3/5/2020 – Michigan 82, Nebraska 58 – 19-11, 10-9 Big Ten

I had a conversation about basketball with a cousin of mine who went to Kentucky once; I asked him if it was weird that there was an entirely new team every year. He looked at me like I was crazy. This was the natural way of things at Kentucky. To have guys come back was weird. Even the ones who didn't do anything, like Charles Matthews, had to find new homes because there was always another wave of genetic lottery winners on the way.

To each their own, but I thought that would be a relatively unsatisfying program to be a fan of. "Relatively" is doing some work in the previous sentence since Kentucky has seven Elite Eight appearances in Calipari's tenure, but one of the great pleasures of college sports is watching a high school kid get carved into a man. I prefer a story with a beginning, middle, and end to the never-ending series of Brawndo commercials that is Kentucky basketball. Not enough to say nah to Josh Christopher and Isaiah Todd, but enough to like the fact Michigan is adding Terrance Williams.

The thing about Michigan under Beilein is that very few stories got past the middle bit. While the turnover was less drastic, no Michigan alpha dog made it to his senior year under John Beilein except in cases of injury (Caris LeVert) or lethargy thwarted by Maverick Morgan (Derrick Walton). The traditional college career where you go to one school for four years and have a senior day was bogglingly rare under Beilein. Beilein recruits who started and followed that path to the end: LeVert, Walton, Stu Douglass, Zack Novak, Jordan Morgan, Zak Irvin, Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman. Seven guys in 12 years, and LeVert was only around because an injury prevented him from becoming a lottery pick after his junior year.

And we're talking about John Beilein, the guy who recruited one five star in his career. If he couldn't have a really good basketball team without devastating his senior day, nobody could. Days like yesterday are rare and should be savored.

[After THE JUMP: goodnight sweet princes]

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dad remained steady [Campredon]

Nobody in the recent history of Michigan basketball has been more of an android than Zavier Simpson. Even his Big Mood looks a little bit like someone impersonating human behavior.

Does Zavier Simpson have a mood bigger than this one? Because if so, NOW IS THE TIME YOUNG MAN. pic.twitter.com/PLYBGIG1Zc

— Bryan Mac (@Bry_Mac) March 25, 2018

Simpson was asked if he would cry at some point before or after yesterday's game. He scoffed, and said his dad might. Simpson only has time for one emotion: resentment.

Resentment at people like me, who said he'd never be a 20% usage player, let alone the lead dude. Resentment at geometry that turns conventional shots at the rim from guys his size into swatted flies. Resentment at the man opposite him. So he sits in a forge, carving new bits of himself.

The second-best example of this is the hook, which became a cause celebre last year. CBS entered a game at Maryland last year with a Bruno Fernando dunk tracker planned. 36 minutes later:

The best example is that Simpson went away from the hook just as defenses were starting to prepare for it. There was a period of time where announcers called any damn thing a hook because they were flabbergasted that you'd do anything else if you were a point guard who'd resurrected Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's thing. Simpson had moved on.

Now he goes left as easily as he goes right, and slithers his way to the basket, and yes he will jump stop your ass and put a hook in as you fly by sometimes.

Zavier Simpson's hook shot continues to be a thing of beauty. pic.twitter.com/hRGPFXnawi

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) February 16, 2020

You can feel it coming sometimes, late in the clock, and it's the best thing in the world. Zavier Simpson is going to drive this guy and put up a shot that nobody in the world has an angle to block, and it's going in.

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Teske did not [Campredon]

Jon Teske lasted ten seconds before he started cracking up.

Big Sleep making us do a big cry @UMichBBall | @JonTeske pic.twitter.com/bzQdQ3tk6f

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) March 6, 2020

Teske, too, improved dramatically over his time in Ann Arbor. The coaching change hit him harder than Simpson, asking him to do things that he'd barely practiced at Michigan, so a lot of frustration got directed at him when it should have been directed at his situation.

He was never wired like Simpson. Thus the nickname. "Big Sleep" stuck through a concerted effort to change it. Michigan's coaches were pushing "Big Nasty" last year. It bounced off, in part because Big Sleep is awesome in ways that repurposing Corliss Williamson's moniker is not. But mostly because the players on the team refused to countenance it. Teske came to Michigan a 7'2" guy ranked barely inside the top 150 because he managed to be relatively anonymous in high school. He had to be pushed to do, like, stuff.

From that start Teske was the best backup center in the country on a team that reached the championship game and the starting center on an elite team built around defense, one that only met its match when Texas Tech rolled into a Sweet Sixteen matchup. Simpson was always wired to sit in a smoky basement in an endless training montage. Teske's path was far less certain.

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Anyone who makes it this far in college these days is a flawed player. Teske and Simpson have both sanded down rough edges; both take heat when their flaws are exposed and exploited by the opposition. But this is Michigan during their career:

The 6th, 7th, and currently 11th best teams in the country. The main reasons Michigan isn't heading for another 30-win season are injury issues and a brutal schedule. Michigan is currently first nationally in Torvik's strength of schedule stat. (The top seven are all B10 teams.)

The only guys to be key players during the whole of three year run are Simpson and Teske. John Beilein took a lot of spare parts and turned them into components of a lethal machine but none were as unlikely as the two guys who can't shoot. Along with Matthews they changed John Beilein teams from lethal offenses to defensive juggernauts. That is an accomplishment on par with any.