The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/279958
BY JOHN BORTON W herever he's going, Caris LeVert arrives quickly. Whether he's racing down court to lead Michigan's fast break, or bolting out of relative obscurity to All-Big Ten status, he doesn't mess around. Seemingly all arms and legs, he drives the lane like an octopus after downing a case of 5-Hour Energy. When he nailed a three-pointer just before the half against Michigan State, he didn't even wait around to watch it go through the net. Instead, knowing it was good, he wheeled and began sprinting toward the locker room. Places to go, plenty to accomplish … Two years ago, LeVert wasn't even a twinkle in Michigan's recruiting eye. Or that of any other Big Ten team, for that matter. Committed to Ohio University (no, not that Ohio), LeVert and his gangly, 162-pound frame found himself Mid- American Conference (MAC) bound. Then Ohio happened to knock off Michigan in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament, and the mixed-blessing dominoes began to fall. Ohio head coach John Groce bolted for the head coaching job at Illinois. LeVert's high school coach sent video of the now decommitted skinny scorer to Michigan, backed by the recommendation of Ohio AAU coach Benji Burke, Trey Burke's dad. "They liked me and called me up for a visit," LeVert recalled. "I came up here and committed. I loved it up here." Maybe John Beilein & Co. knew, but Michigan fans hadn't a clue how much they'd eventually love LeVert. He seemed like a late throw-in, along with some kid named Spike, to the redoubtable recruiting big three of Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson and Nik Stauskas. Even Michigan coaches consid- ered redshirting LeVert that fresh- man season, until need arose and he showed enough to get onto the court. Still, 10.8 minutes a contest, result- ing in a scoring average of 2.3 points per game on 31.5-percent shoot- ing, didn't have anyone hearing the echoes of Jamal Crawford. That didn't matter. Michigan was going places, and so was LeVert. By the end of his freshman season, LeVert played on while all but one other team in the nation had packed away the basketballs. "We had a great team, and every- FAST Track Caris LeVert Races Into Huge Role For The Wolverines