Basketball Blessings

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Mitch McGary, a bruising six-foot-ten center, may be the headliner. McGary is from Chesterton, Indiana, Zack Novak's hometown. He plays with Novak's intensity and passion--but, unlike Novak, everyone wanted McGary. Michigan beat Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky for a player rated as high as number two in the country by recruiting services. Beilein also brings in Nik Stauskas, a six-foot-six Canadian with an excellent shooting stroke, a nice crossover move, and the ability to dish it in traffic. And then there's McGary's former AAU teammate, Glenn Robinson III. Robinson, son of former Purdue and NBA great Glenn (Big Dog) Robinson, is a six-foot-six forward with incredible athletic and jumping ability and a rounded game. Robinson, who finished his senior season as the number-eleven player in the country according to one rating service, will be a primary element in this year's team.

In the spring it looked like Burke, after his surprising and excellent freshman year, would jump to the NBA. That would have left Michigan without a point guard--at a time when all the obvious candidates had signed letters of intent with other schools. At this juncture Glenn III, McGary, and their crusty AAU coach, Wayne Brumm, recommended Spike Albrecht, a diminutive point guard who had played with McGary and Robinson on Brumm's team. Albrecht had no other offers, but in his first game this fall, an exhibition against Northern Michigan--with Burke sidelined for an unspecified disciplinary violation--he put up sixteen points and handed out six assists with only two turnovers.