The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1508023
10 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2023 ❱ INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS The highly respected annual Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook pre- views the upcoming men's basketball season and makes projections on teams and players. The recently released publication predicted the order of finish in the Big Ten for 2023-24, and picked Michigan to finish 12th in the league. No U-M players were listed among the five preseason All-Big Ten selections. The Wolverines are coming off an 18-16 (11-9 Big Ten) season in which they missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015. They lost their top three scorers — Hunter Dickinson (transfer to Kansas), Jett Howard (NBA) and Kobe Bufkin (NBA) — and have had little fanfare after the defections. The Big Ten first had 14 teams in the 2014-15 season. Since then, Michigan's lowest finish was ninth in both 2014-15 and 2019-20. The last time the Maize and Blue concluded third-to-last or worse was in 2007-08, former head coach John Beilein's first season at the helm, when they were ninth of 11 squads. So, technically speaking, Michigan has never finished 12th in the Big Ten, the only league in which the men's basketball program has ever competed. In 2022-23, Wisconsin and Nebraska tied for 11th in the Big Ten with a 9-11 conference record. Ohio State (5-15) and Minnesota (2-17) checked in 13th and 14th. If Michigan does finish 12th this coming season, it's assumed it would post a sub-.500 league mark for just the seventh time this century and first time since 2014-15. Blue Ribbon picked Purdue to repeat as Big Ten regular-season champions. The Boilermakers have the most titles, 25, among all teams in the league. Here's a look at the outlet's projected standings: Standing Team 2022-23 Big Ten Record (Finish) 1. Purdue 15-5 (1st) 2. Michigan State 11-8 (4th) 3. Maryland 11-9 (T-5th) 4. Indiana 12-8 (T-2nd) 5. Wisconsin 9-11 (T-11th) 6. Illinois 11-9 (T-5th) 7. Ohio State 5-15 (13th) 8. Northwestern 12-8 (T-2nd) 9. Rutgers 10-10 (T-9th) 10. Iowa 11-9 (T-5th) 11. Nebraska 9-11 (T-11th) 12. Michigan 11-9 (T-5th) 13. Penn State 10-10 (T-9th) 14. Minnesota 2-17 (14th) — Clayton Sayfie Sophomore Ernest Hausmann has been a huge addition to the Michigan line- backing corps this year after transferring from Nebraska following last season. The Wolverines' coaches feel they have three starters between him, junior linebacker Junior Colson and sixth-year linebacker Michael Barrett. All have played well in the early going — the trio is tied for the team lead in tackles, at 9 stops apiece through two games — with Hausmann the third man in. The native of Columbus, Neb., talked about his role and more in this Q&A. The Wolverine: Take us through your thought process in coming to Michigan from Nebraska. Ernest Hausmann: "It wasn't an easy deci- sion, by any means, leaving my family down there in Nebraska, also all the relationships I was able to build there from high school and at Nebraska, as well. It was never an easy decision, but I also knew that at the end of the day, I had to make the best decision for me going forward. And I knew coming to Michigan was going to be the best for me." The Wolverine: Michigan replaced your position coach, George Helow, with Chris Partridge. What was it that still made you come? Hausmann: "Coach Helow, he's a good guy. He was the one that gave me the phone calls to give me an opportunity to come here in the portal. Obviously, a hard posi- tion. I feel for him in that position. He's the one that recruited me, and so it wasn't always easy for me to see him not be my coach coming in here. But I also knew that the person they were going to bring in, he was able to take care of me and be able to lead me to the right direction." The Wolverine: What was it like taking the field for your first game after playing here in a Nebraska uniform last year? Hausmann: "It felt like home walking down the tunnel. This is the place to be. It felt so awesome and so surreal … I'm so grateful for the opportunity. It was an awesome moment." The Wolverine: How long did it take you to learn the playbook? Hausmann: " That 's the thing I love about a playbook … each week there are so many things that you change about it. So, you might know the playbook on a Saturday, and on Monday, it changes. And that's why the whole game week prep, there's nothing like it in any other sport. You go through a whole spring, fall camp, fall camp rules, but the playbook, there's a lot of variables that go into it." The Wolverine: You're playing multiple positions in the middle of the defense. How hard is it to switch back and forth between Mike [middle] and Will [outside] linebacker? Hausmann: "The main thing for me is how I can decipher between the two posi- tions. One play, I could be playing Mike, the other play I could be playing Will, based on rotation. It's being able to know what position, be able to decipher in my mind to switch to that position, because there's a lot of different things to it. We've been working at that since fall camp." — Chris Balas Hausmann is considered a third starter at linebacker, rotat- ing between the Mike and Will positions in his first year at Michigan. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL ❱ Sitting Down With Michigan Sophomore Linebacker Ernest Hausmann MICHIGAN MEN'S BASKETBALL PROJECTED TO FINISH 12TH IN BIG TEN