TREY BURKE, X-Men Origins

THE MERE MENTION OF MICHIGAN AND OHIO STATE IN THE SAME SENTENCE USUALLY AWAKENS THE BEAST THAT IS THEIR HEATED GRIDIRON RIVALRY. BUT FOOTBALL WON’T BE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN THIS YEAR WHEN THE WOLVERINES AND BUCKEYES SQUARE OFF DURING BIG TEN PLAY. YOU CAN THANK TREY BURKE AND HIS LONGTIME FRIEND JARED SULLINGER FOR THAT ONE.

W O R D S . D Y L A N M U R P H Y, Dime, August/September 2011

PLENTY OF WIDE-EYED, over-confident recruits are swallowed up and ruthlessly spit out by lofty goals and higher expectations. Maybe it’s the pressure. Maybe it’s the attention. Or maybe it’s just a matter of mental moxie. Whatever it is, no one who knows Trey Burke is worried. He’s calm, well-mannered and disciplined. Humble with confidence protruding. A self-aware optimist.

There’s a good chance that you don’t know Burke, and there’s an even better chance that you would scoff at his goal of 17 points and 10 assists per game for his upcoming freshman season at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. But that’s nothing new for the 6-1 point guard from Northland High School in Columbus, Ohio.

“I just feel like I’m under the radar right now,” Burke admits with a hint of frustration. “I feel like I’m gonna make a real big impact. I’m coming in to make some noise this year.”

Someone else feels the same way.

“He’s a step ahead of everybody else. He’s strong enough, he’s quick enough, he can handle the ball, shoot the ball, even at NBA range.”

Pretty high praise, especially when it comes from none other than Ohio State All-American Jared Sullinger. As Burke’s former on-thecourt co-star on the AAU level with All-Ohio Red and in high school at Northland, Sullinger has plenty of evidence to backup his generous claims. But their relationship goes way beyond the hardwood.

“Jared Sullinger is like a son of mine. He calls me pops,” says Benji Burke, father of Trey and former AAU coach of the pair. “He and Trey are best friends.”

As they grew up, that friendship revealed itself on the hardwood with Burke and Sullinger steamrolling the local competition. When Benji realized he had more than just run-of-the-mill talent on his squad, he decided to take his team to the AAU circuit. But that didn’t stop him from imposing his basketball will on Trey, for better or for worse.

“The hardest thing about coaching your own son is that you blame him for everything because you can get away with it,” says the elder Burke. “If a kid would miss a layup, I would blame Trey for passing him the ball.”

Trey’s no pushover. When Benji brought the heat, Trey barked right back in front of everyone – no different than any other father and son. But Trey kept working, kept pushing. Benji had always known that his son had talent, but his basketball experience playing Pro-Am in Columbus taught him that talent is only a portion of the equation. It must be grown, nurtured and molded. But one other trait that Trey developed evokes a palpable satisfaction for this proud father.

“The biggest thing for me is that he’s so humble,” says Benji. “I think most kids, they get to that level, of course they got some arrogance because they wouldn’t be as good as they are without that type of confidence. But Trey, he doesn’t get too high on anything, and he never gets too low on anything. And I think that’s really propelled him to where he is today.”

So where is that, exactly? On top of Ohio Basketball, is all. Following Jared Sullinger’s two-year reign as Ohio’s Mr. Basketball, Burke broke free to snag the award in 2011. During his senior season at Northland, he confirmed his father’s suspicions that his talent was better than most. Averaging a cool 23.6 points, 6.8 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game, Burke led his team to the state final where a 59-40 loss to Cincinnati’s LaSalle ended his high school career. But the real story of the year was Burke’s lights out shooting, which included an astonishing 59% from the field and 47 percent from three. Of all his basketball skills, his ability to knock down shots from deep with unnerving consistency should have future defenders trembling.

“I can shoot,” says Burke. ”If anybody is going under the screen I can knock down the three. That’s one of my deadliest weapons.” Sullinger agrees.

“There are some times when he takes shots that people don’t normally take,” adds Sullinger. “But then when he knocks it down you’re like, ‘Wow.’”

They may have been equals in private, but Sullinger was initially the sole recipient of unending national attention. Meanwhile Burke plugged along, waiting, and not hoping, for those big-time offers to start rolling in. Don’t confuse that confidence with cockiness, though. The rising star thrives on the tight rope, exuding an authentic confidence that seamlessly avoids arrogance. It’s why he still thinks that he’ll take Sullinger in a good old-fashioned game of one-on-one.

