The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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44 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2019 M ichigan point guard Zavier Simpson was the big winner at Michigan basketball's annual awards banquet April 17, capturing three distinctions, including the Bill Buntin Most Valuable Player honor. He also won the Steve Grote Hustle Award and the Gary Grant Award for Most Assists after dishing out a team-best 244 this year, marking the second consecutive season he's earned those two honors. Simpson wasn't a big scorer, rank- ing fifth on the team with 8.8 points per game, but he also put up 6.6 as- sists and 5.0 rebounds a contests to rank 11th nationally in assist average. He was an All-Big Ten second-team honoree (first team by the AP), an All-Defensive Team choice and now ranks seventh in U-M history with 431 career assists. Redshirt junior Charles Matthews, junior Jon Teske and sophomore Isa- iah Livers each collected a pair of honors. Matthews earned the Way- man Britt Outstanding Defensive Player and Thad Garner Leadership Awards. The Chicago native aver- aged 12.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game on his way to earning All- Big Ten honorable mention. Teske captured both the Rudy Tomjanovich Most Improved Player and Loy Vaught Rebounding Award. He averaged 9.5 points and a team- best 7.0 rebounds per game during his junior campaign to earn All-Big Ten honorable mention honors. He more than doubled both his scoring and rebounding output from last year and ranked second in the Big Ten, 38th nationally, in 2018-19 with 2.0 blocks per game. Livers captured U-M's Sixth Man Award and Travis Conlan Sports- manship Award. He came off the bench in 32 of his 35 games played to average 7.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per contest, and was U-M's Big Ten Sportsmanship Honoree this season. Freshman Ignas Brazdeikis col- lected the Iron Man Award after starting all 37 games and playing 29.7 minutes per game. He averaged a team-best 14.8 points a contest, to go along with 5.4 rebounds, and earned All-Big Ten second-team honors. He was also named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and even earned All-Amer- ica honorable mention from the As- sociated Press. Sophomore Jordan Poole won the Outstanding Free Throw Shooter award after making a team-best 83.3 percent (75 of 90) from the line. He finished second on the team with 12.8 points per game in earning All- Big Ten honorable mention recogni- tion. Finally, junior Austin Davis and sophomore Rico Ozuna-Harrison shared the Morgan/Bodnar Brothers Award for Academic Achievement for their work in the classroom. — Chris Balas JOHN BEILEIN COULD ADD TO HIS NBA DRAFT SUCCESS IN 2019 With redshirt junior wing Charles Matthews, sophomore guard Jordan Poole and freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis declaring for the 2019 NBA Draft, Michigan head coach John Beilein has an opportunity to add to his list of former players who were selected in the first round. From 2009-18, Beilein has had seven players — guards Tim Hard- away Jr., Trey Burke, Nik Stauskas and Caris LeVert, plus forwards Mitch McGary, D.J. Wilson and Moritz Wagner — selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. That is the most of any Big Ten head coach dur- ing that time span. Right behind Beilein in the confer- ence, Michigan State's Tom Izzo has mentored five first-round selections in the past decade. Following Izzo are two coaches who are no longer with their respective programs, for- mer Indiana head coach Tom Crean and former Ohio State head coach Thad Matta, who each coached four players who became first-round picks in the past 10 years. Nationally, however, the blue- blood programs are out-pacing ev- erybody when it comes to sending talent to the NBA Draft. In just the past three seasons, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Kentucky's John Calipari produced seven first- round picks each, equaling Beilein's 10-year total. Calipari has coached 26 first-round picks at Kentucky in the past decade, while Krzyzewski is behind him with 19. North Carolina and Kansas also have more first-round picks than Beilein in the past decade. UNC's Roy Williams has mentored 13 first-round selections in that time, while Kansas's Bill Self has accumulated 10. Beilein, though, is right in line with Arizona's Sean Miller, who also has seven first-round draftees in the last 10 years. While Beilein hasn't compiled as many first-round picks as Duke, Ken- tucky, Kansas and UNC, he has done an excellent job developing play- ers. Of Michigan's seven first-round picks, none were ranked among the nation's top 25 prospects by Rivals. com coming in to Ann Arbor, with three not even in the top 150. McGary was Beilein's highest- rated recruit that turned into a first- round pick, checking in as the coun- try's No. 30 overall player per Rivals. com. Stauskas was the No. 71-ranked prospect, while Wilson was rated No. 86 and Burke was No. 142. Stauskas is Beilein's highest selec- MICHIGAN BASKETBALL Zavier Simpson Is Michigan's 2018-19 MVP Simpson ranked sixth nationally in assist-to- turnover ratio (3.3) and 11th in assists per game (6.6). PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN