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ANN ARBOR, Mich .– Michigan coaches can try to play it down. They can focus on the team component of Thursday’s game between Michigan’s No.3 and Iowa’s No.9, and they’re not mistaken; Whichever team wins, the victory will be more important than the individual stats of the players.
But Thursday’s game between the Hawkeyes and Wolverines will also be undeniably personal between Luka Garza and Hunter Dickinson. The two have known each other for six years, having both trained with the Team Takeover AAU team based in the Washington, DC area. Although three levels apart, their height (6ft 11in for Garza, 7ft 1ft for Dickinson) brought them closer together. Last spring, as COVID-19 restrictions limited Garza’s workouts as he mulled over an NBA draft decision, Dickinson accepted the challenge of facing him.
Now Garza, the alleged national player of the year, and Dickinson, perhaps the best freshman in the country, will face each other again. Except this time there’s the Big Ten title and the implications of the NCAA tournament at stake.
“I’ve known him for a while,” Garza told reporters Tuesday. “We have always worked with each other and we fought. And played in practice and stuff like that. It’s really impressive to see what he’s done so far, I think anyone at the DMV would have told you that would happen. He was very elite for a while.
When the two trained last spring, multiple accounts confirmed that the battles weren’t often close. According to Frank Garza, Luka’s father, Dickinson has won just one game against the player who now leads the country with 24.7 points per game. Garza had thousands of college minutes and points to his credit; Dickinson wasn’t even done with high school.
Still, it was clear that Dickinson was on the rise. One of the 50 best rookies and Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year while playing for No.5 DeMatha Catholic, Dickinson’s game was known throughout the region and the country, and he did not back down when ‘an All-American consensus college came calling.
“He had this look in his eyes that he wanted to get better,” Frank Garza said of Dickinson last summer. “It takes a special kind of character to want to face the best and get better, even though you might be embarrassed.”
Now Dickinson is also a different player than he was then. Since the spring, the former top 50 rookie has had a summer of weightlifting and training with renowned Michigan strength and conditioning trainer Jon Sanderson, a former great man himself. He also received close tutelage from Michigan head coach Juwan Howard, who played 19 years in the NBA as a grown-up. After Dickinson’s 22-point, nine-rebound performance against the No.4 Ohio State on Sunday, it was revealed Howard had usually led 1-on-1 movie sessions with Dickinson the night before several games this season.
And along the way, Dickinson led the Wolverines with 15.0 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. He won seventh year one Big Ten of the week award – tied for second all-time – seventh nationally for field goal percentage and 12th for team effectiveness score. player.
“I was really not used to the college game,” Dickinson said of his past clashes with Garza. “After having a little summer preseason and then the actual preseason and since the start of the season I think I’ve learned a lot. Particularly thanks to Austin Davis. He really gave me a great example of what it is. is the Big Ten I love and what I need to do on a daily basis to prepare for guys like Luka game in and game out.
“I think I’ve grown a lot since then with my basketball skills but also with my mind and stuff like that.”
Of course, Dickinson has yet to face a big man in Garza’s stratosphere this season. Skillful with his post moves, physical in his ability to reach the line, and having even managed 44.4% of his 3 in 72 attempts, Garza’s scoring ability is as good as anyone in the Big Ten over the course. over the past 20 years.
Dickinson knows firsthand how difficult a game with Garza would be. Admitting that he still learns a lot from watching a movie and is still far from being an “expert” on Garza, Dickinson can still claim to know the game of the Iowa greats better than anyone in the Big Ten.
“I think something he does really well is use his body,” Dickinson said when asked what makes Garza dangerous. “He’s got a big frame that he throws really well. He’s really good at using angles. If you give him any angle to get him off the backboard or something, he’s really good. Whatever the defender is. do, that’s not a type of the mentality. “
Martelli added: “How hard he works, how creative he is with his footwork and both games, to me, were unusual for college basketball. “
Martelli is right when he says Thursday is about Michigan versus Iowa. The Wolverines are in charge of the Big Ten, with a 97.88% chance of winning the regular season title and in a position to clinch the title on Saturday. The last time Garza came to Ann Arbor, he scored a record 44 points, and the Hawkeyes are down another 12 points.
Garza could do the same on Thursday, and Dickinson doesn’t care as long as Michigan wins. There is also something to be said about not getting too emotionally invested in a personal game, especially against arguably the best player in the country. For what it’s worth, Dickinson said he felt he had played enough with his friends that it wasn’t a problem.
“The only thing I’m going to whisper to (Dickinson) tomorrow is that you just have to put the friendship aside here,” Martelli said. “And you’re not the young one. He can’t come in and accept that as some built-in excuse. All the notoriety, all the distinctions, he took care of it. And now he has to deal with the idea that it’s not Hunter vs. Garza, it’s Michigan vs. Iowa. “
Still, the game will be one of longtime friends and former training enemies, and will be a juicy subplot for the Top 10 game. The country’s best and fastest rising center s ‘will face each other, as an ever-important Top 10 game unfolds around them.
It doesn’t get much bigger than that.
(Top photo: Marc Gregor Campredon, MGoBlog.com)
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