“It would seem like Jared would beat me ’cause he’s bigger, but nah,” says Burke. “There would be some games where he would shoot all jump shots, not back me down. And I’ll win those types of games. He can’t beat me in a guard game.”

If they played today, Sullinger envisions a slightly different sequence of events.

“I’m not gonna let him get the ball back,” says Sullinger. “Once I get the ball, I’ll back him down.”

As badly as each wants to beat the other, their friendship ultimately prevails. When Sullinger faced the decision of leaving Ohio State and entering the NBA Draft this past summer, Burke was in his ear offering him guidance.

“I talked to Jared a lot about that,” says Burke. “He just told me he still wants to be a kid. And I had no problem with that. But once he told me that I kinda told him, ‘Wow, this is not as good of a draft as it usually is.’ So I was thinking, why wouldn’t you come out this draft? You’d probably be like, the No. 1 or No. 2 pick if you ask me.”

And now that Trey is in line to become the next starting point guard for Michigan following sophomore Darius Morris’ declaration for the draft, part of him is glad that Sullinger will return. But Benji wasn’t always sure it would get to this point. It was at the 2008 Pittsburgh Jam Fest that the light finally went on.

“All the coaches were there, and Trey just shot the ball so well,” says Benji. “He had a 44-point game on a limited amount of shots.” But the basketball-savvy Burke still wasn’t totally convinced because his son hadn’t faced the cream of the crop. That test came quickly.

“We saw him start playing against kids that have a name. One specifically, Myles Mack (2011 point guard committed to Rutgers). I love Myles Mack, but Trey really controlled that game. And Myles Mack is my guy. He can play. And when I saw that, I was like, ‘Okay, he got a chance to really be somebody.’”

The phone wouldn’t stop ringing. One missed call. Two missed calls. Three missed calls. On the fourth call, Benji had no choice but to put aside his coaching duties for a moment and answer his cell phone. On the other end was James “Satch” Sullinger, father of Ohio State star Jared Sullinger and high school coach of Trey. Apparently others besides Benji noticed his son’s explosion, because Sullinger was calling to inform him that Trey had just received two D-I offers. “Right then I knew Trey was going to have a chance to have some options,” says his father.

But when Penn State, his first Big Ten suitor, came calling in his sophomore year, Burke had not yet solidified his unwavering personality. He concedes that he allowed himself to be swept off his feet by the blood-pumping thrill of recruitment – the knowledge that his basketball skills were a sought-after asset.

“When I had first gotten my offer I was really excited,” says Burke. “Coaches showed me love and I went down to some football games. I kinda got the feel of Penn State. But I chose a college too quick. I was only a sophomore. So I backed out. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life to make.”

After decommitting from the Nittany Lions, it looked like the Cincinnati Bearcats would reel in the standout Ohio point guard. But then a new player came to the table.

“Coach [John] Beilein came to me,” recalls Trey. “He was like, ‘We’re serious. And if you’re not serious then just let us know right now and we won’t waste our time on you.’ So I gave him a shot. I gave Michigan a shot. And I loved it.”

And there’s no doubt that Michigan will love him and his winning pedigree. In four years of high school basketball, Burke only ended up on the wrong side of the final scoreboard five times. He also captured the AAU national title in 2009. This, according to the sharp-shooting point guard, is what separates him from the pack. “The best part of my game is winning,” says Burke. “I love to win, I can’t stand to lose. That competitiveness in me is something I’ve had since I was a kid.”

That’s why Burke doesn’t shy away when the game is on the line.

“I’m gonna demand the ball (at the end of the game),” he continues.

“I’m gonna try and create as much space as possible, and if somebody comes up, I’m kicking it to the open man. At the end of the game I love having the ball in my hands. The last-second shot, I’m not scared to take it. I feel like it’s already going in.”

As for next year, Burke’s looking forward to finally facing off against his best friend after years of sharing the same uniform.

“Once we play (Ohio State), we’re not gonna be friends on the court,” says Burke. “The few times me and Jared played each other, we was trying to win and going at each other’s throats. I’ll probably guard him for a couple seconds and give him a cheap shot or something. A low blow or something so the ref won’t see it.”

Sullinger is not surprised.

“That’s Trey. I mean, when we would play in summer league games he would do that, so that’s just friendly love.”

Although the Michigan-Ohio State game is circled on Burke’s calendar, his plans exceed the collegiate level.

“Of course I wouldn’t be playing the game if I wasn’t trying to be a pro, a professional at it.”

Maybe one day we might just see him live that dream.