The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Three-time captain not
stepping up when needed
Thursday, February 15, 2007 - 7A
By DANIEL LEVY A typical Abram stat line used to
On Basketball read something like this: 12 points
on 4-for-6 shooting, 3-for-3 from
What if I were to tell you that the foul line, two rebounds, an
Michigan had an experienced lead- assist and a number of right-place,
er who was having the worst season right-time plays. He wasn't the
of his career? Would that be some- type of guy who opponents had to
thing you might be interested in? gear up to stop, but his contribu-
That is the case for Lester tions carried more weight because
Abram. he did it with seemingly little
The soft-spoken, mild-man- effort, putting up points while tak-
nered wing out of Pontiac became ing few shots.
the program's first-ever three-time But Abram has struggled to
captain this season. make a similar impact this year.
It was the logical choice at the He has scored more than 15 points
time. Brent Petway's fiery emo- just once (a win over Illinois). More
tion is great for igniting the team, important, he has totaled less than
but he missed half of last season for seven points a shocking nine times
academic reasons. Courtney Sims's - hardly a model of consistency.
never-ending battle with inconsis- Yes, I know Michigan coach
tency leaves a lot to be desired. And Tommy Amaker and his players will
Dion Harris already had enough tell you they want to share the ball.
to worry about trying to run the And after a few hours of drilling, I'm
offense after the graduation of sure all the players have the "We-
Daniel Horton. want-the-open-guy-to-be-the-go-
That left Abram. As a fifth-year to-guy" speech down pat.
senior - he missed the 2004-05 "Our team is based on team-ori-
season following surgery to his left ented basketball," Abram said. "It's
shoulder and was granted a medi- not up to just one person to get off
cal redshirt - he seemed to be just tons of shots."
what this team needed. The senior That is true. In what Michigan
was a guy who could be counted painfully tries to pass off as the
on to contribute night in and night motion offense, Amaker wants his
out. players to cut and move to create
open looks instead of clearing out
for one guy to go to work.
But I'm not talking about a 25-
point scorer who allows the other
four players to sit around and
watch. I'm not talking about the
one player opponents lose sleep
trying to plan against.
I'm talking about a player the
team can count on for consistent
production. A guy who is good for a
few scores each game after the play
has fallen apart - a familiar sight
for the Wolverines this season.
Abram has been this guy before.
As a sophomore, the Michigan cap-
tain led the team in scoring and
cracked 15 points 10 times while
scoring less than seven just twice
en route to an NIT championship.
And he continued that pace last
year before a severe ankle sprain
derailed his season.
So what happened to Abram?
He has career lows in just about
every relevant stat. His scoring
average has fallen to single digits,
his shooting percentages are at an
all-time low and his turnovers have
risen.
"I've never really considered
myself a 3-point shooter or a slash-
er," Abram said." "I just play bas-
ketball."
Abram isn't doing much of either
this season. His 3-point percentage
has dropped from over 40 percent
to under 30, and his attacks to the
rim are few and far between.
Maybe it's lacking confidence
after missingso much time because
of an injury. Or a funk he can't
shake after seeing his shots fall out
game after game.
"I just take the shots that's given
to me," said Abram, after pausing
to search for an answer. He then
quickly shifted the focus off him-
self to Saturday's matchup with
Indiana.
Abram might not want to talk
about it, but his teammates are
aware of his frustrations.
"Sometimes, he starts pressing
when he doesn't think he's playing
well," Petway said. "When you do
that, it just gets worse."
For Abram and Michigan, it can't
get much worse. Abram has missed
his last seven 3-point attempts and
has clearly passed up other open
looks. And once again, the Wolver-
ines are on a crash course for the
NIT.
Maybe Abram will regain his
form and spice up the story that has
been his career. But for Michigan,
it will be too little, too late.
Fifth-year senior Lester Abram is averaging a career-low 9.3 points per game.
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