The 2013–14 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team represented the University of Michigan during the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the 47th consecutive year at the Crisler Center, with a capacity of 12,707. It was nicknamed "Team 98" in reference to that it was the program's 98th season overall and its 97th consecutive year as a member of the Big Ten Conference. The team was led by seventh-year head coach John Beilein. The team won the 2013–14 Big Ten Conference regular-season championship, for the 14th time in program history and the eighth time outright. It was Beilein's fourth conference championship and his second at Michigan.
Although the 2012–13 team graduated five seniors and had two underclassmen (Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr.) who were first-round draft choices in the 2013 NBA draft from the 2013 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament national runner-up team, three of the five national runner-up team starters (Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas) were returning. The entering class included a pair of state Boys Basketball Gatorade Players of the Year in Indiana Mr. Basketball Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton, runner-up Mr. Basketball of Michigan, three scholarship players and four walk-ons. The team was a top-10 preseason selection, according to the vast majority of preseason rankings, and many media outlets selected McGary as a preseason All-American. Plagued with back problems during the season, McGary played in eight of the team's first eleven games before opting for season-ending surgery.
During the conference portion of the schedule Michigan won its first eight games, including a stretch of three games in which it defeated top-ten opponents in consecutive games (which no Division I team accomplished since the 2006–07 NCAA Division I men's basketball season). Michigan won at Wisconsin for the first time since 1999 and at Ohio State for the first time since 2003. The team defeated the same ranked opponent (Michigan State) twice in the same season for the first time in thirteen years.
The Wolverines were led by 2014 Consensus All-American and Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year Stauskas, a unanimous first-team All-B1G selection. Caris LeVert (B1G 2nd team), Robinson (B1G honorable mention) and Walton (B1G All-Freshman) also earned conference honors, and Beilein was named Coach of the Year by the B1G media.
Preseason roster changes
Departures
The team lost several players from the 2012–13 team. On April 14, 2013, Burke entered the 2013 NBA Draft, and on April 17 Hardaway entered the draft. On April 18, McGary and Robinson decided not to enter. On June 27, 2013, Burke was selected ninth in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves and traded to the Utah Jazz for the 14th and 21st picks, which were used to select Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng. Hardaway was drafted 24th by the New York Knicks. In addition to the NBA draft class, the team had a 5-member senior class of Eso Akunne, Josh Bartelstein, Blake McLimans, Corey Person and Matt Vogrich.
Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes Trey Burke 3 PG 6'0" Sophomore Columbus, Ohio 2013 NBA draft Tim Hardaway Jr. 10 SG 6'6" Junior Miami, Florida 2013 NBA draft Eso Akunne 5 PG 6'2" Senior Ann Arbor, Michigan Graduated Matt Vogrich 13 SG 6'4" Senior Lake Forest, Illinois Graduated Josh Bartelstein 20 G 6'3" Senior Highland Park, Illinois Graduated Blake McLimans 22 PF 6'10" Senior Hamburg, New York Graduated Corey Person 32 SF 6'3" Redshirt senior Kalamazoo, Michigan Graduated
2013–14 team recruits
On November 16, 2012, Michigan men's basketball received signed National Letters of Intent (NLIs) from forward Mark Donnal, guard Irvin and guard Derrick Walton Jr. for the 2013–14 academic year. The previous season's roster had five seniors: forward Blake McLimans and guards Eso Akunne, Josh Bartelstein (captain), Corey Person and Matt Vogrichguard. After graduating, McLimans transferred to play a redshirt year with the 2013–14 Miami RedHawks men's basketball team. Donnal is the younger brother of then Iowa Hawkeye and later National Football League offensive lineman Andrew Donnal.
The entering class made great strides during the summer of 2012. Irvin jumped from number 68 to number 31 in the Rivals.com ranking, and Walton jumped from 57 to 44. At the end of August Irvin was rated 21st, 31st and 62nd in the national class of 2013 by ESPN, Rivals.com and Scout.com, respectively; Walton was ranked 32nd, 44th and 43rd, respectively and Donnal was ranked 96th, 104th and 80th. At the end of November 2012, the Michigan entering class of 2013 was ranked 11th, 11th and 15th as a class. When the final Rivals.com class of 2013 rankings were published on April 15, 2013, Irvin, Walton and Donnal were ranked 24th, 37th and 111th, respectively.
Walton was runner-up in the 2013 Mr. Basketball of Michigan by a 2130–2086 margin to Iowa State signee Monte Morris, despite one more first-place vote. Irvin was named 2013 Indiana Mr. Basketball, giving Hamilton Southeastern High School the state's first back-to-back winners from the same high school (the other was Gary Harris). Walton and Irvin were 2013 Parade All-American honorees, and were named state Boys Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year. Walton was expected to assume the starting point-guard role from Burke, ahead of Spike Albrecht. The class originally included Austin Hatch (who made a verbal commitment on June 13, 2011), but he was critically injured in a June 24 plane crash which killed his parents.
