The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/201975
michigan basketball outs, but he's been able to shoot and begin conditioning in various ways. "In the past two weeks, he's been doing stationary shooting and underwater treadmill work, and his conditioning levels are incrementally improving," assistant coach Bacari Alexander noted. "We suspect he'll be back available to us before our holiday tournament in Puerto Rico." McGary himself wouldn't pin down a timeline, but said: "It's day to day right now. I'm feeling really good about my body. I'm trying to get better each day. It's really no injury, just a lower-back condition. It's an issue we handled, and we're being cautious right now." Beilein underscored the caution aspect of handling McGary, noting: "He's making great progress, but we're super cautious. He's been doing these underwater treadmill workouts that are really productive. His heart rate … I know I couldn't do some of those. It's really good, but we're being cautious, as well. If he keeps making this progress day after day, one of these days he's going to have to get out there and see what he can do." • Beilein regularly waves off preseason expectations, but he's not totally dismissing the recognition the Wolverines earned on their way to the NCAA championship game last year. They enter the season without Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., but with a lot of veterans back, some talented freshmen, and a top-10 national ranking by most. "All those things are so premature," Beilein said. "We're not going to know what we lost until we find out what we can do. But at the same time, that's what Michigan should be. There should be high expectations every year. Now you don't do as well some years, so, well, the expectations were probably too much. It beats the alternative, certainly. "We're trying to handle it well, but after our second NCAA Tournament when we almost beat Duke there were high expectations. Last year they were even higher. They've been able to meet them pretty well. But you're never going to meet every one all the time." • Similarly, Beilein wonders about the Big Ten holding its generally recognized spot as last season's toughest basketball conference in the nation. He doesn't, however, doubt that it will be very good. "In today's basketball, it is really hard for any conference to be the monster conference every year," he said. "However, I see us winning recruiting battles. I see us having coaches and staff retention that should keep us at the top. "It could be a game or two … in the [Big Ten/ACC] Challenge, for example. There could be two buzzer-beaters, and the two last-place teams that determine which conference is better. "There might have been one time before I was here where it was getting three or four teams in [to the NCAA Tournament]. I don't see that ever happening again."