Michigan Basketball: 3 reasons Trey Burke is my favorite Wolverine

Burke helped Michigan be a blue blood again

When Trey Burke decided to return to Michigan basketball for his sophomore season, it was like a gift from the gods. He was so good as a freshman, but it felt like he was headed to the NBA.

Then, he decided to come back and the 2012-13 season that followed was the stuff that dreams are made of. Not only did Michigan ascend to the No. 1 ranking after a win over Illinois, the Wolverines eventually reached the Final Four and the national title game.

As I said, for his efforts, Burke won the Naismith Award, in addition to being named Big Ten Player of the Year. He also won the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s best point guard.

On top of being easily the best individual Michigan player since the days of Howard, Webber and Jalen Rose, Burke was instrumental in bringing hardware back to Ann Arbor. During his freshman year, U-M shared the Big Ten regular-season championship and then reached the national title game for the first time in 20 years the next season.

The next trip to the Final Four and the title game took only five years and an outright Big Ten championship came the first year after he was gone. However, Burke and his incredible rise in Ann Arbor helped jumpstart it all.