With Few Upperclassmen On Team, Michigan Sophomores Embrace Chances To Lead

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

ANN ARBOR (CBS DETROIT) - Michigan head coach John Beilein did not plan it out this way.

Thanks in part to numerous would-be upperclassmen leaving early for the NBA the last couple of seasons, freshmen and sophomores comprise 80 percent of the Wolverines' 2014-2015 roster.

"The whole idea when I came to Michigan was the opposite," Beilein said Thursday. "We were always going to have veterans, we were maybe going to recruit under-the-radar guys who were going to stay for four years, and we'd have these great senior nights. It hasn't worked that way. It's worked well, but I don't want to tell you that was my plan is to get barely Top 100 guys and they'd be in pros [within] two years."

In part, as a result of many players leaving early for the NBA, leadership no longer falls exclusively to seniors and juniors.

"In men's basketball in particular, you've got to talk about veteran leadership," Beilein said. "I don't think you can talk about senior leadership that much anymore, at least at this level. The transfer or the NBA just happens so much more readily than it [did], and the numbers are so small."

Max Bielfeldt is the lone senior for the Wolverines, Spike Albrecht and Caris LeVert the only juniors. As a result, the responsibility to lead falls also on players who have only had one year in the program. Sophomores Derrick Walton Jr., Andrew Dakich and Sean Lonergan were ones Beilein mentioned.

"Those guys have really helped," Beilein said. "This is crazy to say they're veterans, but when you know they're the only veterans you have, you have no other choice, and they've been really good at that. Don't mistake any of them for a Zack Novak, but you know what, Trey Burke wasn't a Zack Novak either, and Stu Douglass was not. We've had different types of leadership ... You find a way of making it work, and the coaches have to be good leaders as well.

"If you attended all our film sessions, there's a component of leadership or culture in just about every video session, and so we're teaching it all the time," Beilein continued. "I think that's the biggest difference is you used to rely on the upperclassmen to teach it, and they're not there. You have to teach it to them. You have to teach it a little bit earlier."

Bielfeldt said he has already observed Walton and Zak Irvin helping younger players on the court, talking to them and pointing out where they need to be. The sophomores know they are needed.

"We make it a point to say, 'Hey, if we had it another way, there'd be five seniors, like we had two years ago ... but that's not the case, so you guys are going to have to step up,'" assistant coach LaVall Jordan said. "It's 'next man up' in a different capacity. Usually people think 'next man up' [when] a guy gets injured, somebody's got to step in and play, but it's the same idea just in a different way."

Walton said Beilein jokes often about the youth of the team, but the players know the serious side of it as well.

"I feel like the younger – but older – guys take it upon themselves to do it each and every day because we know how important it is for our team to be successful this year," Walton said.

"You've just got to grow up quick, just knowing that at the end of the day you're one of the most experienced guys on the team," Walton added, "so taking ownership of the team as a player, as a young player yourself, you just want to be successful, so you do as asked. We need leadership this year, and that's what the younger guys are going to do."

It cannot hurt, of course, that even with only a year under their collective belt, the sophomores have already experienced a deep NCAA tournament run. Last season the Wolverines advanced all the way to the Elite Eight, and that postseason experience gives them credibility when they instruct the freshmen.

"It gives them a point of reference, so they've got something they can talk to the younger guys about, somewhere that they've been, on a road game in the Big Ten or in a tournament setting and had to play back-to-back nights, they can refer to 'When we did that in the past, here's what we did to be successful,'" Jordan said.

"I think they embrace it," Jordan added. "They embrace it because there's a standard that's been set from the teams before them, Michigan basketball in general ... They've been a part of winning, even last season for the freshmen, two years ago for the juniors now, Max Bielfeldt's been here for three years, so when that happens and begins to rise, you don't want it to fall when it's kind of in your hands, so I think those guys feel an obligation and a responsibility for the program."