March 22, 2011
Sophomore guard Josh Bartelstein will give an inside look all season at the 2010-11 version of the Wolverines.
As I was sitting in our locker room listening to Coach Beilein talk the day after our game against Duke, I couldn't help but think where this program stood a year ago. Because at the end of the day, all 15 of us want to leave a mark on the Michigan basketball program that will never be forgotten.
Just like Cazzie Russell and Glen Rice and most recently Travis Conlin and the Great C.J. Lee did. A year ago, people hung their heads when they talked about Michigan basketball. There was no excitement. It looked like we were going into complete rebuilding mode. It is amazing what a lot of hard work and a group of 15 teammates and four coaches can do when they only have one true goal in mind.
It wasn't easy and there where some major stumbling blocks in the way. We started the year in August with two-a-day practices in the hottest gym in America. Most teams were enjoying themselves with the summer weather lying by the pool but we just started building the foundation for a team that we knew was going to be really good. At the time no one else did.
We went to Belgium and played against four professional teams. We went 1-3 and the alarms started going off. How could a team that was supposed compete in the Big Ten not even win in Europe? But we had a great time on the trip and it was an extremely successful journey. The bonds we shared walking through Belgium and Amsterdam, seeing where Ann Frank lived and making the climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower are memories I will never forget. We will never forget and the bond of 15 young men really accelerated across the pond.
We were picked last in the Big Ten. Maybe we would get double digits win was the consensus. But we started of the year strong beating good teams like Harvard and Oakland and nearly pulling off a great wins against Syracuse, Kansas and Ohio State.
The momentum going into that Big Ten home opener was huge and a sold out Crisler Arena awaited the Boilermakers. We got off to a bad start, but managed to fight our way back into that game. A reoccurring theme some would go on to say. We lost that game and ended up starting the Big Ten season 1-6. Some around the team acted like the world was going to come to an end, but those in the locker room just kept working, even harder than ever. The coaches came to work everyday with a smile on their face and you would never know we were 1-6.
It was during that 1-6 start our point guard and head coach made statements that would change our season.
Darius Morris made a public statement we are going to win at least 20 games this year. He was dead serious and the team took on his belief. We were going to find a way to win 20 games and make the NCAA tournament.
The second moment came after our toughest loss of the season in my hometown of Chicago, coach Beilein knew we were really down, searching for answers. But he said, "this group of players will play in the NCAA tournament, it might not be this year, but you all will."
Just like in all cases this year, Coach B was right. But even he wouldn't have known that it would be this year we all made the tournament. You guys all know the story from the rest of the regular season. We went on a roll no one could ever predict. Sweeping NCAA tournament teams like Penn State and Michigan State, then getting wins over Indiana and Minnesota. We had two heartbreaking losses in there against Wisconsin and Illinois, but we bounced back and finished fourth in the best conference in the country.
None of us will ever forget Selection Sunday and just how much went into that day. The amount of shots Darius took this past summer, how hard Jordan Morgan worked to get back in game shape after two surgeries, how much better Tim Hardaway Jr. got from August to March, how Evan Smotrycz and Matt Vogrich always got up shots after practice and how our two captains Stu Douglass and Zack Novak just stayed tough all year long. I could go on forever, but I don't want to get off target.
Once you get to the round of 32, you realize just how close you are -- we were just one win away from the Sweet 16. Four wins away from a title. You can taste it, but at the same time you have to focus on the moment.
We were ready for Duke. We played our hearts out and that game defined our season. Nobody is supposed to come back from 15 in the second half against Duke. We did. And we were an inch away from sending the game to overtime. But basketball can be a game of inches sometimes and that's just the way the ball rolled. We redefined what it means to be the comeback kid's. We were resilient and as so many alums have told me, we were true Wolverines all the way to the end.
The two hours after that game were as tough as you can imagine. But it really should be. When you invest as much as we did, and spent every day together for about seven months, it really, really hurts.
You hear it all the time in sports, but we felt like we were family. When a member of our team had a bad day, we all felt it the same way we all loved seeing a teammate's success. This is the reason I know we have greatness ahead of us. Not because of how talented we our on the court or how good our coaches can be at preparing us, but because we have guys who love each other, love the program and love Michigan more than anyone can imagine.
It has been an honor to write this blog. Getting to meet all the fans and read your emails has been really cool. That truly has been the best part of it was hearing what all of you had to say.
The perfect example was in the process of writing this last blog I got an email from Rory's dad who just told me Rory is cancer free after his second bout with the disease. I have been sad since yesterday, but I can't help but smile now. We all believed in Rory and he came through. I can't wait to tell all of my teammates.
I have to thanks our SID, Tom Wywrot, because he asked me about writing this blog last summer and at first I was hesitant but I couldn't be happier I did it. Maybe you will see me next year writing again.
Thanks so, so much. Go Blue!
You can keep sending your emails to askjbart20@gmail.com and I will continue to share them with the team.
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