LEV
FACHER
Michigan’s blessing in disguise
C
aris LeVert is clutching his
left foot in agony, a buzzer
sounds, and the sellout
crowd at Crisler Center is stand-
ing and cheering. It’s January 17,
2015, and everybody in the build-
ing is celebrat-
ing Michigan’s
56-54 win over
Northwestern.
Everybody,
that is, except
for LeVert.
The
prognosis
for the
Wolverines’
leader in every
meaningful
statistical category and a near-
certain first-round NBA draft
pick is initially unclear. But with
the next day’s news that LeVert’s
foot injury will force him to miss
the rest of the season, Team
99’s hopes of contending in a
competitive Big Ten are dealt a
crushing blow.
Lost in translation is the
obvious advantage: Team 100 is
getting a head start.
Fast-forward two weeks,
and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman is putting on a show
in East Lansing. The then-
freshman guard’s 18-point
performance Feb. 1 brings a
Michigan team without its
starting backcourt — yes,
Derrick Walton Jr. is also out
of commission with a toe injury
— to overtime against a bigger,
more experienced Michigan
State unit.
Abdur-Rahkman was not
supposed to play meaningful
minutes in 2014-15. But by sheer
process of elimination, Michigan
coach John Beilein was forced
to throw the true freshman into
the fire, alongside classmate and
backcourt accomplice Aubrey
Dawkins.
Dawkins, in his own right,
also had no business putting up
16 points against Iowa four days
later, or 31 against Rutgers and
18 against Illinois in consecutive
games as the injury-riddled
season mercifully came to a
close.
But with LeVert gone, the pair
had no choice. Michigan needed
scorers, it needed ball-handlers,
and it was out of options. Enter
Dawkins. Enter Abdur-Rahkman.
Sometimes, they looked lost.
Sometimes, Abdur-Rahkman
rained down 3s. Sometimes,
Dawkins made SportsCenter
after posterizing players across
the Midwest.
Dawkins’ quiet confidence
is apparent, and he doesn’t
twist reality. He’s said he never
expected to enter his sophomore
year with this much experience,
with this much confidence, with
this much responsibility. Nobody
did.
All of a sudden, between
Dawkins, LeVert, Walton,
Abdur-Rahkman, senior Spike
Albrecht and sharpshooting
transfer Duncan Robinson,
Beilein has more options than
he knows what to do with in
the backcourt. In a college
basketball landscape dominated
by ballhandlers, and in Beilein’s
guard-heavy offense, expect a
Wolverine onslaught. They’ll
run, they’ll shoot and, perhaps
most importantly, they’ll be
fresh. With five guards with Big
Ten starting experience and a
potential weapon in Robinson,
how could they not be?
They’ll play with poise and
pace, too, in a way they never
could have last season. The
game moved too fast for the
freshmen in 2014-15, Beilein
has said. But ask Dawkins to
list his single biggest offseason
improvement, and he’ll tell
you it’s his basketball IQ. Yet
another break for Dawkins and
the Wolverines: It’s harder to get
smarter on the court if you’re
never on the court.
LeVert’s absence in the second
half of 2014-15 doesn’t just
shape Michigan’s newfound
depth — it also means LeVert
is spending this season in Ann
Arbor. He wasn’t supposed to be
here for his senior season. He
was supposed to be playing in
the NBA alongside three of his
recruiting class cohorts: Mitch
McGary, Nik Stauskas and Glenn
Robinson III. Instead, he’s back,
he’s among the early favorites for
Big Ten Player of the Year, and
he’s ready to bring the program
back to the state in which he
found it.
If 2014-15 was the year that
never was, 2015-16 is the year
that wasn’t supposed to be.
After a spate of injuries last
season, after unfathomable
losses to New Jersey Institute
of Technology and Eastern
Michigan, the Wolverines have
reached the point that last year
was supposed to represent. It’s
time to show once and for all
they’re a program that reloads
and doesn’t rebuild.
After 2013’s Final Four run
and 2014’s trip to the Elite Eight,
Michigan had a chance to prove
as a program that playing in late
March is the expectation, not the
exception. It became clear early
on, even before LeVert’s injury,
that it wasn’t meant to be, and
the focus shifted.
Dawkins has called his
unexpected opportunity for
growth a “blessing in disguise.”
Beilein has often discussed
the team’s “growth mindset”
in 2014-15. Redshirt freshman
forward D.J. Wilson, out of
commission for nearly the entire
season, took advantage of the
opportunity to hit the weight
room. Sophomore forward Ricky
Doyle joined him. Albrecht began
the year as a backup point guard.
By the season’s end, he was the
team’s clear leader, its voice, its
rallying point.
The Wolverines return 92.5
percent of their scoring this
season, the highest among
teams currently ranked in the
Associated Press Top 25. The
pieces, improbably, are there.
This season isn’t what it
was supposed to be — the year
Michigan recovered from losing
LeVert, the year its second-year
guards grew into their own, the
year the next segment of the
John Beilein era took shape. All
told, it’s tough to complain. The
infantry is bigger and better, and
the cavalry is coming.
This season is Michigan’s
mulligan, but the green is shorter
and they’re working with a better
set of clubs. Don’t expect the
Wolverines to miss twice.
Facher can be reached
at lfacher@umich.edu and
on Twitter @levfacher.
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Senior guard Caris LeVert missed half of last season with a foot injury, but he returned for his senior season and will lead a deeper, more experienced Michigan team.
Friday, November 13, 2015 // Tip Off
3B