A pot of gumbo and an identity

“

A Coach Beilein team 
is like a good pot of 
gumbo.”

Gumbo has a multitude 

of ingredients. It is often 
greater than the sum of 
its parts. It takes time and 
patience.

Assistant 

coach Saddi 
Washington 
certainly 
believes the 
same will 
apply to 
this year’s 
Michigan 
men’s 
basketball 
team.

“You put 

the ingredients together and 
just let them stew. By the 
time you get midway through 
the season you’ve got a very 
good meal.”

If player development 

in college basketball was 
a perfectly linear process, 
Kameron Chatman would 
be readying himself to lead 
this team. D.J. Wilson would 
be coming into his own as 
the versatile stretch-four 
Michigan coach John Beilein 
has always envisioned. 
Aubrey Dawkins would be 
vital for Beilein’s trademark 
spacing as a dead-eye shooter. 
With any luck, Ricky Doyle 
would be providing consistent 
minutes as a useful third big. 

For one reason or another, 

they’re all gone. Who 
remains?

A two-star 

senior who 
has never been 
more than a 
complimentary 
offensive 
option, a 
lanky German 
whose plea to 
the NBA went 
unanswered, 
a graduate 
transfer from 
Ohio (University, not State), 
the rare Kentucky five-star 
who failed to go one-and-
done, a transfer from Division 
III Williams College, 
an unproven sophomore 
point guard and a group of 
freshmen.

And every single one of 

them will have to play a major 
role for this team.

“The attitude has been 

good by everybody on the 
team,” Beilein said. “We’re 
just trying to get better, but 
we’re not very good right 

now.”

Individually, 

they bring the 
history of their 
incongruent 
pasts. Together, 
they paint a 
picture that 
remains wholly 
unclear. 

For a team that 

was mere inches 
from an Elite 

Eight berth a season ago, 
expectations are relatively 
low. Neither the coaches’ 
poll nor the AP top 25 listed 
Michigan. The 32-player 
USBWA preseason watch 
list for the Oscar Robertson 
Award was released Monday. 
There were no Wolverines. 

And that lack of expectations 
may have less to do with 
talent than sheer uncertainty.

It’s a team sandwiched 

between the graduation of 
two highly-accomplished, 
four-year mainstays and an 
incoming recruiting class 
brimming with potential. 
Down the line, this pieced-
together crew may leave no 
trace in the memories of fans.

But maybe — just maybe — 

it will.

Lack of experience and lack 

of talent are two different 
problems. The former may be 
true, the latter certainly is 
not. Above all, this team is 
devoid of certainty.

But it isn’t devoid of 

motivation. Nearly everyone 
who steps on the court for 
Michigan this year will have 
a desire to prove somebody, 
somewhere wrong.

Nobody will mistake this 

team for the “white collar” 
reputation that has long 

lingered around the program.

“We all have a chip on 

our shoulders for multiple 
reasons, everybody’s reason 
is different,” said senior 
guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman. “But I think that’s 
because in 
games, and 
things like that 
going against 
guys who were 
projected as 
five-stars, and 
going out there 
and showing 
them that 
we’re just as 
good as you, 
that stars don’t 
matter.”

Added Beilein: “This is 

the most competitive our 
practices have ever been 
since I’ve been here, because 
there’s enough grit. We’ve 
had quickness, we’ve had 
talent, sometimes we’re 
missing some of that grit to 

compete. We’ve got some 
competition going on right 
now that’s really healthy for 
us.”

That, in and of itself, is an 

identity.

Call them a group of 

misfits, expect 
them to struggle 
after several 
key departures, 
question the 
professional 
viability of them 
all, wonder 
how well they 
fit together as 
a team. To an 
extent, it’s all 
rooted in truth.

But the ingredients are in 

the pot. Beilein is still the 
chef. 

Now let’s see if this gumbo 

will sizzle.

Marcovitch can be reached 

at maxmarco@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.

MAX

MARCOVITCH

Friday, November 10, 2017 // TIP OFF 2017
3B 

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Redshirt sophomore forward Charles Matthews is among the mixed bag of players on Michigan’s roster that have yet to truly prove themselves on the college level.

The attitude has 

been good by 
everybody on 

the team.

We all have 
a chip on our 
shoulders for 

multiple reasons.

