The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/480355
BY CHRIS BALAS E xcuses are for losers, or so many have been raised to believe. Win, and you're expected to show grace. Lose, and you're to accept the cir- cumstances, move on and do the best you can to not let it happen again. If ever there were a year for a pass, though, Michigan head coach John Beilein would be worthy. Months af- ter losing three players who helped the Wolverines reach the NCAA Tournament championship game (2013) and an Elite Eight (2014) — keeping in mind big man Mitch Mc- Gary, now with Oklahoma City in the NBA, was on the shelf last year with an injury — Beilein lost leading scorer and future NBA first-round pick Caris LeVert to a foot injury against Northwestern. Weeks later, sophomore starting point guard Derrick Walton fell vic- tim to his own foot injury, one that would sideline him for the second half of the Big Ten season. Beilein isn't one for excuses, though. Michigan's two Big Ten regular-season championships trail only Michigan State (three) and Ohio State (three) over the last eight sea- sons. U-M has also advanced to five NCAA Tournaments during his ten- ure, and like the football program Beilein has come to embrace the "ex- pectation is for the position" mantra. "It is difficult, but it's part of my job right now," Beilein said in the days leading to the regular-season finale with Rutgers, a win that left U-M 8-10 in the conference. "No matter what the circumstances we're given, we have to find a way to fig- ure it out and put out a great, cham- pionship-level team. "It's been a challenge. It's one that snuck up on us. We didn't expect this ever with the exception of Mitch McGary — he is the only one when we were recruiting that I said I didn't think would make it to his senior year. "But those kids have really worked hard and have deserved these op- portunities in the NBA. And then, of course, we've had attrition through transfers and that hurts you as well, but that's part of college basketball, unfortunately." So are the injuries, though losing their two best players would cripple most programs for a year. U-M went 2-7 after losing Walton but lost three times in overtime, including a loss at Michigan State and giveaways at Illinois and Northwestern. Those fol- lowed an overtime loss to Wisconsin that would prove to be Walton's last game of the year. Former U-M center and current college basketball analyst Tim McCormick "If everybody returns healthy next year, with all of the depth that they're developing from this freshman class, next year Michigan will be a darn good team."