With Youth On The Roster, Beilein Says Albrecht Is 'Really Excellent Team Leader'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Michigan lost its top two scorers from last season to the NBA, and now freshmen and sophomores account for 75 percent of the roster. Fortunately for the Wolverines, the team has had more time together this offseason than it would have otherwise because of a summer trip to Italy.
"The 10 days of practice are great for just working at the fundamentals, but you can't put in the type of work that you do in a normal year," Michigan head coach John Beilein said Thursday at the Big Ten's media day. "You give them more concepts ... You talk about the fundamentals. You wouldn't be able to train it as well because you don't know what you're going to see, and now you come out of that and you can really sort of look at the big picture.
"You have a better evaluation of your team," Beilein added, "and now your preseason practices should be more on point than they normally would be because we have information that we would have no idea or wouldn't have known until two or three weeks into the season."
Six true freshman, one redshirt freshman, five sophomores, two juniors and one senior comprise the team this season. With so much youth on the roster, Michigan will likely lean heavily on its few more experienced players, including guards Caris LeVert and Spike Albrecht.
Beilein said he has been impressed with Albrecht's development between last season and now.
"It's amazing the confidence he has shown since the day he walked in the door," Beilein said. "Even when he came for his visit where he was what some people thought was an unlikely recruit, he was laughing about how unlikely people thought this was. And then every time he walks on the floor, he just -- he's got incredible confidence that 'I can play at this level,' and he's shown that so well. He's a pleasure to coach. He's become a really excellent team leader right now. I'm really leaning on him to be the pulse of the team."
LeVert finished third on the team in scoring last season behind Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III, so he may well turn into Michigan's biggest scoring threat this season. As many solid performances as LeVert contributed last season, he got some attention nationally, and Beilein indicated he expects LeVert to handle the spotlight well this season also.
"You never know," Beilein said. "He was in it a bit last year. I mean, there were several games where we just went to him because people were doing things with Nik or with Glenn, Jordan Morgan, Mitch [McGary], so we just went with him. He's sort of used to it. I love his personality because he doesn't let things bother him very much, so I don't think he gets too excited or he gets too worried about either situation."
The Wolverines will be following up a season in which they advanced to the Elite Eight, the fifth time in six seasons in which Michigan has made it to at least the second round of the postseason. Two seasons ago, the Wolverines played for the national championship.
