The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/402034
INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Athlon Sports fell in line with most pre- season prognosticators regarding Michi- gan basketball this season, picking the Wolverines to finish fifth in the now 14- team league. But in an opening piece written by Gary Parrish, there's a bit of an un-typed asterisk involved. Parrish, in listing "10 Things To Watch in '14-15," includes "John Beilein's Magic" as No. 6. Here is what he had to say about Michigan's head coach, who has guided the Wolverines into the Elite Eight the past two seasons, and all the way to the national championship contest in the spring of 2013. "Kentucky's John Calipari has transi- tioned more prospects from high school to the NBA than any other college coach in recent years, and he really is on an un- precedented run," Parrish wrote. "It's amazing. But what's equally impres- sive — and perhaps even more impres- sive — is how John Beilein has taken two prospects ranked outside of the top 75 of their high school classes and turned them into top-10 picks in consecutive years. One is Trey Burke, who left Michigan after two seasons and was picked ninth in the 2013 NBA Draft. The other is Nik Stauskas, who left Michigan after two seasons and was picked eighth in the 2014 NBA Draft. Both were Big Ten Players of the Year. "So what's Beilein's secret? "'We try to project whether a player is on the rise,' Beilein says, 'or if he's already where he's going to be [when we sign him].' "Let the record show that the Michi- gan staff is great at those projections. They clearly saw something in Burke and Stauskas that nobody else saw, and the byproduct of that was the Wolverines av- eraging 27.6 wins per season in the past three years. "So why is this relevant this preseason? Because Beilein has yet another unher- alded recruit positioned to possibly be a top-10 pick. His name is Caris LeVert. He's a 6-7 guard who was ranked 215th in the class of 2012. Now he's on every NBA franchise's radar and projected, by most right now, to be a lottery pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, provided LeVert makes himself available. "Either way, most of the shots Stauskas took last season will be LeVert's to shoot this season. That means he should aver- age more than 15 points per game for a nationally relevant program and be in contention for All-America honors." Athlon Cautions To Watch Out For 'John Beilein's Magic' "I was really pleased with how we battled. People could argue from different points [of view] and say maybe Nebraska didn't come out and play sharp in the first set. But in the second set, I thought they played really well, very, very strong and were playing at a level you'd expect, and we were matching them point for THEY SAID IT