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Posted: Thursday October 24, 2002 10:13 PM Updated: Thursday October 31, 2002 4:18 PM Michigan Wolverines
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
A once storied program has fallen on hard times of late, but the Michigan Wolverines appear to have the right man to lead them back to respectability, or better. At Duke, Tommy Amaker went to six Final Fours as a player and an assistant, winning back-to-back titles in 1991 and '92 and learning at the elbow of one of the game's top coaches, Mike Krzyzewski. He took over a reeling Seton Hall program in 1997 and in his third year had the Pirates in the Sweet 16, earning a number of national coach-of-the-year awards that helped pave the way for his trip to Ann Arbor. The Wolverines had grown stagnant under Brian Ellerbe, and Amaker had his work cut out for him last year in his first season at Michigan. The Wolverines struggled through a 5-11 conference regular season, limping down the homestretch with losses in their last five games by an average of 20 points per contest. But their hard work was evident during the Big Ten Tournament, where they upset seventh-seeded Northwestern then gave No. 2 Ohio State all it wanted before falling, 75-68. "I think we had a year of growth and a year of transition," Amaker said. "I think any time, as I have said in the past, you are embarking on a building effort, it is important that you lay the foundation correctly, firmly and right. I feel great confidence and very good about how our staff has done that. We are going in the direction of where we want to go with the presentation of our program, the style of play, the kind of kids we are going to recruit and the way our kids are going to conduct themselves."
Amaker was known as one of the country's top recruiters at Seton Hall, and his first Michigan class is further proof of his skill in that department. The challenge this year will be integrating Amaker's five freshmen with the holdovers from Ellerbe's teams to create a cohesive team that's on the same page philosophically, academically and athletically. "The way we are doing it is to have competition," Amaker said. "We are going to have much more of that in our daily practice. I think that it is going to help our team improve by being more competitive and being able to simulate what we are going to see in games. Our kids are going to work hard and be competitive. I think we are going to be on the same page, cheer for each other and pull for the Maize and Blue." Gone from last year's squad are three starters, including 6-foot-9 center Chris Young, who scored a career-high 11.4 points per game, finished second on the team in rebounding (5.7 rpg) and shot 60.3 percent from the floor for his career, the third best mark in school history. Also moving on are 6-foot-5 guard Leon Jones (5.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg) and 5-foot-11 guard Mike Gotfredson (1.0 ppg, 0.9 apg). But a key component in Amaker's preferred up-tempo style of play will be back after a strong finish last year -- 6-foot-7 senior wing LaVell Blanchard (14.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg), who enters his fourth year as a starter. As a junior, Blanchard led the Wolverines in minutes played (29.6 per game), scoring, rebounding and at the line, where he helped the Wolverines to a school-record .754 team free-throw percentage by sinking 89-of-107 shots. Blanchard saved his best performances of the season for the Big Ten Tournament, where he averaged 25 points and 6.5 boards in Michigan's strong postseason showing. Amaker is hoping Blanchard can use that as a springboard for his senior season. "We certainly hope he can pick up on his play where he left it there in the Big Ten Tournament," Amaker said. "He was outstanding. I think it was obviously his intensity, his passion and his production. It was at an all-time high in terms of this past year. I thought his confidence got a shot in the arm with having played that way, and I am hoping that we can build on that, utilize that and catapult that into this season and also lead our young guys. We are waiting to see, but we are anxiously anticipating that is going to be the norm for LaVell." Blanchard was elected a team captain, and he takes seriously his role of unifying the older players and the incoming freshmen. "I think that another thing we need to do for this team is to basically become more of a team," Blanchard said. "If you see one of us, you see three or four of us. That was the main thing I was trying to do over the summer. If I go somewhere or if somebody else goes somewhere, we want you to see all of us together." Blanchard's main running mate should be 6-foot-6 junior wing Bernard Robinson Jr. (12.1 ppg, 4.6 rpg). The flashy swingman, known for his dunking ability, beat the buzzer with an eight-foot runner to give Michigan a two-point win over Minnesota last season. He also excelled at the line, hitting 85.5 percent of his 83 attempts. He represented Michigan on the Big Ten's all-star tour of Europe this summer, averaging 10.2 points and 6.8 boards. The top returning guards will be 6-foot-4 sophomore Dommanic Ingerson (8.1 ppg, 1.7 rpg) and 6-foot-5 senior Gavin Groninger (5.