Will He Stay or Will He Go?

The rumors are swirling all around Trey Burke.  The most recent scuttle is that he's leaving.

Michigan is bringing in unheralded recruit (he's a little white guy) Spike Albrecht for a recruiting visit today (Thursday).  If offered, he's likely a Wolverine as Michigan would be by far his best offer.

Burke leaving would be a killer and a guy like Albrecht would at least give Michigan a ball-handler, even if he's outmatched in Big Ten basketball.  Burke is a notoriously hard worker and deserves his chance at the NBA.  I wish him all the luck in the world and still holding out that sliver of hope that he'll come back.

The big question here, is Beilein to blame for the glaring weakness at PG on next year's roster?  I don't think so.  Darius Morris, had he stayed, would be entering his Sr year or leaving for the NBA draft after a great Jr season.  There's no way that both Burke and Morris would have seen enough minutes to both be able to leave this season.  The only possible way this could transpire was if Morris left too early and Burke was a one-and-done after being a 3 star recruit to most of the world.  In other words, this is a crazy situation where a chain of unlikely events has caused a gaping hole on the roster.  Michigan brings in Derrick Walton in 2013 and he'll come in and be an instant starter just like Burke.  He's good, but there's a year gap before he arrives.

My guess at the rotation gets a huge makeover if Burke leaves.  I think there could even be a lineup of Stauskas, Hardaway, Robinson as the starting 1/2/3 which would lack any one great ballhandler but would have three long, capable athletes to each share some of the responsibility of getting the ball up the court.  None of these guys could really defend PG's 1 on 1 on the perimeter so I think you'll see a lot more zone from Michigan as they have gotten so much longer and athletic. 

We should find out more definitively on Burke in the next few days.