2012-2013 Season

Form Tracker: December 26th, 2012

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Our weekly feature tracking the performance of Michigan players over the last week’s action. (Photo: Dustin Johnston)

Trey Burke: 9.5 (Last Week: 9.5)

It’s awfully difficult to play better than Burke is playing right now. When you score 27 points to go along with eight assists, five rebounds, three steals and no turnovers, analysts are going to start proclaiming you one of the best point guards in the country. Burke followed up that virtuoso performance with a solid effort against Eastern Michigan, with 11 points (all in the first half) and eight assists, in which he put the game away early before allowing his teammates to do the rest of the heavy lifting.

Tim Hardaway Jr.: 8 (Last Week: 6)

Before playing West Virginia, Tim Hardaway Jr. was in a shooting slump, going 3-of-13 from beyond the arc in the two games previous. Against the Mountaineers, Hardaway snapped out of his recent struggles, making half of his eight 3-point attempts en route to a dominant outing against Michigan’s last solid foe before the Big Ten season. Hardaway notched 25 points to go along with four assists and three steals in Brooklyn, then followed up that performance with a 17-point, seven-assist, five-rebound effort against Eastern Michigan. Hardaway is simply doing everything for the Wolverines on offense. One thing John Beilein would prefer him not to do? Turn the ball over — the swingman had seven turnovers in those two games.

Mitch McGary: 7 (Last Week: 5.5)

Michigan’s talented big man continues to make solid strides in his game. His score is brought down a bit given his poor showing against West Virginia (two points, one rebound, one turnover), but against Eastern Michigan McGary logged his first double-double with ten points and eleven rebounds (five offensive) to go along with two assists and three steals – good enough for his first Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor. John Beilein said it best during the post-game presser: things happen when McGary is on the floor. One more reason for excitement: McGary grabs rebounds at a raet that can only be described as alarming. As one of our astute commenters pointed out, if McGary played enough for his stats to factor in to Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, his offensive rebounding percentage would be second in the nation and his defensive rebounding percentage would be in the top 30.

Glenn Robinson III: 6.5 (Last Week: 8)

Robinson was his usual lethally-efficient self this week, and other than a slight dip in scoring against West Virginia (eight points). He’s continued with the sort of steady play that we’ve come to expect from the freshman. Robinson’s stat line against West Virginia exhibited the reliable trend of the season: if he doesn’t have much in one column, he makes up for it in others. The talented forward pulled down seven rebounds (three offensive) and dished out an assist, along with notching a steal and two blocks. Against Eastern Michigan, the freshman contributed 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

Jordan Morgan: 6 (Last Week: 8)

While Morgan continues to do what his team needs from him, his statistical output over the past week wasn’t stellar, especially as far as rebounding is concerned. He grabbed six rebounds against Eastern Michigan (three offensive) in just fifteen minutes, but snagged only two rebounds against West Virginia in a whopping 31 minutes. Morgan is a reliable presence in the paint and does a lot of blocking out that allows rebounders like Hardaway and Glenn Robinson III to clean up, but Michigan needs him to be more productive on the glass.

Nik Stauskas: 6.5 (Last Week: 7)

The Canadian sharpshooter had one of the worst shooting nights of his career against West Virginia, going 2-of-7 from 3-point range. However, that isn’t why he was docked points in this week’s form tracker. After all, Stauskas redeemed himself against Eastern Michigan with an absurd 5-of-8 performance from behind the arc. The number that dragged down his rating? Eight turnovers in the past two games.

Caris LeVert: 6 (Last Week: 5)

LeVert is seeing more and more time on the floor, and the more time he sees the more productive he is. Against Eastern Michigan, the freshman played his best game of the season so far: eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, two rebounds, two assists and one block in 16 minutes. This performance gave Michigan fans a glimpse of the kind of do-everything game that forced John Beilein to burn LeVert’s redshirt.

Max Bielfeldt: 3.5 (Last Week: N/A)

Beilfeldt didn’t play against West Virginia, but stepped up in place of the injured Jon Horford against Eastern Michigan and was impressive in limited minutes: two points, three rebounds (all offensive) and two assists.

Spike Albrecht: 3 (Last Week: 6.5)

For the first time this season, the offense sputtered a bit when Albrecht took over for Burke against West Virginia as he struggled against the Mountaineers’ ball pressure defense. The freshman point guard notched just three points over the two games this week.

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