4B - February 25, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam 4B - February 25, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 4 4 0 a ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily Sophomore guard Trey Burke (top left) eclipsed the 1,000-point mark ina win over Illinois Sunday. Freshman forward Mitch McGary and redshirt sophomore Jon Horford (right) added a paint presence. Michigan won 71-58 to sweep the season series. fter a sluggish LeVert, Albrecht play big despite few minut( sta rt, ic h Beilein's faith in men's stat lines look exception- from Burke. After a V al in Sunday's box score, but the stop on the other en two unheralded pair made their presence felt on hita 3-pointer of his o a day when several regular con- Michigan up 12 and e o lls5 jj a st 11 1111 freshmen pays off tributors struggled. seal the game. "We saw how we started out Burke, who assiste against Illinois a little slow and me and Spike basket, was particul tune:- A~ eo+ t11 eAc --,n+Iot ner , a +,+ T-7 + a es Wolverine d, LeVert 4 own to put ssentially d on the arly ani- Burke continues torrid play in the Big Ten to lead Wolverines By EVERETT COOK Daily Sports Editor Even after having an entire week offfrompractice, itstilltook the Michigan basketball team more than 23 minutes of game time to get going against Illinois in Sunday's 71-58 victory. Fighting off a slow start, the game remained close until about three minutes into the second half, when the Wolver- ILLINOIS 58 ines finally MICHIGAN 71 started to look like the seventh-ranked team in the country. Not surprisingly, the player who started the run that broke the game open was point guard Trey Burke, who became just the seventh true sophomore in Michi- gan history to score 1,000 career points. Left open about five feet behind the 3-point line, Burke hesitated before launching the NBA-range trey. His hand remained in the air until the ball was through the hoop, givingMichiganjustits sec- ond lead of the game. After the Fighting Illini were called for an offensive foul, red- shirt junior Jordan Morgan cor- ralled a missed 3-pointer from freshman forward Glenn Robin- son III and left Robinson with a beautiful behind-the-back pass for a massive dunk. Illinois didn't score for almost three minutes after Burke's long make, falling into a nine-point hole it couldn't pull out of. Like so many games this season, a big play by Burke was the kick-start to a big run. "He player,' John B brough and eve Befo ly gave they lo first 20 ing the halftim Witt ankle i month rior del had ei the firs gan I8- open la the ben just is really a special converted on each of Illinois's 13 said Michigan coach turnovers, resulting in 27 points. eilein. "We love what he's "If you turn the ball over t to the team, in practice against them, it's a dunk or a erything. It's special." three," said Illinois coach John re the spark that ultimate- Groce.. "I thought that us more the Wolverines the lead, than anything, some of those live- oked stuck in a rut for the ball turnovers." minutes of the game, trail- The transition game, led by Fighting Illini by three at Burke, was spot-on for most of the te. contest. Burke had another ultra- h Morgan still slowed by an efficient game, finishing with 26 njury he suffered almost a points and 8 assists, while going ago, the Wolverines' inte- 8-11 from the fense looked shaky. Illinois floor. BY THE ght offensive rebounds in "He's just a t half, outrebound Michi- cool cat, man," Michiga 12 in the period and found Morgan said. yups when Morgan was on "Nothing phas- ch. es him. It's a I great honor to Careerpoints fors play with him, Burke,whobecan someone at his truesophomorel gaining lost level."0 confidence For a team that was rou- tinely blowing points scored offt out opponents ines convertedeve all season, the hman forward Mitch Wolverines 1 y started and had a fine first double- scoring six points and dis- digit lead of the Illinoisturnoers some of the athleticism month didn't seen from 6-foot-10 play- come until a t the interior defense was little more than bly different with Morgan five minutes left ame. in the contest, tturnovere veteran forward managed when freshman 1.6 toeesper ne point, but his impact forward Caris Re C NU anvs. soph meMi tore turto ery t force r de 1 Ukhe, !r am By DANIEL WASSERMAN Daily Sports Editor Had last year's Michigan men's basketball team done what it was supposed to do and beaten Ohio in its first NCAA Tournament game last sea- son, former Bobcat coach John Groce would likely still call Athens, Ohio his home. Instead, Ohio upset Michi- gan on its way to the Sweet 16. A few weeks IMBERS later, Groce cashed in on .Illinois his team's tournament run and 3 accepted the omore guard Trey gig at Illinois. ichigan'sseventh With Groce ach1,000 points. out at Ohio, former Bobcat signee Caris LeVert was vers. The Wolver- given