The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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Ann Arbor, with the only blemish at Crisler Center a 75-62 loss to the Badgers Feb. 16. Rebounding to beat Michigan State a week later, 79-70, put U-M in the driver 's seat, and the young team inched a huge step forward in climbing back from a 19-point deficit to beat Purdue by a point in overtime on a Glenn Robin- son III finish at the buzzer days later. Beilein likes to say it's often a bounce of the ball that determines a team's fate, and not always at the end of a season. Last year, a Jordan Morgan tip-in that rolled off cost the Wolverines a share of the conference title in the final game of the year, a home loss to Indiana. Michigan es- caped Nebraska this season early in Big Ten play when an uncontested tip-in rolled off, and as for Purdue — well, they got away with one after not bringing their 'A' game. Even then, Beilein noted, those breaks wouldn't have cost Michigan an outright championship. "We were very fortunate with a couple of those, but we'd still have won the league by one game," he said. "Just knowing how good the league was, that's a heck of a year. "We won't reflect on it too much, but we value championships so much at the University of Michigan. This is one we'll certainly remember very fondly." BATTLING THROUGH ADVERSITY And why not? The 2013-14 title was the program's first outright since 1986, before anyone on this year 's team had been born. Most pundits didn't give this group a chance at anything better than a top-half fin- ish after preseason All-American big man Mitch McGary was lost indefi- nitely with a back injury prior to the game with Stanford Dec. 21. ESPN analyst and former college coach Dan Dakich, whose son An- drew is a Michigan freshman walk- on, wouldn't have predicted what amounted to a Wolverine landslide. "I'd say, 'Hmmm … I don't know about the three games,'" Dakich said. "But I'll say this — there are certain coaches that I believe in, that I just know are going to be there. [Wiscon- sin's] Bo Ryan, John Beilein, [MSU's] Tom Izzo … their teams are always going to be around. "I saw them in Puerto Rico for three games, and that was when Mitch was coming back. You could tell there was talent there, but they were finding themselves. Mitch's role, how he was going to fit, how he wanted to fit, how Jordan Morgan and Jon Horford were going to fit in as veteran guys. … Teams settle down. Once it got settled down for Michigan, where they know they an- swer and Mitch is out, they could move forward." From there, Dakich noted, they grew. The fifth-year senior Mor- gan and the redshirt junior Horford took turns providing good defense, solid rebounding and just enough offense to keep teams honest, giving the guards freedom to move. Big Ten Player of the Year Nik Stauskas was the center of attention at guard, but he worked through some midseason struggles to become a scorer no mat-