The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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S ometimes even when you do everything right, the reward doesn't match the effort. That's especially true in college basketball, where recruiting is more cutthroat than any of the half dozen or so "Saw" movies, the NBA an ever-lurk- ing thief and injuries a great equalizer. The 2014-15 Wolver- ines have succumbed to all three, and in some ways, head coach John Beilein and staff have also been victims of their own success. They've lost five play- ers early to the NBA over the last three years, including three in guards Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Nik Stauskas most would have predicted to be four-year guys. Junior Caris LeVert and sophomore Derrick Walton Jr., meanwhile, have missed significant time this year (LeVert out since January and for the rest of the year with a foot injury), leaving three not-ready-for-prime time freshmen in the starting lineup. And yet the Wolverines were still 6-7 in Big Ten play and fighting for a spot in the NCAA Tournament as of Feb. 16, within a basket of beating conference leader Wisconsin, Michi- gan State and Indiana, the latter two on the road. "It's not remarkable to me, because I've known [John Beilein] a long time," Iowa's Fran McCaffery said after his team won in Ann Arbor. "I re- member when he was at Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia and here. He was a high school coach in western New York. "His teams are al- ways going to win, they're always going to be prepared [and] they're always going to be tough to beat. He's not a guy who is going to stand up here and cry about who he doesn't have. He's go- ing to say, 'Okay, this is what we've got. We're going to play and we're going to win.'" Beilein admitted there was some- thing he liked about being the hunter compared to the hunted, which his team became after winning the Big Ten by three games last year. At the same time, he likes winning even more. "We want to get to a point where making the NCAA Tournament ev- ery year is the expectation," he said INSIDE MICHIGAN CHRIS BALAS Hoops Still Trending Upward Head coach John Beilein's team has dealt with more than its fair share of adversity this year, but the table seems set for some outstanding seasons in the near future. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN