The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/262939
inches) and increasing every mea- surable available. Sometimes the days ended with pickup games, often against invited players from Eastern Michigan. "Those days were busy, from about noon to seven or eight," Stauskas admitted. "We would just be in the gym, working as hard as we could. "It was fun. For me and Caris, it was a chance to bond and become really good friends. We were pretty much together all day long, and we lived together. It was fun in that aspect. At the same time, it was a grind." Even then, Stauskas emphasized, the summer represented a very pur- poseful grind. "We're both guys who are really self-motivated," he said. "I know for me, with the way the season ended, losing in the Final Four … person- ally, I didn't play well in any of those games. I just had a bad taste in my mouth to finish the season. I just wanted to make sure I came back a different player." Stauskas did so, as sure as bliz- zards in British Columbia. But there wasn't any sort of coronation, Beilein assured. "It wasn't like once Oct. 1 came, we said, 'Nik, you're the man. You're going to get it,'" Beilein said. "He's earned this opportunity." Stauskas made the most of it in East Lansing, fighting off another Big Ten Player of the Year candidate in Harris to help U-M snare the rare victory in Tom Izzo's torture cham- ber. Stauskas' only prior experience there involved a 75-52 humbling, in which the NCAA championship game-bound Wolverines seemed far from any shining moment. "It felt really good, especially after getting blown out last year, and kind of embarrassed," Stauskas acknowl- edged. "Having a young group com- ing back this year, and to see Derrick [Walton] play the game he did at East Lansing, just the rivalry between the teams, going up there with College Game Day, and get a win, it was a lot of fun. That's probably going to be one of my most memorable games at Michigan." He helped make it that way down the stretch, drilling a three-point shot from almost the exact same spot Stu Douglass sent one home to drop the Spartans in 2011. This time around, the Wolverines clawed back all game long, just trying to catch up, much less gain separation. "There were about three minutes left, when Caris pitched it back to me for a transition three, and on the next play, there was a steal and Der- rick went in for the and-one layup," Stauskas reveled. "That put us up by six at that point, and those two plays were just huge." The roller-coaster ride down eight days later felt hugely disappoint- ing. Stauskas, and Michigan's staff, needed to react quickly to the Ca- nuck Clampdown. It wasn't going to get any easier, given the perceived chink in Stauskas' and Michigan's armor. Beilein challenged Stauskas to not give in to resignation over smother- ing defenses, at the same time grab- bing the white board to design ways