6 - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 6 - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom TREY From Page 8 XA ad turnover by Trey makes the group groan andlook down at their food, even with Michi- an holding a comfortable 10-point lead. Benji starts to say something about the play but stops midway through the word "can't." Instead of finishing the thought, he claps his hands and drowns the criticism with a sip of water. Before Trey started his Michigan career, his rela- tionship with Benji felt more like a coach and a player. They were close in physical proximitybutdidn'thave a deep relationship. Brian Snow, a recruiting analyst for Scout.com, still remembers shouting matches between the two during games, Trey on the court and Benji on the bench. Sometimes Trey wouldn't even speak to his father after games.. He could've played the best game of his AAU career, and Benji still would've had something to pick apart. Praise only came when Benji was talking to other people. Trey never heard any of it. "When it was just me and him talking, he was so - I don't want to say negative - but he had so much constructive criticism towards me," Trey said. "He would always tell me what I needed to work on or what I didn't do right. It was always something." In the summer before his senior year, Trey vis- ited Michigan three times before committing, even though his mind was pretty much set on Cincinnati. But Benji pushed for Ann Arbor, painting a picture in the weeks before Trey made his decision. The kid was 17 years old and didn't see the things his dad did about Michigan. The two walked around Ann Arbor, talking about the education, the opportunity to play right away and the $23-million projectto renovate the Crisler Center. Benji wanted Trey at Michigan, but he knew his son wouldn't take strong advice from his old coach. He let Trey come to his own conclusions, not trying to convince him of anything. Trey had to see Benji as his dad, and Benji had to learn that he wanted tobe a father that coached, not a coach that's also a father. "We're way closer now," Trey said. "We used to be close because we were around each other every sin- gle day, but we didn't have the relationship we need- ed to have away from the court. I felt like there was certain things I couldn't talk to him about because he was a coach and a dad. "It was hurting our relationship off the court. Life isn't just about basketball." Benji and Ronda picked Trey up in April 2012, his dorm room already almost packed, trash bags full of clothes on the floor. Michigan coach John Beilein and the staff had decided to give him a weekend off to go home and relax. It took his parents less than 20 minutes to start talking about the year ahead and the hardest decision he would ever have to make. Earlier that week, Jeff Goodman, a senior college basketball writer for CBS Sports, reported that Trey was expected to leave Michigan for the NBA. It was assumed he was gone, a one-year flash of maize and blue, albeit a flash with one of the best freshman sea- sons at Michigan in recent memory. Trey, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, slumped down in the back seat of his parents' car and talked about the future, just needing to go home. He had AUAMG LANZMAN/Daly TER RA MOLENGKAFF/Ualy Sophomore point guard Trey Burke was the only player inthe Big Ten this year to score 15 points in every conference game. been ranked no higher than the nation's 15th-best mature and get stronger. He's done all that and he's point guard by any major college scouting service in clearly to me been thebest point guard in the country high school - and now he was popping up on NBA and probably the best player in the country." Draft boards. Back in Columbus, Trey got to see friends and "As a senior in high school, you thought he was family he hadn'tseen in a while. He got to sleep in his going to be a big-time player," Snow said. "With that own room, the room that has his Ohio Mr. Basketball being said, I never saw himbeing this until he actual- award hanging up on the wall. He finally got to play ly became it. If you would have told me he was going basketball with O.J. and the rest of the crew, who of to be a potential lottery pick and the bestplayer in the course brought him back down to earth, ribbing him Big Ten, I would have laughed in your face." the entire time. Trey had already told a Michigan trainer that he And back in his living room with a corner full of was comingback to school but didn't know if he even trophies, he got to watch basketball with his dad believed himself. He was sick of deciding, worn out, away from the noise surrounding his decision. It his mind having been made up in each direction so wasn't a coach and his player getting home from bas- many times with the help of so many voices. ketball practice anymore - it was a father and son Trey, the hyper-competitor, thought that he could watching the game that pulled them apart, only to work himself into the first round, and that the scouts eventuallybring them closer. who projected him in the second round were prob- Ultimately, Trey had to listen to Benji again. ably the same people that had ranked him low com- ing out of high school. nthony Rhodman - Trey's former trainer - Trey knew what he was capable of, even if the NBA sits across the table from Benji in a Yankees didn't. ap worn low, checking his phone every cou- But again, he had to listen to Benji, who had been ple minutes while watchingthe kid he's been training telling him all year that he needed to go back to since high school up on the screen. school, for at least another year or two. With 11 minutes left in the contest, Trey assists on "This isn't a kid with Russell Westbrook athleti- a dunk to give Michigan a 15-point lead. Even on the ricm -A - """nrla cm "P n A--'- - + Atw n a arfnralahala aanttwrttam in~- +t"--- + R-+ o rT-- seems to have relaxed the bar. Rhodman has had Benji's ear the whole game, the one guy who can break the stare from the table to the TV. As he did in high school, Rhodman trained with Trey lastsummer. He's the man tasked with channel- ing that tireless work ethic into something produc- tive. Rhodman had to focus the energy of the kid who was relegated to watching his dad and his friends play on the courts without him, but worked on drib- bling with his off hand instead of pouting. "I told myself, 'Man, if you are coming back to school, you can't have any regrets,' "Trey said. "'You have to go at it two, three times harderthan you went after it last year."' Teammate Corey Person, a fifth-year senior guard and the old man of the squad, said that Trey "was going crazy working out over the summer," visiting the gym at least two-to-three times a day. "I thinksome of the best players in the country are the guys who weren't ranked high and people didn't kiss their butts when they were younger and coming up," Goodman said. "They had to work for every- thing, and that gives you a mentality a lot of these other guys don't have." Trey's sophomore year has gone about as well as it could go. He was named the Big Ten Player of the Year - the first Wolverine to win that award in 24 years - and is on the short list for several Player of the Year Awards. "This second year has helped me so much," Trey said. "It allowed me to grow up. Last year, Iwas look- ing to go to the NBA just because I was so shocked. I actually had the chance to go to the NBA - that's been my dream since I was young. "I think that was just so thrilling to me, just that I had the chance to go. I tested it out, but comingback this year has helped me to grow so much." Averaging more than 19 points and almost seven assists a game, Trey was .2 assists per game away from joining Magic Johnson in that 17-and-7 club. He scored at least 15 points in every Big Ten game this season and led the nation with a stellar 3.5 assist- to-turnover ratio. From last season to this one, Trey improved both his field-goal and 3-point percentages by more than .5 percentage points. The men at the bar groan when backup point guard Spike Albrecht enters the game, because Trey is effectively the only Wolverine who can drive and get into the paint. Michigan's offense runs through Trey's ability to create for everyone else on the floor, and when he isn't in the game or isn't playing his best basketball, point production stalls. "If we have a point guard in the future that does 80 percent of what he does, we'll always have a good team," Beilein said. "You need to have a young man that really sees the game at the pace he does. To doit like he does is exceptional." Burke is a potential first-round NBA draft pick if he decides to forego his final two years at Michigan. 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