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg). Ingerson improved throughout his freshman season, finally cracking the starting lineup during the Big Ten Tournament. He shot 41.9 percent from 3-point land (49-for-117), making six 3s in a 23-point performance against Fairfield. Groninger, a team captain, is also known as a gunner, and he hit five 3-pointers at Iowa last year. Meanwhile, 5-foot-7 junior guard Avery Queen (4.3 ppg, 2.4 apg) is the top returning point guard. A part-time starter over the past two years, Queen led the team in assists last year and won the team's top defensive player award as a freshman. "We feel very good about the young men we have [on the perimeter]," said Amaker. "We are going to be inexperienced, yet we are going to have some talent there that we can work with and we can grow with." Joining the veterans on the outside will be two of Amaker's highly touted freshmen -- 6-foot-3 guard Daniel Horton from Cedar Hill, Texas, and 6-foot-6 wing Lester Abram of Pontiac Northern High in suburban Detroit. Both are expected to play -- and make an impact -- immediately. Horton was a McDonald's All-American last year and was one of the nation's top prep point guards, while Abram led his high school to back-to-back state titles and will be an inside-outside threat. He averaged 22.7 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.5 blocks per game as a senior. The front line will be thin on experienced players with Hill's departure, although Amaker is excited about the incoming freshmen up front. The returning players are 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Chuck Bailey (4.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg), 6-foot-5 senior forward Rotolu Adebiyi (0.6 ppg, 1.1 rpg) and 6-foot-7 junior forward Colin Dill (0.0 ppg, 0.3 rpg). Bailey, a Detroit product, shot 53.8 percent from the field and averaged 13.6 minutes as a freshman, while Adebiyi will be a team captain for the second straight year. The incoming freshmen include 6-foot-11 forward/center Chris Hunter of Gary, Ind., 6-foot-10 center Amadou Ba from Bridgton, Maine, and 6-foot-9 forward/center Graham Brown of Mio, Mich. Hunter was a Mr. Basketball finalist in Indiana and averaged 17.0 points, 11.3 boards, 4.5 assists and 3.0 blocks as a senior. Ba is a native of Mauritania, Africa, and has played the game for only four years, so another year of seasoning could be in order. Brown was an all-state selection who was a constant triple-double threat as a senior, averaging 21.0 points, 17.0 rebounds. 8.0 assists, 8.0 blocks and 1.9 steals per game. Also, 6-foot-8 junior forward J.C. Mathis is a transfer from Virginia who will sit out this season but learn the system in practice. "I think we will be [inexperienced] on the front line with three post players being freshmen, but they bring good size," Amaker said. "In terms of allowing them to grow, to learn and to realize how difficult it is going to be at this level, we will be young there, but we will have a few more bodies to utilize." Amaker's goals for the coming season are pretty basic, and typical for a rebuilding program. "I think we want to have a winning season,'' he said. "I think in terms of anything tangible or concrete, I would love for us to put ourselves in the position to do that. If we can make that step, or that quantum leap, that will be a very successful year for us." Clearly, the Wolverines are a year or two away from getting back to the upper echelon of the Big Ten, but Amaker has the team headed in the right direction. The Wolverines will be young, but Amaker's recruits are of the blue-chip caliber and should give fans a glimpse of the potential of this program under one of the country's hottest young coaches. In what should be a balanced Big Ten, the Wolverines likely will start their ascent toward the conference's first tier, but don't look for an NCAA Tournament berth just yet. Give the freshmen a year to mature, however, and the future is looking bright in Ann Arbor.
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