Since announcing his return to Michigan following last season’s NCAA Tournament run, sophomore forward Mitch McGary has been the biggest, and perhaps only, superstar roaming the streets of Ann Arbor.
At a school that’s normally best identified by the face of its football program, McGary was this year’s big man on campus, figuratively, but also literally — until Tuesday, when the now bedridden 6-foot-10 forward underwent back surgery.
But the back condition, which sidelined McGary for much of the team’s offseason practices and the first two games of the season, never allowed the preseason All-American to play to his potential this year. After playing in eight games — averaging 9.5 points and 8.3 rebounds in 24.6 minutes — the pain became too much and McGary opted for surgery, turning Michigan’s depth in the frontcourt into a deficiency.
Just days after last season concluded, Michigan coach John Beilein talked of plans to utilize that depth with lineups featuring two big men on the floor at a time, and sliding sophomore forward Glenn Robinson III to his more natural small forward position for longer stretches of time. Without McGary, two bigs on the floor is almost out of the question.
Fortunately, the Wolverines (2-0 Big Ten, 10-4 overall) still have a pair of veteran forwards in fifth-year senior Jordan Morgan — a reigning Big Ten All-Defensive Team member who has 99 starts to his name — and redshirt junior Jon Horford. While redshirt sophomore Max Bielfeldt is also capable of providing minutes when needed, the team’s frontcourt depth is so thin that Robinson was forced to close out a late-December win over Stanford at the ‘5.’
While Michigan is far from the dangerous team it could have been with McGary in the lineup come Big Ten play, Beilein was quick to point out that Morgan was a pivotal part of the 2011-12 Big Ten championship team. In fact, prior to this year, Morgan started in 95 of the Wolverines’ previous 105 games.
After McGary played his final game against Arizona on Dec. 14, Horford started the next game before Morgan assumed the starting role in the last three — primarily because Horford said he preferred to come off the bench.
In McGary’s absence, Horford’s play has shown the most promise. Since starting against the Cardinal in Brooklyn, when foul trouble limited him to just six minutes, he has averaged 10.3 points and 7.6 rebounds while leading the frontcourt in minutes. Most impressively, he’s handled his touches efficiently, shooting 61.9 percent from the field while turning the ball over less than once per game.
At Minnesota on Thursday, Horford scored a career-high 14 points while also pulling down nine boards. But Sunday, Morgan led an otherwise stagnant Wolverine team in the first half with eight points. Horford, who had a slow first half, picked it up after the break to finish with a steady eight points and seven rebounds.
The tale of two halves exemplified what’s likely to become of Michigan’s frontcourt rotation, which will likely ride the hot hand.
“Obviously we can’t predict what happens,” Horford said after Sunday’s win. “I wish it was that easy, but it’s not.
“We know we need a post presence every game, but we’re in the business of winning, so we don’t really care where it comes from, whether it be Jordan, myself or Max. As long as that presence is there and we’re getting wins, we’ll take it.”
Beilein was hesitant to admit that he’ll always simply rely on whichever player is scoring.
Even if “they have a hot hand, they’re still not going to be in there very long,” Beilein explained, but he partially recanted that statement moments later, saying that if “(one) guy makes plays, we’re leaving them in there.”
Sunday, Morgan and Horford combined for 15 points and 16 rebounds, something Horford said the team will “take that every game.”
Those aren’t monstrous numbers — the ones McGary had the talent to put up by himself — but with a talented group of wings and guards, the frontcourt knows it just has to be reliable.
“We’ve done a really good job at giving our guards confidence to put us in positions to score, and that’s good for our team,” Morgan said. “It takes pressure off of guys, it makes other teams’ defense have to honor that. When we roll to the basket, they’ve got to be there to help and that opens guys up for shots and drives and things of that nature.
“I think we’ve given our guards a lot of confidence to keep feeding us the ball.”