x
Breaking News
More () »

Beat Villanova and Michigan basketball players become legends for life

"It's pretty simple now," says Josh Bartelstein, co-captain on the 2013 team. "Those guys win Monday and they're legends.

SAN ANTIONIO -- Five years ago in Atlanta, John Beilein and his upstart bunch boarded a bus headed for college basketball immortality.

One way or another, that Michigan team was going to end the season as something no one would ever forget — either as a national champion or as the team that couldn't quite win it all.

The weight of something that massive is often too big to understand when it's actually happening. But on that team bus, alone with their thoughts before the biggest game of their lives, the 15 players on that 2013 Michigan team understood what was next.

And on Monday in San Antonio, the 17 players on the Wolverines' current roster will go through the same process when they face Villanova as an underdog in the national championship at the Alamodome.

"It's pretty simple now," says Josh Bartelstein, co-captain on the 2013 team. "Those guys win Monday and they're legends.

"Win that game and you're a legend for life."

The 2013 team, Beilein's first to reach the Final Four, accomplished so much by just getting that far. The program had spent years wandering for an answer before Beilein was hired in 2007, and no one was quite sure if they'd ever find their way back.

Louisville beat Michigan that night in Atlanta, winning a title later vacated by the NCAA. Five years later, most players from that squad will tell you the only regret they have was not being able to watch Beilein hold the national championship trophy above his head as the crowning moment of what should be a Hall of Fame career.

"We think coach B's the best coach in college basketball. If not, he's up there with some of the greats," former Michigan center Jordan Morgan last week. "When it comes to a basketball mind and somebody who can really dial a team in, there's nobody I'd put above him.

"So you want this for him."

Michigan left Atlanta with a bright future but also plenty of uncertainty. The Wolverines were about to lose their two best players, Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., to the NBA draft. The following year, Mitch McGary, Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III also went pro.

Michigan basketball finally was back, it seemed, but it wasn't quite ready for the change that followed. Players left early. Caris LeVert stayed but missed parts of two seasons with an injury. Derrick Walton suffered an injury.

U-M finished 16-16 in 2014-15, a nightmarish season that seemed to erase all the program's progress.

Looks can be deceiving.

"I think that perception that we dipped a little bit in '15 and '16 when we lost our backcourt and five guys in the pros, and, 'Oh, this doesn't work' (came from people who) don't understand college basketball today," Beilein says. "(You're) going to (have) seasons of up and down because there's such a lack of consistency because of transfers and everything like that and people have to understand that.

"You just can't be a national champion or in the Final Four every year. And there's years you might not even make the NCAA tournament. And there's usually a reason behind — it's not a lack of support, it's not coaching, it's not players, it's just that the roster changes and you gotta build it back up."

Charles Matthews, left, and Moritz Wagner speak to the media after Michigan's 69-57 victory over Loyola-Chicago in the NCAA men's semifinal. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)

These are the words of a coach who knows what it's like to build something from nothing. His experience comes from the early days of his tenure, when he and his players were scrapping for any type of respect. Before a regular season game against Duke in 2008, when pleaded to what became his first tournament team to give everything it had for two hours. Just to see what happens.

"You don't have to beat them four out of seven times," Beilein said. "Just for two hours."

Michigan beat Duke, 81-73, on Dec. 6, 2008, for a win that grabbed the nation's attention. And now U-M is back on college basketball's biggest stage, as a heavy underdog and facing the best opponent it has played this season.

A handful of the guys who helped Beilein rebuild Michigan plan to watch Monday night's game. Bartelstein, Matt Vogrich, Spike Albrecht, Corey Person and Zack Novak are in Texas this week. Morgan and Stu Douglass will do all they can to tune in from overseas.

Hardaway and Burke have told teammates they're trying to find a way to get to San Antonio before tip Monday night, as their New York Knicks are off until Tuesday.

In 2013, the faces in the crowd folks paid the most attention to four members of the Fab Five, who had reached the title game 20 years earlier.

On Monday night, it'll be about Beilein's guys.

"He wants to win it," sophomore forward Charles Matthews said this week. "And we want to win it for him."

Beilein often tells his players he finds more relief than joy after a victory. He's so focused on moving toward the next step, the next opponent, the next challenge, the next day.

Now, it's time for Beilein to experience joy. Pure, championship joy.

"My only regret was not being able to go up to him on the sideline in 2013 when that buzzer sounded and say 'Coach, now it's just pure joy,' " Bartelstein said. "The next game's not for six months. So I hope Monday when that confetti hits him, there's no more relief.

"Just joy."

Michigan's 40 minutes away from something legendary. It's 40 minutes away from "pure joy."

Contact Nick Baumgardner: nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickBaumgardner.

Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 On Your Side app now.

Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.

Before You Leave, Check This Out