'Frankie being Frankie': Michigan's freshman PG comes up huge in tournament win

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan is doomed.

If you’re a fan of the Maize and Blue, you probably let these words out of your mouth at some point during the 2021-22 season. If not when they were 7-7 and dealing with a virus outbreak in mid-January, then when they needed late comebacks to beat Northwestern and Nebraska or lost sophomore center Hunter Dickinson for a must-win game at Ohio State.

A portion of fans thought the Wolverines were dead before the NCAA Tournament even started, having to play without fifth-year senior point guard DeVante’ Jones, who did not travel with the team to Indianapolis while in concussion protocol. Some living rooms in Michigan and across the country probably heard similar words when the Wolverines trailed by 15 points 15 minutes into its first-round NCAA Tournament game against Colorado State.

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But the Wolverines — who’ve, admittedly, endured quite a bit of adversity throughout the season — found a way to prevail, outscoring the Rams by 27 points in the final 25 minutes in the 75-63 win.

Michigan got a huge lift from freshman point guard Frankie Collins, Jones’ replacement in the starting lineup. The Henderson, Nev., native scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and added six rebounds and two assists. Knocks on Collins throughout the year have been his propensity to try to do too much, often times leading to turnovers, his lack of a three-point shot and limited success shooting free throws (he’s shot 17.6 percent from three and 46.9 percent from the foul line this year).

But he picked his spots in this game. He was aggressive when he needed to be, slowed the game down when it was called for, played outstanding defense and committed just one turnover. Collins made a key three-pointer and connected on his only free throw attempt. He finished with a team-high plus-16 on-floor rating.

He credited a good deal of his performance to the confidence instilled in him by Michigan teammates and coaches in the 48 hours leading up to his first career start.

“They really just told me to be Frankie,” Collins said.

The general public hasn’t been been in practices, meetings or film sessions, so we didn’t know all of what Collins was, since he had played only 269 minutes heading into the tournament. So what does ‘being Frankie’ mean?

“Go out there, play with confidence and lead the team,” Collins said of what his teammates told him. “I felt great going into the game just from all the Intel from the coaches and from Devante’ — from the beginning of the season to now.”

“Frankie was just being Frankie,” Dickinson added. “He’s an aggressive guard who is able to get downhill and finish. He was doing that out there. We have full confidence in him to do what he does. We’ve seen him practice throughout the year, and so we all have full confidence in Frankie.”

Collins had plenty of help around him, too. Dickinson poured in 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, fifth-year senior guard Eli Brooks put up 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and freshman wing Caleb Houstan nailed three second-half triples and totaled 16 points. His was one of several stellar performances for Michigan.

But Dickinson and Houstan, both of whom took the podium for postgame pressers, gave Collins a share of the credit for their respective production and the team’s win. It was a big moment for a player who could well have the ball in his hands as Michigan’s starting point guard next season. For Collins, though, he was just playing ball.

“At the end of the day, it’s just basketball,” Collins said. “I mean, I’ve been working out, practicing, playing basketball my whole life. So if you just go out there not thinking too much and just do the right things and do all the things you’ve learned, and then you’ll be okay.”

The Wolverines had enough to prevail, but do they have the horses to hang with No. 3 seed Tennessee (the Vols led No. 14 seed Longwood, 54-29 at halftime at the time this was published), without Jones?

Nobody has the answer. If they pretend they do, there are countless examples to point to of this Michigan team surprising when the odds are stacked against them.