The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/653976
"The injuries have really wiped a lot of games out. But you can only look at the present and the future. You really can't look back on the past." — Michigan senior guard Caris LeVert J ohn Beilein's seniors looked on intensely, rooted hard, instructed as best they could from seats near the end of the Michigan bench. They did everything they could to will the Wolverines into a fourth NCAA Tournament in five seasons. But inside, it had to be killing Caris LeVert and Spike Albrecht. This wasn't how it was supposed to end. Four years earlier, they were living in a college basketball player's dream world, wide-eyed freshmen playing for the national champion- ship in front of 75,000 in a football stadium. Albrecht even took it a step farther, racking up 17 first-half points in the title game like he'd stepped into the middle of some Disney movie. Four years later, they're specta- tors. Highly regarded, intimately informed spectators, but spectators nonetheless. And once again, the Wolverines will have to rely on un- derclassmen in the Big Dance. "We were dealt blows here that just don't happen to teams," Beilein said, following Michigan's reprieve by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. "You just don't lose your starting backcourt … two years in a row. "Where does that hap- pen? I'm hearing, 'Spike is going to be good as new' … and he can't move.' "These are things you cannot plan on." There's something else you can't plan on, un- like at Michigan State, Wisconsin and Indiana, some of the Big Ten's most successful programs during Beilein's near decade in Ann Arbor. You can't plan on first-team All-Big Ten-level seniors … because there haven't been any. That's bizarre, because one of the fears from recruiting stargazers upon Beilein's arrival involved him count- ing on just that, a Wisconsin-style, senior-led lineup. Many coveted high-profile stars that were going to come in, tear it up and bolt early for the NBA. They got just that (minus the initial hype) for a couple of years. Sophomore Trey Burke led the WOLVERINE WATCH JOHN BORTON U-M Dancing Sans Seniors … Again LEVERT ALBRECHT