The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/246097
Point Guard Combo, Others Fill The Gap Assistant coach LaVall Jordan watches them work every day. It's not like either Derrick Walton or Spike Albrecht is a grizzled senior of multiple March Madness marches, but the elder of the two has at least seen the mountaintop. That gives Albrecht, a sophomore, the opportunity to mentor the true freshman who jumped into a starting spot from the very first game. It's been a good situation, according to the overseer for all of Michigan's guards. "In the NFL, you see a lot of backup quarterbacks help the young rookie quarterbacks out, if you want to compare it to that situation," Jordan said. "Stu Douglass did the exact same thing for Trey Burke when Trey came in as a freshman. "It helps a lot to have that guy to ask the questions and get maybe an interpretation of what the coaches are looking for. That's been critical." Walton's growth over the first several weeks of the season still couldn't have been achieved by anything but taking the hard road through mistakes, Jordan noted. "Coach trusting him to play the minutes he has, it helps, because you get realtime decision making to learn from, with Coach Beilein giving him instruction," Jordan said. "You've also got Spike who has been there. "He can ask a lot of questions and get a lot of feedback from a teammate who was in his shoes last year. Then you've got the experience factor moving forward. Derrick's a smart kid, and he's going to be a great player here. All of that coming together helps the learning curve speed up a little bit." Albrecht serves as far more than an instructor. Jordan knows he possesses the savvy to take the court in any situation and give the Wolverines a positive result. "He's always ready to go and do his job," Jordan said. "It helps to have both of those guys. They're both learners. It's not like Spike has been here forever. He's only a sophomore himself, so there's still a lot to learn. "But both of them are hungry to learn. That's the thing I love about both of them. They both come in asking a lot of questions. They want to get it right." They're also finding a rhythm with each other, and with Nik Stauskas, who paced Michigan in assists through the first half of the season. That's a far cry from Burke running the show almost exclusively. "It's definitely different than in the past few years with Darius [Morris] and Trey," Jordan said. "You had the ball in their hands more than anyone else. But you still need that quarterback on the field. "If you have receivers, you still have to be able to get them the ball in the spots they're comfortable in and where they flourish. That's probably where Derrick has improved the most over the last few games — learning his teammates' strengths, being able to get them the ball on time, where they're ready to make their moves and attack." Jordan isn't into projecting growth too far out, but he's always stressing poise