The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/402034
BASKETBALL14-15 and puts sophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr. on its preseason third team. LeVert also gets recognition as the leagues "Most Underrated Player." With regard to a recruiting roundup, the publication states: "Highly ranked four-star combo forward Kameron Chatman is the jewel of the Wolver- ines' class." The publication does pick the Wol- verines to make the NCAA Tourna- ment and win a game before bowing MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Michigan head coach John Beilein likes sophomore swingman Zak Irvin's work on rounding out his skills this summer. A sniper off the bench last season, Irvin should be a better all-around performer in 2014-15. "He has shown that in practice," Beilein said. "He rebounded well at times during our foreign trip, and showed what he can do being a defender and a rebounder. He's making a lot of the same strides that we saw [junior guard] Caris [LeVert] make from his freshman to his sophomore year. He made big baskets for us as a freshman, and so did Caris. Now, what's the next progression? Getting in the lane, finding people and playing off the dribble. We love the way he played this summer." • Beilein's buzzword on combination options this year appears to be "versatility." He knows he's got pieces to move around the chessboard, and he intends to do so. "We have guards, we have forwards and we have a guy that plays in the middle," Beilein said. "Sometimes we will have four guys out there at one time that are guards. Because of [freshman] Kam's [Chatman] ball-handling ability, I think he can play a lot of positions. This may be one of our more versatile teams, and hopefully we have enough injury-free depth that [senior] Max [Bielfeldt] gets back and everybody else is healthy at the center position to really be able to do some things. "I expect [sophomore guard] Caris [LeVert] to play a lot of positions; obviously [guards] Derrick [Walton, a sophomore] and Spike [Albrecht, a junior] will play together at times. I think we'll have great flexibility. I can't say enough about the way [freshman guards] Muhammad [-Ali Abdur-Rahkman] and Aubrey [Dawkins] played over the summer, a little bit beyond their years." • Beilein is also excited to have transfer Duncan Robinson, a 6-8, 190-pound sophomore swingman, on board. Robinson cannot play in games this year, but will be practicing, learning Michigan's system and getting stronger. "He has really been a pleasure to coach, even when he first got here," Beilein said. "When we recruited him and he was on his official visit here, he looked every bit of 6-7, 6-8. He shoots and runs and plays, and he's a great teammate. He's never had an individual workout in college, and now he's going to have a lot of them. "He's lifting weights consistently, he's added 10 pounds already, and we really like what we've seen from him. He can shoot it, too; that is a given."