2B - October 28, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Big men (&nd Spike) on campus
The girls waited after
church last week for
chance to see Jordan
Morgan, so when Michigan's
6-foot-8 forward walked into the
parking lot,
they jumped
at their
chance.
"Jordan!"
they yelled,
waving.
Retelling
the story ZACH
Thursday, HELFAND
Morgan
looked up
at the Crisler Center lights and
smiled. He waved back at the
girls, he said. He guessed they
were in high school.
"And I remember hearing one
of them yell, 'Oh my god! He
waved at me!"' Morgan said.
"I laughed."
This is the new reality for the
Michigan basketball team, the
new stars on campus, on Twit-
ter and on ESPN. Last year, the
Wolverines were the youngest
team in the NCAA Tournament.
This year, they're even younger.
And for the 12 players out of 14
who are freshmen or sopho-
mores, most don't even remem-
ber the old, anonymous days of
Michigan basketball, when the
team regularly played in a half-
empty gym.
"Nobody knows what it was
like," said Morgan, the fifth-year
senior. "But it's OK. I don't fault
them, it's just the reality of the
situation."
Earlier Thursday, John
Beilein stood at the podium
at Michigan's media day and .
looked out at the full room
0
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
Redshirt junior forward Jon Horford remembers when Crisler was half empty.
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
The Michigan men's basketball team's sophomore class has quickly become leaders on a team with 12 underclassmen.
2007, Beilein was here for his
first media day as Michigan's
coach, with a considerably
smaller crowd.
Then, Crisler Arena was old
and rather lifeless. Players that
day did interviews on the court
under the numbing buzz of the
fluorescent lights.
Now, in the new media room,
in the renovated Crisler Center
with the new hardware on dis-
play in the trophy cases in front,
Beilein looked out at the biggest
"Look at this room," Beilein
said. "The environment changes
very quickly when you're able to
make the run that we did."
The change didn't happen
quickly, until suddenly it did.
Since Beilein took over in 2007,
the program has advanced in
neat increments almost every r
year. In Beilein's first season,
Michigan lost the most games
in its history. The next year,
Michigan beat Duke and UCLA,
both ranked No. 4 at the time,
and earned a herth in the NCAA
Tournament. Michigan returned
to the tournament in 2011. In
2012, the Wolverines shared a
Big Ten title.
But last year, the program
progressed by leaps: the first No.
1 ranking in two decades; the
National Player of the Year; and
an appearance in the National
Championship.
Within weeks, Michigan's
players became household
names. The campus that
wouldn't even show up to games
three vears earlier flooded the
streets followingthe champion-
ship game loss. Ann Arbor had
become a basketball town.
Now, of all the players on the
roster, only Morgan has expe-
rienced a season without an
NCAA Tournament - his red-
shirt year in 2009-10. Redshirt
junior Jon Horford is the only
other upperclassman on this
year's team.
So during a film study just
more than a week ago, the team
watched a game from the 2010-
11 season. The video panned
over the student section. Mor-
gan was in his second year then.
Horford was a freshman. He
estimated, exaggerating only
slightly, that there were about
40 students at the game. In the
film room, the rest of the team
was incredulous.
"And I'm like, yeah, you guys
don't really know what we went
through," Morgan said.
Thanks to the Final Four run,
and the unusually young roster,
the Michigan basketball culture
has shifted remarkably quickly.
Now, the team isn't worried
about how many fans will show
up. This year, more students
requested student tickets than
space allowed. Now, the team
is more concerned with limit-
ing the distractions of budding
stardom.
It seems life has gone on as
usual only for the diminutive
sophomore point guard Spike
Albrecht, an influx of Twitter
followers notwithstanding. .
"I'm the same old Spike," he
said to a group of reporters, add-
ing: "I mean, I look like all of
you guys, so I kind of blend in on
campus."
But his taller teammates have
had a harder time hidingAnd
most have everyday interactions
that would've seemed comi-
cally farfetched while Morgan
or Horford were underclass-
men. Sophomore forward Mitch
McGary was recently asked to
sign someone's forehead. ("It
was a dude," McGary said. "I'm
like I'm not going to sign your
forehead, dude, I'm sorry.") A
group of girls asked him for a
kiss, and he declined that, too.
Sophomore guard Nik Staus-
kas says he'll often walk by
gaping students on campus.
They won't say anything as they
walk by, but they will Tweet at
him minutes later, he says, tell-
ing him they saw him. Horford
said after the Final Four he was
often as much as 20 minutes late
to class because people asked
him for pictures or autographs,
and-"I don't have the heart to
tell people you gotta leave me
alone," he said.
Beilein says he tells the team
that they live every day "on
Times Square."
"If you want to read about
yourself, you could go read about
yourself all day long," Beilein
said. "It's very important they
understand what's really impor-
tant. And it's not that clutter."
After Beilein spoke, the play-
ers answered questions from
the media in a neat row of tables
along the west sideline, under
the new bright lights and still-
sparkling concourses of Crisler
Center. Then the players dunked
and laughed and warmed up for
practice. Professional scouts
watched from beyond the south
baseline.
Morgan says that for 12 of
his teammates, this is normal,
expected. Only he and Horford
know how far the program had
to come to get here.
When they are gone, for bet-
ter or worse, those memories
will be gone.
It's just something you had
to go through to understand,
Horford said. And for now, it's
just fine with him if Michigan's
newest starsnever understand
again.
.4
I
ADAM ALANLMAN/Jaily
Freshman guard Zak Irvin isa part of the new, flashy Michigan basketball.