The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/465847
BY JOHN BORTON S pike Albercht buried his face in his jersey, sitting on the Michigan bench in pain and disbelief. It could not have happened, again. And yet it did. Michigan's boldly crafted seven-point lead in the final two minutes at Illinois Feb. 12 evapo- rated like a water droplet on Arizona asphalt in August. In overtime, the floodgates opened. Michigan's depleted roster — with- out a single starter from last year 's Elite Eight showdown against Ken- tucky — ran out of gas. Illinois ran away, outscoring the Wolverines 14-2 and stealing a win John Beilein's team desperately needed and prob- ably thought it had. "We're upset," freshman forward Aubrey Dawkins said afterward. "Everybody is not happy right now. This is the third time it's happened, but we've got to keep pushing. No- body's giving up." That's obvious. Nobody on the Michigan roster gave up when junior guard Caris LeVert, the best player on the team, went down in January with a season-ending foot injury. No- body packed it in when the flu rav- aged the roster, sending half a dozen players to the bench over a two-week span. Nobody waved the white flag when sophomore guard Derrick Wal- ton Jr. — plagued by turf toe, turned overall foot injury because of com- pensating for it — finally had to go on the shelf completely for the last several contests. Michigan's starting lineup against Illinois consisted of Albrecht, sopho- more forward Zak Irvin and three freshmen: guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman and forwards Kam Chatman and Ricky Doyle. Odds of anyone predicting that mid-February lineup prior to the season aren't the same as those of winning the Pow- erball lottery, but they're not far off. Through it all, Beilein's crew hung close enough to taste the banquet ar- rayed for the Big Ten's upper ech- elon. An almost cruel series of near misses left the Wolverines 13-13 over- all and 6-8 in the Big Ten following Close Enough To Hurt Shorthanded Wolverines Try To Learn Winning At Crunch Time