Nik Stauskas is Right about Michigan basketball

Over the last few months Michigan Basketball has kinda been the talk of the town in College Hoops, but, not in a good way. See, Michigan is in a period in their history that fans could possibly look back on in a mulitude of ways: either a roadblock on the way back to the national powerhouse scene, or the setback of a once prestigious basketball program. Which one that is, however, remains to be seen.

Everyone knows the guy pictured above right? He only won the Big Ten Player of the Year Award in 2014 and started in the National Title Game in 2013 for the University of Michigan. He is quite possibly a Top 15-20 Michigan Basketball player of all time. He, like most Wolverine fans right now is not very happy.

After Michigan's beatdown loss 99-67 at the hands of #2 Purdue on Tuesday night, Mr. Stauskas piped up... saying something that A LOT of people are thinking. Michigan Basketball players don't care anymore.

The direct quote from the former Wolverine guard's instagram read "These kids have no respect or understanding of what it means to put on that M. Haven't felt any kind of passion or love for the game from Michigan Basketball in years" sad face emoji. Here's the thing, Nik Stauskas is right.

Before I dive into his comment I want to remind everyone again who Nik Stauskas was and is to this program. Nik Stauskas was a part of the 2012 recruiting class along with Glenn Robinson III, Mitch McGary, Caris LeVert, and Spike Albrecht. He won the 2014 Big Ten Player of the Year, was a part of Michigan's national runner-up team in 2013, and was a part of the team that made the regional final one year later in 2014. Stauskas is a Michigan basketball great, he was no scrub. When he speaks on Michigan Basketball, his opinion matters.

Nik Stauskas is right...

Nik is 100% correct, it has become evident that the athletes on the Michigan Basketball team don't care anymore. Whether it is the fact that this season is basically a lost cause, Juwan Howard has lost the locker room, or something else, it is very evident that most nights those guys don't want to be there. This is something even three years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of.

Michigan was once a program that was as looked up to by other programs even in their own conference. Their head coach was a tactician and one of the smartest in the game, not to mention he ran a squeaky clean program with little to no controversy. He also won, a lot, like a lot a lot. He developed 3 and 4 star players into NBA starters like Tim Hardaway Jr, Duncan Robinson and Jordan Poole. He did things the right way, because, at the end of the day that's what he cared about and from 2007 to 2019 it didn't matter if they were the #1 team in the country, or unranked at .500, you knew they were gonna play hard and you knew they wanted to be there.

It feels like Michigan Basketball has almost become a stepping stone, rather to the NBA or elsewhere. It just feels like the player's minds are always somewhere else. They play a selfish brand of basketball and defense isn't a focal point anymore. There is no team and that's where this all went wrong. It's all confusing to me because when we hear Juwan speak, the number one thing he constantly speaks on is culture and that seems to be Michigan's biggest issue right now. The culture in their locker room. Something that for years was never the issue. Even when they were so bad.

I won't pretend to know what the exact fix is. I am not a Head College Basketball Coach and I won't claim to be, but, whatever is going on up in Ann Arbor right now is quickly becoming one of the biggest clown shows in the world of college basketball and it breaks my heart and the hearts of all Michigan fans around the country. Most importantly, it's breaking the heart of some of this institution's finest players, and when they speak up on it, you know it's time for a change.