The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/122487
the rule, but if not — and if he has to see the field for a quarter or more, like Bellomy did last year — it could spell trouble for the Wolverines and their championship aspirations. *** During the past month, we polled subscribers weekly and sometimes twice a week, and two final tallies stood out. First, in a 64-team battle royale asking who Michigan fans would like to see the Wolverines schedule for a non-conference football game, the finalists were LSU and Oklahoma. The Tigers won out, earning 60 percent of the vote (after besting Stanford in the semifinals). LSU is an elite program that would bring incredible attention to the matchup, and would provide another opportunity for the Big Ten to try grabbing some momentum away from the vaunted SEC. Meanwhile, the Tigers are not the invincible force that is Alabama. Louisiana State also features a former Michigan Man as head coach, Les Miles. If that was the only history between the two schools, it would make for an intriguing plot line, but Miles was also rumored to have accepted the job to replace Lloyd Carr in 2008 (the rumors were false and forced Miles to hold a press conference 24 hours before the SEC Championship Game) and was seemingly again a frontrunner to replace Rich Rodriguez in 2011. Bringing Miles' Tigers to Ann Arbor would provide Michigan the chance to reclaim its place in the national landscape. Finally, a few days after the NCAA Tournament championship game, subscribers were asked who Michigan can least afford to lose after Trey Burke (presumed to be going pro), and 92 percent said freshman forward Mitch McGary, with four percent each voting for rookie forward Glenn Robinson III and junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr. McGary transformed this team and played a large role in the Final Four run the Maize and Blue made because he added a brand-new dimension on both ends of the court. Rugged in the paint, he cleaned up on the glass, averaging 10.7 boards in the NCAA Tournament in solidifying what had been a weakness for U-M, while his offensive skills — he averaged 14.3 points in the six-game tourney — also gave Michigan the low-post presence it has otherwise lacked during the John Beilein era. Robinson adds incredible athleticism but hasn't developed his game to the point where he's a top-three scoring option, while Hardaway is too inconsistent in big games, shooting 9 of 29 (31.0 percent) in the Final Four and 29 of 77 (37.7 percent) in the NCAA Tournament. Both are important players, but McGary has the most star potential of the three and can be a game-in and game-out impact player. ❏ Associate Editor Michael Spath has been with The Wolverine since 2002. Contact him at mspath@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @Spath_Wolverine.