The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/418536
MICHIGAN BASKETBALL he didn't plan on high-level success. The veteran head coach just didn't necessarily figure on seeing a num- ber of two-and-done NBA Draft picks filter through his locker room. He figured to get it done the old- fashioned way: culling overlooked talent and developing great teams with four-year performers and heavy senior leadership. Michigan's ability to draw talent — and his coaching staff's ability to develop it — changed the pattern. Nobody's complaining, and one of Beilein's assistants points out the degree to which the head coach em- braced the new norm. Jeff Meyer has spent 35 years coaching college basketball, launch- ing into his 36th overall and seventh with the Wolverines. He's seen it all, on a variety of levels, and has plugged in as a key cog in Beilein's crew. BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK WALTON MAKES WATCH LIST Michigan sophomore point guard Derrick Walton Jr. has been named to the watch list for the 2015 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award. Walton is among 36 contestants to make the preseason list. He's one of three Big Ten players in the running, joining Indiana's Yogi Ferrell and Maryland's Rom- elo Trimble. In 2013, former Wolverine Trey Burke became the first Wolverine to win the award as the nation's top point guard. Walton, a Detroit native, averaged 7.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists in playing all 37 games for the Wolverines in 2013-14. He made the All-Big Ten Freshman Team and helped Michigan to a second straight appearance in the NCAA Elite Eight. The Wolverines went 15-3 in winning the Big Ten, and Walton helped U-M to its first No. 1 seed at the Big Ten Tournament. The watch list of candidates gets cut to 20 in early February, then five by early March. The Cousy Award winner will be honored on championship Monday in Indianapolis at the Hall of Fame's class of 2015 announcement and press confer- ence. HATCH'S FIRST ON-COURT MOMENT MEMORABLE Michigan freshman Austin Hatch has endured the longest, toughest road of any Wolverine making it to the roster this season. U-M head coach John Beilein noted the rookie guard is "a gift to us," one Michigan coaches and players alike appreciate. Hatch's work in learning the basic motor skills, including how to simply read, write and walk again following a June 2012 plane crash that claimed the lives of his father and stepmother, are well documented. Family and friends rallied around him following his second crash, the first coming several years earlier and claiming the lives of his mother and siblings.