a release urnover for points. from his letter of intent and, after a visit to Ann Arbor, ed by theWolver- signed with the Wolver- ines. Sunday, the freshman n taeBgs s guard's six points were key in Michi- gan's 71-58 win over Illinois and LeVert's would-be coach. The Pickerington, Ohio native said it was "kind of strange" playing with Groce on the opposing sideline, adding that he was full of "mixed feel- ings." But the guard didn't let that deter his play, as he and fresh- man point guard Spike Albrecht contributed a handful of game- changing plays. LeVert played 16 minutes, while Albrecht played just seven. Neither of the fresh- saying 'We've got to bring more energy coming into the game,' so we just tried to do that," LeVert said. "Most of it was actually on the defensive end." A few possessions after draw- ing a charge, Albrecht knocked down a 3-pointer to pull a slug- gish first-half Wolverine squad to within five points of the Figthing Illini with eight min- utes left in the opening stanza. Two minutes later, the point guard deflected an entry pass from the perimeter that red- shirt junior forward Jordan Morgan stole. Morgan quickly made an outlet pass to Albrecht, who quarterbacked a fast break that finished with a monstrous slam by freshman forward Glenn Robinson III to tie the game. While almost all of his play- ing time came alongside Burke (Burke played 39 minutes), Albrecht looked significantly more comfortable than he has in previous Big Ten outings - perhaps a product of Michigan's recent week off. "As we retooled this week, we talked about that," said Michigan coach John Beilein. "When we saw Spike in Octo- ber, we saw a young man that he really saw the game at a speed that we like him to see at. "We know that Trey and Tim are terrific players. There's some other guys out there that need to step up for us to con- tinue in the' direction where we want to go. Spike got a lot of reps in practice with the first team (in the past week)." LeVert, who sprained his ankle in last week's win over Penn State, also received a share of first-team reps after getting healthy. With under seven minutes left in the game and Michigan leading by six, LeVert deflected a pass that led to a 3-pointer downthe shot after he got onhis younger teammate for passing up a previous wide-open oppor- tunity. It was one LeVert's two 3-pointers on the afternoon. "I just told him, 'Just shoot the wide-open shot,' " Burke said. "I was so happy just because I knew Caris was going to hit it. I would've been mad if he had pump-faked and tried to go into the defense again. "Once he just stopped think- ing about the game and just I playing off of natural instinct, he hit some big shots for us, he made some very big defensive stops for us, and*he was a buzz off the bench." The two players, who both grew up around Columbus, have formed a special bond that often includes-one-on-one matchups outside of practice time. "They have a lot of synergy together," Beilein said. "When they see each other, they con- nect. There's not a person on the team that doesn't love Caris, so when you have an assist to him, it even makes you feel better." Despite combining for just nine points in limited playing time, the two freshmen dis- played maturity in a must-win game for Michigan. And if the Wolverines hope to make a deep run through March and even into early April, they'll need contributions from their S unsung newcomers. "(Spike) and Caris both made lots of extra shots this week and it paid off," Beilein said. "We made that commitment to the young team early. We have some really good players between (senior guard) Matt (Vogrich) and (senior forward) Blake (McLimans), (senior guard) Eso (Akunne), that are sitting out right now so that these guys can play. I was happy that we could get that done today." Fres McGar game,s playing seldom ers, bu noticea in the g The only oz came on the other end of the floor, back in his spot as Michigan's defensive quarterback. Of Michi- gan's 71 points, 43 of them came in the second half. Morgan played just five minutes in the first half, but 12 in the second. "(Morgan) reacts just a little bit quicker than the other bigs," Beilein said. "Is he faster than the other guys, is he taller, does he block shots better? No, but he anticipates much better than the younger players do." The saving grace defensively came from turnovers. Michigan LeVert hit a 3-pointer. Still, even with the slow start, it was an important win for Mich- igan. After losing three of five so far in February, and narrowly beating Big Ten bottom-feeder Penn State their last time out, the Wolverines couldn't afford another let down with the regular season winding down. "I feel like today was really our first step of getting our confi- dence back and getting our swag- ger back," Morgan said. "(We are) getting back to the basketball we like to play."