Burke Named Big Ten Player of the Week; Michigan #2 in Both Polls
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 12:59 PM ^
Best point guard in the country. No doubt.
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 1:14 PM ^
But his TO Rate is MUCH higher than Burke's (23% kenpom, Burke is 14%). They're both in the conversation for best PG right now.
December 17th, 2012 at 1:17 PM ^
Burke is also averaging 18 points a game. Something Michael Carter-Williams has done zero times in his career.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:30 PM ^
beat up your PG.....
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.
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:22 PM ^
...where unpopular opinions are always flamebait/trolling/overrated.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:15 PM ^
...unlike the rest of the Internet.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:29 PM ^
Just to be clear, I didn't downvote you or disagree with you. Was just stating something from the opposite end of the spectrum. Hard to state that there is no doubt.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:32 PM ^
December 17th, 2012 at 2:06 PM ^
I'll go further and say he's the best player in the country.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:37 PM ^
Downvoted for not saying he's the best player in the world!
December 17th, 2012 at 1:01 PM ^
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:33 PM ^
so I can't check.... but can you edit your posts on the mobile App?
December 17th, 2012 at 2:34 PM ^
Not on the droid app, not sure about the iphone version.
December 18th, 2012 at 3:18 AM ^
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:06 PM ^
Duke has also benefited from playing one of the toughest and most visible schedules to date out of any team. When Burke has more marquee games under his belt from the Big10 season I think his campaign will pick up steam and hype (provided he keeps up his performance to an appreciable degree).
December 17th, 2012 at 2:13 PM ^
damn double post.
December 17th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^
Thanks for coming back!
It is definitely his team- and he is so fun to watch!
December 17th, 2012 at 1:14 PM ^
And if he keeps this up, his draft stock will soar.
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?
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 1:32 PM ^
Agree. Fuck Ohio. Always.
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.
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:47 PM ^
December 17th, 2012 at 1:35 PM ^
Words can't express how happy I am that Burke stayed for another year. He was absolutely dominant on Saturday night.
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:03 PM ^
ESPN power rankings has them at #22, FWIW
December 17th, 2012 at 1:51 PM ^
Looks like Beilein did not vote in the coaches poll but Steve Fisher did...I wonder if he put us #1?
December 17th, 2012 at 1:52 PM ^
1992 also? Any historians out there? What about 1997?
December 17th, 2012 at 7:13 PM ^
I'm not sure about individual first-place votes, but the last time we were #1 in the polls was at the beginning of the 1992-93 season.
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.
December 17th, 2012 at 1:57 PM ^
Is the coaches poll balloting public information? Curious what coach ranked Michigan first - doubt it was JB.
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!
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.
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.