The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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free throw assuredness and more. If his removal from the lineup rep- resented all the Wolverines suffered, it would have still marked a significant blow. Albrecht's early out, though, proved to be just the tip of the iceberg in the chilling state of U-M's health. LeVert scored 22 points in Michi- gan's Big Ten-opening win at Illinois, but he spectated the following four games as his teammates scrambled to a 3-2 start in Big Ten play. LeVert's absence appears incalcu- lable. Michigan's leading scorer (17.6 points per game) and a contender for national player of the year honors, he's also the Wolverines' top play- maker and another senior absolutely saturated in the knowledge of what Beilein wants done on the court. "He's walking around pain-free," Beilein said after Michigan's 82-71 loss at Iowa on Jan. 17. "We're going to get some more tests this week. We've been testing him physically, now medical tests. "If he was pain free, we would prac- tice him, but he wasn't. But he was recently. Now we still want to see it." Irvin has been around the entire sea- son, but his back issues and the build- ing-up process certainly impacted his effectiveness through the opening two months of the season. That's why his breakthrough 22-point effort against Maryland loomed so large. "I feel healthy," Irvin said, after con- necting on 8 of 14 shots and tossing off three assists against Maryland. "My body is 100 percent. I just think Coach Beilein is more talking about my rhythm and getting back where I was at the end of the year last season. I feel better each game." Former Wolverine and TheWol- verine.com analyst Tim McCormick noted he's been waiting to see a per- formance such as the one Irvin expe- rienced against Maryland. That one might be the trigger for a lot of satisfy- ing tomorrows, he said. "Zak Irvin seems like he's getting more in shape, more confident every game," McCormick noted. "I think I made the comment that, at some point, he's going to have a breakout game, and he's going to be an All-Big Ten-caliber player the rest of the year. "That was his game. On that stage, versus that competition, Michigan won that game because they knew Ir- vin was going to make big plays when they needed it most." Irvin understands the urgency in a season still sporting plenty of op- portunity. "Derrick and I are veterans," Ir- vin stressed. "We've played the most minutes out of everybody else on the team. We've got to step up and make plays. The coaching staff and our teammates realize that … with Spike and Caris out, we've just got to step up and be leaders." POSITIVE SIGNS ARISE It's not like the Wolverines lacked encouraging developments, amid the uh-oh moments. They've featured one of the nation's top shooters as a lineup newcomer this season. Redshirt sophomore wing Duncan Robinson stood third in the country in three-point shooting through Jan. 17. His 61-for-114 effort, 53.5 percent, from three-point range has opponents