When the final seconds of the national championship ticked down last April, it was widely assumed that the Michigan Wolverines had just missed their opportunity.
The nation’s Player of the Year, Trey Burke, was assuredly going to take his elite quickness and supreme competitiveness to the professional ranks. Same for the streaky but potentially explosive shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. Together, the duo had just poured in almost half of the team’s points in the loss to Louisville (36 for Burke/Hardaway, 40 from the rest).
Generally, such a roster hit can only be softened at NBA factories like Kentucky or Kansas. Michigan has never been such a place. Still, with some solid pieces coming back and a couple of intriguing freshman, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for the Wolverines to sneak back into the NCAA tournament.
They’ve done that...and more. With just four games left, all against teams sitting in the bottom half of the conference standings, Michigan is in prime position to capture the Big Ten championship all by themselves for the first time since 1986. This current edition might not have a potential lottery pick like Roy Tarpley or a future rec league superstar like Antoine Joubert, but it has a unique blend of parts that has somehow managed to put together one of the more memorable and improbable campaigns in recent memory.
Early Returns Less Than Encouraging
It’s not as if John Beilein’s team stormed out of the gate, either. Throughout the non-conference schedule, this looked like a scrappy, but average club. They traveled to Iowa State and lost. They dropped a tournament final in Puerto Rico to a Charlotte team that has since gone on to have a disastrous season in Conference USA. A trip to Cameron Indoor in early December and subsequent defeat confirmed what everyone thought to be the case entering the year -- this team is too young, too small, and lost too much from 2013 to make a dent in the treacherous Big Ten.
When Beilein’s best inside player, Mitch McGary, went down for the count with a back problem, it was the coup de grâce. Nobody in their right mind was tabbing the wounded Wolverines for conference supremacy.
But that’s what keeps us coming back as sports fans. We can opine and analyze and predict from morning till night; but never do we know with certainty how the story will turn out.
Background Chorus to Top Billing
Even the bluest of Wolverine loyalists did not think that Nik Stauskas would ascend to the heights that he has this season. In last year’s remarkable run to the finals, Stauskas was a specialist. He could catch passes in the corner and bury shots when open, but otherwise, he was fairly timid. Under the bright lights of the Final Four, Stauskas was invisible -- one lonely basket spanning the two contests. The pressure of the moment got to him, and he played like exactly what he was. A freshman.
Things have changed dramatically since. As a sophomore, he owns the court. In Sunday’s in-state showdown with MSU, Stauskas couldn’t miss. Nine makes in 13 tries for 25 points. It mirrored his sterling effort in East Lansing one month prior when he canned five of six from downtown in another Wolverine win. As the de facto leader, he’s had to do more than just stand around and heave threes. Stauskas has been relied upon to attack the hoop and get to the line. To run pick-and-roll and find easy hoops for Jordan Morgan. To occasionally act as the primary ball-handler and be trusted not to turn it over. That last skill needs refinement, but all in all, Stauskas has been superb.
But he hasn’t done it alone. Caris LeVert has not only replaced Hardaway, he’s arguably been better. There were times last year when you could tell Tim Jr. was trying to prove himself to NBA scouts. He’d monopolize the ball and do too much on a team blessed with so many other weapons. LeVert seems to know exactly when and how to find his offense without disrupting the rhythm of the group. His added bulk (so they say) and Kevin Durant-like wingspan have made LeVert an irreplaceable cog on both ends of the court.
Overcoming Adversity
Nobody has epitomized this team’s fighting spirit more than that of Morgan, the Wolverines’ lone senior and unsung hero. His first two winters in Ann Arbor were everything he could have hoped for. He was the team’s lone big man, and would often take the court accompanied by a quartet of guards and imitation forwards. It was quite a load to carry for a player standing just six-foot-eight. He played big minutes on a nightly basis.
Then last year, as a varsity jacket-toting upperclassman, he was suddenly and unceremoniously dropped off the face of the earth. The freshman McGary was the talk of the town, and Morgan was tossed to the corner of the garage like a depleted basketball that had used up all of its air.
As Michigan navigated through the unforgiving waters of March Madness, Morgan was nowhere to be found. He played one minute in the opener. He never even took off his warmups in the next. Totaling all six games of the tournament, Morgan accounted for exactly one hoop.
He could have sulked. He could have started making plans for a senior year elsewhere (though he did consider this). He could have yelped to the media about busting his butt for two years only to be shoved aside when the going finally got good. But that’s not Morgan’s style. He took the demotion in stride, and looking back at the title game against Louisville, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone playing harder than #52 during his eight minutes of action.
Now he’s reaping the fruits of his labor. Morgan and Jon Horford represent all of the team’s inside bulk, and they’ve done a perfectly acceptable job protecting the team’s paint. They consistently finish around the rim and work tirelessly to make sure rebounding deficits never get too far out of hand. Oftentimes this type of tandem is referred to as a “two-headed monster,” and while not necessarily menacing on that level, Morgan-Horford have been just scary enough to prevent teams from dominating Michigan on sheer size and strength alone.
A Soft Schedule Down The Stretch
It’s been 28 years since the maize and blue stood alone at the top of the Big Ten basketball standings.
Today, they are in first place with just four games to go. Roadies with lesser-lights Purdue and Illinois. Home dates with pesky but inconsistent Minnesota and Indiana.
It’s not often that a national runner-up could also qualify as the next season’s underdog team, but that’s been just the case for Michigan in 2014. They lost their backcourt to the NBA and a top big man to injury. Yet the train never stopped moving.
There are teams with more talent dotting the rest of the country and this Wolverines’ roster is still brimming with youth. In all likelihood, this season will not culminate with little Spike Albrecht cutting down the nets in Arlington. But that won’t take away from what has been one of the most surprising and refreshing conference seasons in Michigan history.
You could say that you saw it coming. That 11 and 3 was your prediction from the start. That you knew Stauskas would turn into a star and LeVert into the ideal second banana. But we wouldn’t believe you. And Geppetto would be upset.
Ten years ago, Tommy Amaker was stuffed into a ghastly mock turtle and shouting instructions at LaVell Blanchard. Now the team is on the doorstep of a regular season crown. Things certainly have changed.
This is a basketball school now.
