The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/510942
a little bit and know the Big Ten. "Besides the buckets he gets us and the plays he makes, there's a presence that is now all through that locker room. Everyone realizes now what Spike went through, playing injured the whole year. With him coming back, there's a lot of respect for those two." LeVert isn't boastful by nature, and he wasn't getting too carried away on projections. "I think we have a lot of potential coming back, but potential is a dan- gerous word," he said. "Going after those goals and going after those ex- pectations will be a challenge. I think we're all ready for that. "We were really disappointed with how this season finished off. We felt like we were playing pretty good bas- ketball, and not being selected for ei- ther of the tournaments was pretty heartbreaking for us. This is Michigan, and not being selected for the NCAA Tournament or NIT was crushing for us. "This will be a big offseason for us." It might have been an offseason prepping for his first year in the pros, following a truncated junior cam- paign. Through 18 games, he led the Wolverines in scoring (14.9 points per contest), rebounding (4.9 per game), assists (3.7 per game) and steals (1.7 per game). He scored a career-high 32 points in Michigan's home loss to NJIT, but hit the shelf for the rest of the season five weeks later. His foot injury on the final play of U-M's 56-54 home win over Northwestern proved a huge blow for a program that was getting used to NCAA Tournament runs. Despite the injury, LeVert remained high in many mock drafts, projected for mid-to-late first-round status. He received not one, but two, evaluations from the NBA Undergraduate Advi- sory Committee, the latter helping him firm up his decision to stay. "The first time, I was the first one to be evaluated," LeVert said. "They thought it might change a little bit, or that my decision might change. They just wanted to check in after some more people had declared." He'll not only graduate and have one more Michigan season to play, LeVert mentioned, he'll be further ad- vanced in NBA readiness 12 months from now. "Two things in particular [will im- prove] — my strength, because I'm still growing each and every day," he said. "And I don't think last season I really got a chance to lift my lower body as much as I wanted to, because of the foot injury. "This season, I'll have a couple more weeks to actually develop my legs a little more, like I did after my fresh- man year. The second thing would be to improve my jump shot more, to become a more efficient shooter, do more with less, take fewer shots, make more shots and get my percent- ages up." LeVert didn't hide his excitement regarding next year 's team, despite cautioning against overconfidence. He saw the freshmen develop from a bird's-eye view on the bench, with regular input. "I feel like we grew a lot over the season," he said. "People's confidence