On April 29, Andrew Dakich (son of Dan Dakich) committed to Michigan as a walk-on. Dakich and Cole McConnell, another walk-on, joined the incoming class which reported for summer practice on June 22, 2013. On September 13, Sean Lonergan joined the team as a third walk-on. Sophomore Brad Anlauf, who redshirted on the 2012 Michigan Wolverines football team, joined the team after walk-on tryouts.
Roster Beilein said that barring injuries, Mark Donnal would spend the season as a redshirt. He did in fact redshirt.
2014–15 team recruits Ricky Doyle, D. J. Willson and Kameron Chatman signed their National Letters of Intent on November 13, 2013. Hatch signed a NLI on November 14, 2013. He had survived a plane crash that killed his mother and two siblings in 2003 and another days after signing his NLI with Michigan in 2011 which killed his father and stepmother and sat out the 2011–12 and 2012–13 high-school basketball seasons for Canturbury. He moved to Los Angeles, playing as a fifth-year high-school senior at Loyola High School of Los Angeles. On January 8, 2014, he appeared in his first high-school basketball game since the 2011 crash and sank his first three-point shot.
Chatman led Columbia Christian to the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) Class 1A championship over Horizon Christian Schools on March 8, 2014. On March 10, he was one of 26 players selected for the April 18, 2014 Jordan Brand Classic.
Preseason
Pre-offseason rankings The earliest preseason predictions were made the day after the 2013 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, before final decisions by college players about declaring for the 2013 NBA draft and before many high-school players signed a National Letter of Intent about their 2013 matriculation. With the expectation that most of the talented players from the previous season (Burke, Robinson, Hardaway and McGary) would enter the draft, Michigan was not projected as a ranked team by ESPN. USA Today projected that if one of the four possible 2013 NBA draft entrants returned, Michigan would be ranked 24th; if all returned, Michigan would be the preseason #1.
On April 29, the day after the 2013 NBA draft entry deadline (with McGary and Robinson returning), the team was ranked ninth by ESPN's Jason King and ESPN's Andy Katz. CBSSports.com's staff ranked Michigan as #4. ESPN's Dick Vitale predicted that the team would be a preseason seventh on May 2. The following day, Nicole Auerbach and Scott Gleeson of USA Today projected the Woverines as the seventh-ranked team. On May 30, Sporting News Mike DeCourcy selected Michigan as number seven.
On April 30, ESPN's Eamonn Brennan named McGary a first-team 2013–14 pre-offseason All-American selection. In June 2013, Sporting News Mike DeCourcy named McGary and Robinson as the best and fourth-best players at their respective positions (center and small forward) for the upcoming season.
Fall press A Big Ten Conference preseason media poll, announced at its October 31 media-day conference, predicted that Michigan would finish second to rival Michigan State (ahead of Ohio State) and selected McGary and Robinson for its preseason All-Big Ten team. A Big Ten Network media poll, announced the day before and providing additional detail, also selected McGary and Robinson for its All-Big Ten Conference team. McGary and Robinson were on the 50-man Naismith Award and Wooden Award preseason watchlists. A poll of Big Ten beat writers also selected Michigan to edge out Ohio State for second place. Michigan began the season ninth in the preseason Coaches' Poll and seventh in the AP Poll.
On September 6 Sporting News named McGary to its preseason first All-American team as the best overall player in the Big Ten Conference, ranking Robinson fifth overall and Irvin and Walton the second- and third-best conference newcomers respectively. It chose Beilein as the conference's third-best coach. The Associated Press made McGary a first-team preseason selection. Sports Illustrated ranked Walton the ninth-best freshman overall and second-best in the Big Ten, behind Noah Vonleh. The Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook named McGary a preseason second-team All-American. Lindy's Sports selected Robinson as the best NBA prospect in the Big Ten, the second-best small forward in the country and named him to the preseason All-Big Ten team with Aaron Craft, Keith Appling, Gary Harris and Adreian Payne. The magazine chose Stauskas and McGary for its second team, naming McGary as the nation's second-best power forward and Stauskas as the nation's tenth-best shooting guard and the Big Ten's best shooter. Athlon Sports selected McGary for its preseason All-American second team, McGary for the preseason All-Big Ten first team and Robinson for the preseason All-Big Ten second team. CBS and NBC Sports selected McGary as a second-team All-American. Although McGary joined McDermott, Smart, Wiggins and Julius Randle on USA Todays preseason All-American first team in its Sports 2013–14 College Basketball Preview Magazine, the paper's sports staff later named him to their second team. Dick Vitale selected McGary and Aaron Craft for his All-Solid Gold preseason first team.
The September 6 Sporting News announcements included a number-seven ranking for Michigan, with concern about Walton's ability to replace national Player of the Year Burke. Later that month the team was ranked eighth by USA Today, and the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook made Michigan ninth in its preseason poll. Lindy's Sports ranked Michigan its preseason 10th team, and Athlon Sports listed the Wolverines 12th in its preseason ranking. SLAM Magazine made Michigan its preseason ninth selection, and CBS Sports ranked the team 12th in its preseason poll. Sports Illustrated gave Michigan a power ranking of sixth; its college basketball preview edition placed Robinson on one of its four regional covers, ranking the team seventh overall.
Practice and exhibition