The Rise of Michigan Wolverines Freshman Tim Hardaway, Jr.
You know it when you see it. It’s like a lot of other things in life, but when an up and coming basketball player becomes a star, you quite simply know it when you see it. With his team entrenched in the heart of conference play, chasing a once thought improbable tournament bid, Tim Hardaway, Jr. of the Michigan Wolverines is becoming a star, if he isn’t one already.
Hardaway, a slightly built, 6’5’’ athlete out of Miami, FL was a top 100 prospect coming out of high school but wasn’t getting the big time offers that a kid with his pedigree might expect to see. Under the wise counsel of his basketball-smart family, they sent Junior packing for Ann Arbor, to be tutored by a coaching legend in John Beilein.
Breakthrough
TH2 burst onto the scene with a 19-point performance in his first collegiate game but was by and large unpredictable for the majority of non-conference play. For example, after dropping 15 points on the road at Clemson in a big Michigan win, TH2 followed that up with just 3 against Harvard at home.
Tim Hardaway Jr.
Through a steady dose of encouragement and support from coaches and teammates, not to mention a relentless pursuit to improve, Hardaway has turned into a literal scoring machine for Michigan. “I feel more comfortable just going into practice every day, working with coach Laval Jordan, just working hard at it and going hard at every drill that we end up doing to make myself better,” said an aware and humble Hardaway after a disappointing loss at Minnesota.
It would be in the most unlikely of places that Hardaway’s star would begin to rise. On January 5th, in the hostile confines of the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin, Hardaway began embarking on a remarkably productive and consistent stretch of games that hit its crescendo on Saturday night against the Hoosiers.
During this most recent 12-game stretch, Hardaway has scored in double figures 11 times, averaging 14.8 ppg along the way. He is also averaging 2.6 makes from three point land during his run. Indiana coach Tom Crean said it best after his team lost by 4 on Saturday night thanks in large part to a career-high 26 points from Hardaway, “He punked our guys, and that shouldn’t happen, but he’s a really good player. He was a shot taker, now he’s a shot maker.”
In Michigan’s 73-69 win over Indiana, the freshman shooting guard would light up IU’s defense on 9 of 11 shooting. This is what becomes possible in an encouraging and enabling environment. Coach Beilein has been pushing Hardaway to keep firing, despite his early season inconsistencies. That message wasn’t lost on the freshman as he has become a guy that his teammates can lean on, yet mentor at the same time.
Coach Beilein has the luxury of having some assistant coaches on the floor with his breakout freshman as well. “The veterans; Zack Novak, Stu Douglass, Darius they’re just talking to me everyday just telling me when the ball is in your hands, do something with it, just don’t be a one-man show shooting the ball and taking wild shots,” Hardaway said. “That’s when I started to take nice shots, take open shots. Be aggressive, but maintain my composure and find open guys.”
The Moment
3 games ago, Michigan was clinging to their faint tournament hopes on the road at Penn State. Hardaway was saddled with early foul trouble and was forced to sit and watch Michigan squander their hard fought halftime lead from the bench. TH2 hadn’t even registered a point until there were 7 minutes remaining in the game. At that point, Michigan needed a jump start as they were teetering on the brink of being blown out in PSU’s gym, a place where the Nittany Lions had been taking on and defeating all comers of late.
Hardaway would go on to score 13 points in the final 7 minutes to lift Michigan to a huge win. In the midst of his run, he drove hard to the left block and powered a layup over a trio of Penn State defenders. As the cameras flashed to the budding star, he was overcome with a menacing look of passion and determination that had not been seen on a Wolverine face since Chris Webber patrolled the corridors of Crisler Arena.
When I asked him about the look, he responded, “Oh, I didn’t know Chris Webber did that. You know, [I was] a little caught up in the moment of the game, once you get that momentum going in there, especially when you’re the visiting team, you just want to show them that you’re tough and we’re not backing down, we’re going to play the whole 40 minutes, and try to get out of there with a W.”
Message received. Michigan closed out the win against Penn State and has since ripped off two more wins over Northwestern and Indiana, two teams who clobbered Michigan earlier in the year, setting up a big road game at Illinois on Wednesday night.
Balanced Attack
With Hardaway filling the hoop up on a regular basis, Michigan is a much more dangerous team. Darius Morris has yet another option on top of a handful of other long range experts to work with. The significance of Hardaway’s emergence is not lost on his teammates.
“It means a lot because it makes it really hard to guard all of our action when you have people knocking down shots outside,” said reserve forward Colton Christian, “Not just him [Hardaway] but Evan, Zack, when our shooters are shooting that well it’s just hard to decide if you want to guard shooters or you want to guard paint.”
Team captain Zack Novak added, “He’s come through big for us a couple of games now. The kid’s a player; I’ve been saying it all year long. He’s shown flashes, but now he’s really starting to put it together. I’m excited for him, excited for us.”
Who better to analyze a scorer than the man setting him up? Sophomore point guard Darius Morris noted that, “His shot selection has helped him and now it’s starting to open up other parts of his game.”
Shock the World, part 2?
Almost 20 years ago, a brash, unafraid group of freshmen known as the Fab 5 roared all the way to the NCAA tournament championship game powered by the credo of “Shock the World”. While this team of Wolverines isn’t nearly as outspoken and doesn’t display swagger on their sleeve for the entire basketball universe to see, they certainly aren’t afraid of success either.
A wise beyond his years Tim Hardaway, Jr. had this to say about his team’s chances in a crowded middle of the Big 10 race, “I feel like we got a great opportunity, those other teams in that bundle, they feel the same way, they’re going to play with the same intensity that we are. It’s just who plays the hardest and who wants it more.”
It’s easy for outsiders to overlook the Wolverines. Years of struggles will force that label to be applied to a team until they prove they are ready to rip it off and jump ahead of the pack. Having won 5 of 6, heading out on a crucial 2-game road trip, and watching how this team has come together alongside its blossoming freshman star, you’d be wise not to sleep on these Wolverines.
