The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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that are the elite schools, and you're tracking toward becoming one of those schools, but you have to be consistent. It's hard to do." OVERCOMING ADVERSITY Especially when all hands aren't on deck. Walton, who lost much of last year with a foot injury, was missed at SMU, especially without backup Spike Albrecht at full strength. The senior point guard is still recover- ing from double hip surgery in the offseason and is only a shell of the player he's been, averaging 1.9 points and 1.3 assists in 8.6 minutes per g a m e t h r o u g h e i g h t c o n t e s t s , s h o o t i n g o n l y 28.6 percent from long range. Irvin, too, was struggling to re- gain his scoring touch. He was a v e r a g i n g 7 . 1 points per game, starting seven of eight after his return to the lineup, and seemed to be miss- ing a gear. Only two Wolverines — LeVert and Robinson — were averaging double digits in scoring, with LeVert carrying the heaviest load at 17.7 points per game and Robinson add- ing 11.9. The Wolverines had little chance when LeVert made only one of his 13 shots at SMU. "This shows you … you think you're good, but you're not good," Beilein said of his squad. "That team [SMU] is good. We're a long away from being good. "[Michigan hockey coach] Red Berenson said it best — 'Play like a champion, but practice all the time like you're in second place.' We're not even in second place today." There were plenty of reasons for it outside of the injuries. Most pundits picked the Wolverines to finish any- where from 10th to 25th nationally, probably assuming growth in the players forced to grow up quickly last year due to the injuries. Dawkins, for one, was expected to blossom with all his physical gifts. B e i l e i n c a l l e d him the most im- proved Wolver- ine coming out of summer ball, yet he hasn't found t h e e x t r a g e a r needed to make t h e l e a p f ro m spot three-point shooter to well- rounded Big Ten wing. Instead, he's losing minutes to Robinson, who scored 19 points in 25 minutes in a blowout win over Hous- ton Baptist Dec. 5. Robinson finished 5-of-9 shooting and was quick off the bench in the first half when starter Dawkins (20 minutes) was quickly sent to the bench. It was clear that there were some teaching moments for the sophomore when he got the quick hook a few times. "I don't know," Beilein admitted after the Houston Baptist game when asked how he was going to balance DIGITAL BONUS: CLICK THE ICON TO PLAY OR STOP THE PODCAST Tim Mccormick On Michigan Basketball