The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MICHIGAN BASKETBALL "We've got a long trip to Arizona, and we're playing a tremendous team. Just bounce back. Just keep trying to do it." Michigan hadn't lost two straight home games since dropping three straight in the 2010-11 season, losing to No. 3 Kansas, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 15 Minnesota. The Wolverines hadn't fallen in consecutive home games to unranked foes since 2009-10, when they lost to Penn State and Illinois at Crisler late in the season. The last time Michigan dropped consecutive non-conference games at Crisler goes back to 2007-08, Beilein's first season in Ann Arbor. That year, Michigan lost to Central Michigan then No. 8 UCLA at home. Asked about perhaps pushing the panic button, the veteran head coach waved off the notion. "What's the date today?" he asked, rhetorically. "There's no panic button. This is Dec. 9. It's a long way. "When the season is over, that's when you give the summary of it. We've just got to give better. "You're not playing a game a week. You're playing 30-some games, and these are the roller coasters you go through. You have more seasons like that than you have the last couple sea- sons." CARIS LEVERT ELEVATING HIS GAME AT CRISLER Michigan junior Caris LeVert has appeared on NBA hot boards as any- where from a potential lottery pick to late in the first round, and many be- lieve he'll leave U-M after this season. He's been named to the preseason top- 50 list for the 2015 Naismith Trophy, the fourth national player of the year award preseason list on which he's ap- peared, along with the John R. Wooden Award, the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Lute Olson Award. He's proving worthy of the con- versation. LeVert was averaging 17.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game as of Dec. 10 and put up a career- high 32 points in a 72-70 loss to NJIT on Dec. 6. "Both offensively and defensively, his understating of our offense and other schemes — it just, as we coaches say, slows down and they see it better," head coach John Beilein said. "Now he's making this next level to push people around, push defensively, say, 'Go over there Zak [Irvin],' or 'Get over here Kam [Chatman].' He's doing more of that where before, he was the one getting pushed round by different people. He's learning to do that." He's been at his best as a scorer, though. The Wolverines don't have many options when it comes to break- ing down a defense, relying on LeVert DIGITAL BONUS: CLICK THE ICON TO PLAY OR STOP THE AUDIO Spike Albrecht