ANN ARBOR — The voice on the other end of the phone pauses before saying, “I don’t know, he’s just one of those outliers.”



This is Matt Zeysing. He’s the curator of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame — the big one, the one in Springfield, Massachusetts, the defining resting place for the greats and the ghosts. This weekend, the Hall is welcoming Ray Allen, Maurice Cheeks, Lefty Driesell, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Katie Smith and Tina Thompson as its 2018 induction class. It’s a fine class, but, once again, it’s one man short.



Zeysing does not decide who receives induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame. Don’t blame him; he has no say. He is, however, the authority on how the induction process works and what it entails. Zeysing is the caretaker. He knows the how and why.



And when it comes to Rudy Tomjanovich, Zeysing concedes: “Man, yeah, that’s a tough...