Trey and Benji Burke profile from Daily

Submitted by CaptainBlue on

We've heard plenty about Trey Burke this year, but I loved the angle of this story. Daily guy Everett Cook sat with Benji Burke and his friends at a bar in Columbus during the Penn State game. (Yeah, not a great draw.) But this piece puts the relationship between father and son really, really nicely.

To everyone but Benji, Trey is Michigan’s star sophomore, the best point guard and one of the best overall players in the country. He’s the most important player on a Michigan squad that is widely considered to be a fringe top-20 team without him.

But to Benji, Trey is his project and his lineage, a lifeline to a game he loves more than just about anything and a growing reminder of what it means to raise a son and not his former player.

And for the first time since Benji coached Trey in basketball — which he did for most of his son’s life in AAU — their relationship has settled.

JHendo

March 19th, 2013 at 12:26 PM ^

I have no doubt we'd be no where near where we are now without Trey. Trey really is this team. Without him, we lose more than just 19pts a game. We lose the the best offensive floor general in the country, a guy who gets others involved by creating plays for them and drawing the attention of the opponent's defenders. To say our other players and Beilein could turn us into a top 20 team with Spike and Eso at the point is foolish. I wish that wasn't the truth, but it is. We struggled to be competive in the B1G and stay in the top 10 with Trey, we would struggle to make the tourney without him.

Soulfire21

March 19th, 2013 at 12:49 PM ^

Without Burke, we're not talking about which seed we'll be, we're talking about whether or not we'll make the tournament.

Could easily be a 14 loss team without his heroics, he gets almost no assistance from GRIII, Stauskas, or THJ as of late.



Ed: I agree with you, meant to reply to the post above yours, sorry.

roosterbaan

March 19th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^

look, i like burke as much as the next michigan fan. there is no question michigan is a better team with him on it. but it is equally silly to say you know for sure how good or bad this team would be without him, as they would have developed entirely differently. no one predicted burke would have been this good as both a freshman and sophomore. similarly, no one knows how much beilein could have gotten out of albrecht if he was forced into more playing time early. i am glad we don't know the answer to this question, and that we have burke. but i agree that we shouldn't be so quick to undersell the remaining members of the team and their coach. 

MGlobules

March 19th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^

how to make them tough enough to succeed is an agonizing one. . . from my parental perspective. Got to keep on communicating the love while you teach them to perservere. 

ThadMattasagoblin

March 19th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^

I disagree.  Without Burke we still have 3 players who average in double figures in Stauskas, GR3, or Hardaway.  Without Burke Burke we'd struggle but we would still be solidly in the tournament. 

J.Madrox

March 19th, 2013 at 8:30 PM ^

Thats some bad luck to go down to interview Benji Burke and his friends and the date you end up with happens to be the worst loss of the year for Michigan.

That being said interesting and evolving father/son relationship they had. It does look like Benji has done a good job of helping Trey make some good decisions along the way though. Hopefully Benji and his friends get to watch Trey make a deep tournament run and then have a long, succesful pro career.