8 — Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LeVert (foot) out for season
Junior will have
surgery this week
By MAX BULTMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Junior guard Caris LeVert
will miss the remainder of the
season with a left foot injury, the
Michigan men’s basketball team
announced Sunday.
LeVert went down hard after
clearing a rebound to seal the
Wolverines’
56-54
win
over
Northwestern Saturday night,
and MLive.com reported LeVert
had been seen on crutches
following the game.
“Caris has been working so
hard this season and for this to
happen is very unfortunate,” said
Michigan coach John Beilein in
a press release Sunday. “If we
know anything about Caris, he
will do everything it takes to
not only get better, but to help
his teammates during this time.
He is a tremendous young man
who I will really miss coaching
the remainder of the season.
However, I am optimistic he will
have a complete recovery.”
The press release stated that
LeVert will have surgery this
week and will undergo a 12-week
recovery period. LeVert also had
surgery on his left foot in May
2014.
LeVert
was
leading
the
Wolverines in scoring with 14.9
points per game, rebounding
with 4.8 boards per contest and
averaged 3.7 assists in a team-
high 35.8 minutes per game.
In the press release, LeVert
emphasized his confidence in the
Wolverines to build on their 4-2
record in Big Ten play, as well as
his own recovery process.
“While this is obviously not
what I wanted, I know this team
will come together and be stronger
because of it,” LeVert said. “Now
more than ever, it is important for
all of us support this team. For me,
I am familiar with the recovery
process and what work lies ahead
for me. I am very confident that I
will return 100 percent and have
already begun work to ensure that
happens.”
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Caris LeVert leads Michigan in points, rebounds, assists, minutes and steals.
In need of a
miracle
M
iracles happen.
Just ask the
1980 United States
Olympic
hockey team,
or the 1982-
83 North
Carolina
State
basketball
team. Better
yet, just ask
anyone who
has seen
Full-Court
Miracle.
The movie follows the
journey of Philadelphia Hebrew
Academy, which has the
worst basketball team in the
history of the sport. It enters
a tournament without a coach
but has surprising success,
reaching the final against the
school’s biggest rival.
There’s a major storm on
the night of the championship,
and the power goes out at the
school, so
officials use
a generator
to keep the
lights on,
with an
agreement
that
whichever
team is
ahead when
the gym
goes dark wins. In a miracle of
miracles, the generator restarts
despite having run out of gas,
and the Philadelphia Hebrew
Academy ekes out a buzzer-
beating win.
It’s a classic feel-good
story of a group of ragtag
underdogs overcoming the
odds to accomplish greatness
through wild and improbable
circumstances.
Right now, the Michigan
men’s basketball team
needs a Full-Court Miracle.
Unfortunately for the
Wolverines, the power grid at
Crisler Center is doing just fine.
* * *
J
ohn Beilein is a
great coach, but the
circumstances facing him
today are remarkably difficult.
The Wolverines have more
injured or sick players (seven)
than healthy ones (six). Their
best player, Caris LeVert,
is done for the year with a
fractured bone in his foot.
Their starting point guard,
Derrick Walton Jr., couldn’t
practice Sunday due to a toe
injury. Their backup forward,
Kameron Chatman, injured
his knee that day in practice.
Zak Irvin, Ricky Doyle and
Spike Albrecht — who is also
already nursing an unspecified
midsection injury — are
suffering from an illness.
Turn on your TV for
Tuesday’s game against
Rutgers, and you’ll see plenty of
unfamiliar faces on the court.
Players such as Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-Rahkman and Aubrey
Dawkins might need to accept
starting roles, while former
walk-on Sean Lonergan could
see major time. How crazy is
that?
It’s mid-January, and
Michigan is clinging to its
NCAA Tournament hopes.
Tuesday is a must-win game,
but it’s on the road, and the
Wolverines may only dress
eight players.
Can they do it?
* * *
D
oyle, Chatman and
Irvin should all return
to complete health
this year. Albrecht and Walton
probably won’t, but at least
they’ll play.
But LeVert isn’t coming
back this season. He might
not ever play another game
in a Michigan uniform. And
that’s a shame, because this
was his year, and this was his
team. That’s what he said on
Oct. 16 at Big Ten Media Day,
when losing to New Jersey
Institute of Technology or
Eastern Michigan seemed
unfathomable.
“(My role) is to be the
leader of the team, one of the
captains,” he said. “Hopefully
me and Spike can really take on
that role.”
And he had from the very
beginning of the season.
He scored 20 points against
Hillsdale, 21 against Detroit, 18
against Oregon and 16 against
Syracuse.
But then the NJIT game
happened, and it started a
four-game losing streak.
LeVert didn’t score more than
10 points in the final three.
And when Big Ten play began,
Michigan suffered deflating
defeats at Purdue and Ohio
State.
And as the season
progressed, it became obvious:
LeVert was everything. Stop
him, and you’ll stop Michigan.
If he gets hot, well, watch out.
LeVert saved the game
for Michigan on Saturday.
Northwestern’s Alex Olah, the
7-foot center,
had boxed
him out, and
yet the guard
managed to
tip away a
contested
rebound.
Had he
not made
the play,
Olah could
have scored on a putback at
the buzzer, and maybe the
Wolverines would’ve lost in
overtime. But LeVert knocked
the ball away, then went
tumbling to the ground in pain
as the celebration began around
him.
Without LeVert, the
Wolverines are a “wounded
animal,” as Rutgers coach
Eddie Jordan explained
Monday. Michigan is trapped
in a corner, and its only hope
for survival is scratching and
clawing to escape.
This was LeVert’s team, and
it was struggling plenty with
him. Now it has to move on
without him.
* * *
E
xpectations for the
2014-15 Wolverines
have been adjusted
from competing for the Big
Ten title, to making the NCAA
Tournament, to simply treading
water and developing players
for next year.
Michigan can’t succeed this
season, right? Not now, not
with so many freshmen and
unproven players.
But remember: In 2011,
the Wolverines broke a six-
game losing streak by beating
Michigan State at the Breslin
Center. Then they came within
a basket of making the Sweet
Sixteen.
Remember: In 2012,
Michigan won a Big Ten title
with Stu Douglass and Zack
Novak starting a majority of
games.
Remember: In 2013, Mitch
McGary transformed from an
underperforming, out-of-shape
freshman into a potential NBA
first-round pick over the course
of a handful of games in March
as he helped lead Michigan
to the national championship
game.
The challenges facing this
team are much larger than
anything the Wolverines
have faced lately. They
need several key road wins
available, beginning Tuesday
in Piscataway. They need three
or four players, including
several freshmen, to make
in-season leaps to greatness;
and they need a new leader, a
more efficient offense and a less
porous defense.
It would take a near-miracle
for this team — led by a pair
of hobbled guards and a duo
of developing centers — to
make the NCAA Tournament.
It would be Beilein’s best
coaching job yet. It would be
worthy of a Disney movie.
Alejandro Zuniga can be
reached at azs@umich.edu
and on Twitter @ByAZuniga.
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
ALEJANDRO
ZÚÑIGA
Michigan is
clinging to its
NCAA Tournament
hopes.