Ten years later, John Beilein, Trey Burke and the Maize Rage provide a reminder that 'the block was clean'
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines basketball welcomed back the 2013 team that made a legendary run to the national title game for its 10-year reunion. Headlining the group that was able to make it back to campus for U-M’s Saturday night game against Michigan State was head coach John Beilein and standout players Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Nik Stauskas, Spike Albrecht and others.
The 2013 team will always be looked at as the one that broke through after the program was largely dormant for some two decades, but Burke and his teammates, speaking with the media before the game, made sure to credit those who came before that squad like Zack Novak and Stu Douglass.
Michigan made its first Final Four since 1993, winning 31 games and coming a bounce of the ball shy of winning the Big Ten regular season. Within the run were Burke’s 30-footer to send a Sweet 16 game against Kansas into overtime, a blowout of Florida in the Elite Eight and a magnificent win over Syracuse and its famed 2-3 zone in the Final Four.
But like most all college basketball teams, Michigan’s season ended in heartbreak, an 82-76 loss to Louisville that came in controversial fashion. First, the officiating overall was suspect from Michigan’s standpoint, playing against a team that wound up vacating the title after getting caught “arranging striptease dances and sex acts for prospects, student-athletes and others.”
The worst call of all came with Michigan down 3 points and 5 minutes to go. Louisville guard Peyton Siva went up for a layup in transition, and Burke was called for a foul despite getting all ball.
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Now the senior advisor for player development with the Detroit Pistons, Beilein, still an Ann Arbor resident, relives some of the memories of his 12-year tenure at Michigan by being sent highlights on social media, which he in turn shares with his former players.
“People remind me all the time about a lot of things, including the block,” Beilein said of how he remembers the 2013 run, if he thinks more about the positives or how it ended.
“You mean, the foul?” a media member joked.
Beilein laughed. So did Burke, sitting to his former Michigan coach’s left, before lightheartedly but sincerely saying for the record, “the block.”
The members of the 2013 were introduced to the crowd at halftime Saturday night — Burke’s applause, unsurprisingly, was the loudest — before taking the floor and giving some speeches. As Beilein spoke before handing the mic off to team leaders, a member of the Maize Rage, Michigan’s student section, held up a whiteboard that read “THE BLOCK WAS CLEAN.”
“That was a fast 10 years, man. A fast 10 years,” Burke said to the Michigan crowd. “We created some great memories here. Just standing on this court right now just brings back a lot of memories. For me being able to see my brothers, life goes on, so always having that chance to get back and reconnect with some guys you made great memories with, that’s all you can ask for.
“I love y’all. Go blue forever, in my heart.”
Burke was interrupted by Michigan fans chanting, “It was clean!”
“A kid from Ohio, welcomed with open arms, and we did something great here,” Burke continued. “For me, in my heart, we are champions.”
A composed Beilein said it right after the national title game in 2013, too, that his group felt like a championship team. Evidently to Burke and others, it still feels that way.
Saturday night provided another reminder that the block was clean, just like the way Michigan ran its program — “the right way,” as Albrecht described it on TheWolverine.com podcast this week, unlike the Cardinals. That, too, made the 2013 run, Beilein’s success and current head coach Juwan Howard‘s winning even more satisfying.
