The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/653976
S tarting for Big Ten champion and NCAA Tournament-bound Mich- igan: seniors Spike Albrecht, Caris LeVert, Nik Stauskas, Glenn Robin- son III and Mitch McGary. No, you can't go there, in terms of dwelling on the "what might have beens," regarding Michigan's class of 2012. But the week of Michigan basketball's Senior Day, it proved im- possible not to give that scenario a quick thought. That crew found themselves per- forming in the final college basketball game experienced by anyone during their freshman season. Some 75,000 shook the Georgia Dome on April 8, 2013, Albrecht lighting up the score- board with 17 first-half points while everyone looked on in disbelief. A year later, that same crew made it to the cusp of another Final Four, knocked out of the Elite Eight by a last-second, three-point Kentucky bomb millimeters over LeVert's out- stretched fingers. Disappointing, to be sure, in that moment. But this whole college basketball business was going pretty smoothly. At least that's what Albrecht thought. "Yeah, definitely," Albrecht mused. "I always say, my first two years, I thought this was just like college basketball. Like a walk in the park. We're going to win a lot of games, not much adversity. Everything is go- ing great when you're winning. "Last year and this year were a little bit of a reality check. Facing ad- MICHIGAN BASKETBALL Memories Are Thick For Michigan's Injured Seniors Senior Caris Levert was part of U-M's 2013 national runner-up team and its 2014 Elite Eight squad, but played in just eight of a possible 36 Big Ten regular-season games the past two years due to injuries. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDE;