Burke Named Big Ten Player of the Week; Michigan #2 in Both Polls

Submitted by Raoul on

For the second time in his career and first time this season, Trey Burke earns Big Ten Player of the Week honors. One of the most amazing stats mentioned in the mgoblue.com press release, excerpted below, is his 43 assists to just 6 turnovers in his last six games—that's an assist-to-turnover ratio of more than 7 to 1.

Burke averaged 23.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 steals, shot 71.4 percent from the field (20-for-28) and 50.0 percent (4-for-8) from long range in wins over Binghamton (Dec. 11) and West Virginia (Dec. 15).

Opening up the week against Binghamton, Burke's 19 point, five assists and four rebounds helped U-M to the 67-39 victory. He finished the game 8-for-12 from the field, including three long range buckets in 30 minutes of action. Closing the week, Burke guided U-M to its third victory in New York City after an 81-66 win over West Virginia at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. He scored a season-best 27 points after finishing with a new career high for field goals as he was 12-for-16 from the field. He added eight assists with zero turnovers, five rebounds and tied a career-best three steals in 38 minutes of action.

For the season, Burke is averaging 18.0 points, 7.0 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game, while shooting 53.5 percent from the field. He is the only Wolverine to score in double figures in all 11 games and has four 20-plus point games. He recorded his first career 10-plus assist game and first career double-double with 18 points and 11 assists against N.C. State (Nov. 27) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Over his last six games he has 43 assists to just six turnovers.


Also, as expected, Michigan has moved up to #2 in the AP poll, receiving three first-place votes in the process. Coaches poll also has the Wolverines #2, with one first-place vote.

The last time Michigan was ranked #2 was in mid-January 1993.

ak47

December 17th, 2012 at 1:04 PM ^

I love Burke but michael carter-williams for syracuse is averaging 10 assists a game. I'm not saying burke isn't better but its tough to say no doubt when another pg on a top 10 team is averaging 10 assists and burke only has one 10+ assist game in his career.

Indonacious

December 17th, 2012 at 1:50 PM ^

Also, syracuse averages 8.3 extra possesions a game also. So using raw assist numbers isn't exactly fair. Burke assists on about 11.2% of the teams possesions and mcw assists on 15%. Burke is scoring 18ppg and mcw is scoring 12ppg with burke shooting much better from the floor across the board. I don't think its a slam dunk either way because there have different styles, but I think burke gets the edge.

ak47

December 17th, 2012 at 2:00 PM ^

I'm a little surprised that i got downvoted for saying it wasn't 100% clear with no doubt that burke is the best pg.  I think burke is certainly the overall better player and I would probably argue the best pg in the country, I was just pointing out that you could make an argument that carter-williams is having a great season as a pg, he also has two more steals a game then burke and is a better defender.  I understand all the arguments but carter-williams is averaging a double double with points and assists, thats pretty impressive too, especially considering that I think burke has a more talented scoring cast around him.

Daniel

December 17th, 2012 at 1:12 PM ^

Just F.Y.I., you can edit your own comments unless someone has replied to them. So you can just correct your own errors.

Oh, and since you're relatively new here, welcome.

State Street

December 17th, 2012 at 1:24 PM ^

I think Plumlee is stealing the show amongst MSM types but there's a long way to go.  He gets a boost the same way Te'o did with the "Notre Dame Factor" in the Heisman race.  If Duke's in the thick of it at the end of the year and Plumlee is far and away their best player, he will probably win it.

oriental andrew

December 17th, 2012 at 1:22 PM ^

Big Ten still has 4 teams in the top 10 (#2 Michigan, #6 Indiana, #7 ohio state, #10 Illinois), along with 2 more ranked teams (#13 Minnesota and #20 michigan state). 

Good to see NC State ranked at #25, and Pitt knocking at the door (2nd in others receiving votes). 

#10 Illinois vs. #12 Missouri should be a good game Saturday, as is #9 Kansas @ #7 ohio state.  Kinda torn about that second game.  I guess I still want our Big Ten teams to do well, but it's THEM, you know?

WolverineHistorian

December 17th, 2012 at 1:30 PM ^

I'm not torn.  Fuck Ohio State and go Jayhawks! 

Our ranking is incredible and I love the way we're playing but #2 just seems so high for such a young team.  We don't even know yet how we'll look against a legit top ten opponent.  But I'm not going to complain.

And, yes.  Trey Burke is the man. 

UofM Die Hard …

December 17th, 2012 at 1:49 PM ^

year goes by, the more we see freshman dominating 1 year and going pro, yes we have a young team but they are elite level guys and them being young, with their talent level, I dont think matters.  Young guys have changed the game, ex Kentucky, you can have three top level freshman and win a championship.  Thats what makes us very good and derserving of the #2 rank...we have very good freshman, upper class leadership with hardaway and we have the Burke...deadly mix. 

 

Burke is the best PG in the nation, with him running the show its all aces. 

Darth Wolverine

December 17th, 2012 at 3:17 PM ^

There is nothing in the world of sports worse than everything related to that university's athletic program. They have the most deplorable fans in the world and that will never change. I never want them to win unless it directly affects M and their record/chances to win a title. The whole strength of schedule thing only indirectly affects M. If M wins, that's all that matters.

a2_electricboogaloo

December 17th, 2012 at 1:50 PM ^

It still surpsises me that Pitt isn't ranked.  They're 10-1 with their only loss this year coming against us (the number 2 team in the nation).  They have had a pretty weak schedule so far apart from our match-up in MSG, but I still think a one loss Pitt team (who's looked good despite lacking really high-quality competition) would definitely get a top-25 nod.

LSAClassOf2000

December 17th, 2012 at 1:53 PM ^

First of all, congratulations to Trey on this honor - when many of your stats would make you a pretty good professional point guard (thanks to HoopsStats for the data on NBA point guards so I could do a quick comparison), not to mention an excellent one at the collegiate level, it can only mean good things ahead for Trey and this team.

Second, I suppose we should reward user Well...Well...Well... (in this thread) for correctly captioning the Tim Hardaway photo (which robbyt003 reposted above) somehow. We were in fact being told what our new poll position would be.

MGoClimb

December 17th, 2012 at 2:08 PM ^

I have doubts about this team being second in the nation right now. If this team keeps getting better, we'll be able to go head to head with the nation's best on a nightly basis by the end of the year.

Exciting time to be a MBB fan!

Butterfield

December 17th, 2012 at 2:18 PM ^

Funny, I was thinking the opposite.  I can't think of another team (outside of Duke) that is undefeated with a fairly decent decent strength of schedule and not having to go down to the wire to win any of those games except Pitt.  I have doubts as to whether they  can avoid losing at least a few games in conference though, so I doubt the #2 ranking is sustainable long term.  But in the end, they'll have a shot through the tourney, and that's all that matters. 

MGoClimb

December 17th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^

Anything is possible in college basketball.  What gives me the most pause right now is that some teams have shot pretty well against us.  NCST shot 57% overall, while Arkansas shot nearly 60(!) percent from three (granted 44.3% overall).  The season is still young and the sample size is small, so hopefully these are just anomalies.

I don't know the intricacies of basketball well, so maybe I'm just a fool.