Streets makes it a priority to check in on his former athletes. He checks in on Johnson more often than most.
Streets had just left the snowy football contest. Johnson had elected to stay home from the game rather than brave the elements, and met his former coach at the restaurant instead.
“He’s soft,” Streets said. “Too cold for him.”
That’s a joke, of course. An attempt at a one-up. Talk to either of them about the other long enough and you’ll find how common that kind of playful competition is between them. That their relationship is built on it, even.
At the steakhouse the pair discussed, among many things, Michigan’s first loss in five years to the Buckeyes, and what each thought were the main contributing factors to the collapse. After all, Streets knows a thing or two about beating Ohio State, having done it three times himself as a wide receiver for the Wolverines.
Streets played four seasons at wide receiver for Michigan, most notably catching two 50-yard plus touchdowns from Brian Griese in the 1997 Rose Bowl win over Washington State that captured a share of the National Championship. His senior season, Streets’ 906 yards and 11 touchdowns were enough to earn him Team MVP, an award that was given to Charles Woodson the season before, and Tom Brady the season after.
After graduating Streets went on to play six seasons in the NFL. He credits his time spent with the Wolverines for getting him there. In fact, he credits the University of Michigan and its athletic staff for a lot more than just that.
“That’s where I learned how to become an adult, how to become a man,” Streets said. “(Wide receivers) coach (Erik) Campbell and coach (Lloyd Carr), taught me so much about becoming a man… the mental side of it, the work you have to put in to be successful, that’s all the University of Michigan.”
The roots Streets planted as a student athlete at Michigan are one of two large reasons he frequently makes the drive from Chicago to visit so often. Johnson is the other.
“Morez, I kind of just have a bond with him,” Streets said. “I like the way he plays, his toughness, he loves to compete, and I love kids like that.”
In some ways, that’s because he is a kid like that. Streets, now 48 years young, still has enough competitiveness coursing through him to remind his athletes once in a while that they’d have nothing on him in his heyday. Johnson recalls Streets once jumping into a practice scrimmage he was running during Johnson’s senior year and hooping like his life depended on it.
“He was modeling his game after (Nikola) Jokic out there, it was actually pretty good,” Johnson said. “We won (though).”
It wasn’t unusual for Streets to hop into a practice, up until last year, when he went a little too hard and tore a quad muscle out on the court. He went down, but not until he absolutely had to.
According to Johnson, that level of competitiveness is synonymous with the Chicago area. It’s where it was embedded in him and his coach alike.
“Coach Streets got that (super competitiveness) in him a lot,” Johnson said. “He helped mold my game, my competitiveness, the motor, playing hard, not liking to be scored on.”
That’s high praise from a guy Michigan coach Dusty May refers to as his ‘junkyard dog.’
Johnson — much like Streets — is an incredibly physical athlete, who is currently filling the Wolverines’ need for such a high-intensity player on both ends of the court. Averaging 14 points and seven rebounds a game, Johnson’s been able to elevate his game in May’s big-man-friendly system in his sophomore season. Streets, of course, knew this would happen.
“(Michigan) is going to be great for him,” Streets said before the 2025-26 basketball season began. “Dusty gives the bigs the ability to score … not just rebounding, blocking shots and running the court.”
Streets has always been a strong advocate for his alma mater, but he doesn’t like to push his players in any direction they don’t choose themselves. Still, when Johnson fell into his hands at MeanStreets after already verbally committing to Illinois, Streets couldn’t just stand idly by and not say anything.
“Did he?” Johnson said sarcastically when asked if Streets ever brought up Michigan to him in high school. “He talked about it so much, but I was on the other end, trash talking him back. He’d say his school is the best school and I would say my school the best school.”
After a promising freshman campaign in Champaign, Johnson began exploring his options in the transfer portal. There were many, but it didn’t take long for the ball to get rolling with Michigan. And quickly, before he could even tell his old coach, Johnson made his new commitment.
“Somebody told me (he committed) and I was like ‘No way!’ ” Streets said. “Then he called me and told me, and I said, ‘You lying.’ I was happy, ecstatic.”
Of course he was. One of his favorite athletes was now attending his favorite university. That’s all it took for any school-related trash talk to cease at the drop of a hat.
“He said to me, ‘You really going there?’ I’m like ‘Yeah, man,’ and he said ‘Now you’re going to a real university,’ “ Johnson said.
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Michigan basketball’s first contest of the 2025-26 season was a home exhibition against Cincinnati on Oct. 17. Johnson was ruled out for minor injuries. Tai Streets went anyway.
It was a monotonous slog of a game, the pace grinding to a halt to the tune of 83 total free throw attempts, and the Wolverines eventually lost, 100-98. The offense was there all night for the Wolverines, but something was definitely missing on defense.
Streets, an avid lover and contributor to the game of basketball, had an answer as to why. Not surprisingly, that answer involved Johnson.
“Cincinnati kind of beat them up on the inside, that’s what they’re missing right now (with Johnson and junior center Aday Mara out),” Streets said. “It’s gonna be a good feeling when those two guys come back, and that team is gonna be special at the end of the day.”
After losing to the Bearcats, Michigan won its remaining exhibition game and are now off to a 14-0 start in the regular season. The Wolverines are currently ranked as the second-best team in the nation and have beat seven of their opponents by 40 points or more.
At the center of Michigan’s historic season has been Johnson — just as Streets predicted. Johnson is the team’s second leading scorer, third leading rebounder and plays a crucial role in the best interior defense in the country, per Kenpom. Through 14 games, the Wolverines’ opponents are shooting just 38.7% from inside, and Johnson’s relentless presence remains a primary cause of that.
“How much time do we have?” May said Dec. 6 when asked to talk about Johnson’s contributions to his team. “I could go (for hours) talking about that guy, we really appreciate him.”
Johnson is more than settled in Ann Arbor now as a major component on a championship-caliber team. It sounds familiar. As Michigan continues to navigate a season with now-extremely high standards, it would no doubt help to have a guy who’s been through it by your side — a guy like Streets.
Streets surpassed expectations both inside and outside his own athletic career, both thanks in large part to the time he spent in Ann Arbor. Johnson has now set out on his own journey to do the same. It’s not a question that as he navigates it, he’ll have a veteran, mentor and friend in his corner.
