The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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helps everything else." When the Wolverines needed help the most at Wisconsin, Stauskas took matters into his own hands. With a 15-point lead blown, and the game hanging in the balance, Stauskas drilled a step-back three-pointer as the dagger amid his personal 11-point scoring run to end the game en route to a 77-70 triumph. Michigan hadn't won at the Kohl Center since 1999, and had never captured a true road game against a team ranked in the top three in the nation. Guiding the No. 3 crew at the time, Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan didn't expect it this time around, either. "That step back is so fast, and that release is so fast," Ryan said. "He's quick. He's like a cat." The Wolverines subsequently knocked off Iowa 75-67 at home Jan. 22, and Hawkeyes boss Fran Mc- Caffery jumped on the Team Canada bandwagon, at least in the postgame palaver. "The amazing thing about him has been his consistency all year," Mc- Caffery said. "He's obviously some- body everybody marks when they ready to play Michigan, yet he's still able to get shots out of the offense, get shots on his own. "He's really doing a lot off the dribble. His length helps him there, and he's got great range, obviously. He's tremendous." Stauskas seemed to be enjoying a magic carpet ride of press clippings right into superstar status. He cer- tainly didn't hurt himself when he fought through Gary Harris' octo- pus-armed defense and scored 19 in Michigan's colossal 80-75 victory at Michigan State's Breslin Center Jan. 25. That one cemented Michigan's immovability from the Big Ten title race, and seemed to further stamp Stauskas as a star. But the conference, as the scouting reports grow thick as polar bear hide, seemed to issue a "not so fast, my friend." And it almost appeared Michigan head coach John Beilein knew it was coming. Asked if Stauskas' dramatic offseason transformation was the best he'd seen, Beilein slowed the train. "The best way to judge that will be at the end of the year," Beilein said. "Right now, this start is as good as I've ever seen, as far as guys are com- ing in and all of a sudden looking around and saying, who is going to take this shot? This play is being di- aled up for me, and just embracing it. "For a very young player, he's re- ally responded well. I have a lot of confidence that, all the way down the stretch, he'll be able to do that well." At the same time, his coach cau- tioned, Stauskas had never been at the top of an opposing scouting list. Certainly not at Michigan last year, with Trey Burke and Tim Hard- away Jr. lighting up the scoreboard. "He's a focal point of our offense, but he's now a focal point of people's defense," Beilein said. "Nik Stauskas' name is out there and he's a marked man. That's a different mentality he's learning about, and he's really doing a good job with it." Life was about to get tougher. Starting with the Indiana lockdown,