The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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someone who built the roster and believed in it. "I remember that day when we lost to Arizona," Stauskas offered. "We were 6-4, and even Coach Beilein said: 'If we keep playing this way, we're not going to make the tour- nament.' That was kind of the day everything turned around, and we dedicated ourselves to being the best we could. "We just believed in ourselves. We were confident all year, and I'm just happy we could get to this point right here." They turned it, in almost unimagi- nable fashion from those doubt-rid- den days in December. Ten straight wins, including eight in a row to begin Big Ten play, sent a message serious as a slam dunk to the college basketball world. No Burke, Hardaway and McGary did not mean no continuation of the basketball renaissance in Ann Arbor. Help came from everywhere. Stauskas turned himself into Michi- gan's second straight Big Ten Player of the Year, adding to his three-point bombing runs with an ability to put it on the floor and blow by defend- ers. Classmate Caris LeVert blos- somed beyond starter into star at times, making plays when nobody else could. Sophomore Glenn Robinson III completed what ESPN analyst Tim McCormick described as "the best perimeter trio in college basketball," asserting himself and hitting late- season game-winners/clinchers against home-state schools Purdue and Indiana. The Wolverines never backed down on the road, winning at eventual Final Four representa- tive Wisconsin, in East Lansing, in Columbus, and so on. They wound up winning the Big Ten going away, by three games, with a 15-3 record, including a regular-season sweep of Michigan State, the team pegged by many as a preseason national cham- pionship squad. The Spartans exacted a little re- venge in the Big Ten Tournament title game, but Michigan brushed that off once music for the Big Dance began playing. The Wolverines shut down Wofford (57-40), rounded up Texas' Longhorns (79-55) and barely topped Tennessee (73-71), before succumb- ing to Kentucky's rim-crushing kid- die corps of behemoths. But a toe-to-toe battle with an NBA-talented team — won on a 24-footer from Aaron Harrison with LeVert's outstretched fingertips mil- limeters from the ball — wasn't go- ing to ruin this ride in the big picture. "I don't think it's a bit of a disap- pointment," Beilein said afterwards. "The only thing that would be a dis- appointment is if we didn't make the NCAA Tournament. This is a tough DIGITAL BONUS: CLICK THE ICON TO PLAY OR STOP THE PODCAST The Wolverine's John Borton talks with Tim McCormick