Walk-on brings leadership, comic relief
Senior Corey Person takes over the show before games since he rarely plays in them
Michigan Basketball Intros
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The lights will dim inside the Crisler Center on Michigan's campus around 9 p.m. on Saturday. The Michigan student section, the Maize Rage, will start swaying. The musical backbeat to a Jay-Z/Kanye West song will begin playing over the public address system.
In a few minutes, Michigan will play Ohio State. But those few minutes between the end of the national anthem and the start of the basketball game belong to Michigan walk-on Corey Person.
As the rest of the Wolverines line up, Person waits at the end of the line. The most anonymous person on the Michigan roster is, in those moments, its most important.
Person won't play Saturday night unless it is a blowout. He might not play another minute for Michigan in his basketball career. But he is as involved as everyone else.
He is the comedic effect, the one dancing in Michigan's pregame circle and the co-architect of every starting lineup introduction move a Michigan starter makes.
"I take that time and the time right before the game to get a laugh," Person said. "My focus is always trying to remind guys that even though this game is serious, you still want to have fun.
"In the middle, I normally come up with some type of new dance for the big games. That gets guys who are serious laughing. Once guys laugh and joke around I say something serious right before we break the huddle."
This isn't a role he necessarily wanted when he arrived at Michigan. He was forced into it reluctantly and out of necessity at the end of his freshman season. At the time, Person was the last man on the roster, not even playing on the scout team in practice. He was a ball-shagger, someone who dressed for most games but had no role.
Yet one moment altered his entire career.
Michigan has a history of walk-ons under Beilein. Two during Person's freshman season, then-seniors C.J. Lee and David Merritt, shared the point guard spot and were the team's vocal leaders and emotional center.
Person, a freshman, struggled. He was quiet. Michigan's biggest star in the 2008-09 season noticed. Perhaps sensing potential for a future leadership void, Manny Harris yelled at Person during warmups before a game in front of everyone.
"It was the end of my freshman year and he (Person) was struggling a little bit just adjusting to college basketball," senior guard Zack Novak said. "In practice he was struggling and Manny, in the way that only Manny could, said, 'Hey, Corey, you better start talking like C.J. or else they're going to get rid of you. That's your way. That's your ticket. You've got to start talking.'
"Corey wouldn't say anything. Bless Corey, he took that to heart. He did become kind of our C.J."
Around the same time, Harris grabbed Person before games and along with the Wolverines' star, the freshman walk-on would be part of the pregame huddle. Person wondered why he was there. Why would anyone listen to him?
Now, four years and an ascent to leadership later, everyone pays attention.
"I was not quite sure what I am supposed to do," Person said. "Am I supposed to be serious or exactly what the routine is. Over the years as I did it more and more, I became more relaxed and was supposed to do sillier things and have more fun with it as opposed to being serious."
The move to the middle gave Person a role instead of being lost on the fringes of Michigan basketball trying to find himself. By his sophomore season, he embraced it as he and Harris ran the show before the show.
When Harris left after the 2009-10 season, the circle and pregame rituals became Person's purview.
Michigan traveled to Maui in November, the season in its infancy, when Person turned to redshirt sophomore Jordan Morgan and informed him he had to do something. The Wolverines were about to be on national television for three straight nights, and they needed to figure out a pregame routine.
“” -- Michigan senior guard Zack Novak
He's not going to get his jersey in the rafters ... but he has just as much a stake in Michigan's resurgence as Stu and me.
Person already had worked it out with other players -- the Aaron Rodgers/Discount Double Check championship belt with Novak, a make it rain dance with Evan Smotrycz and a simple "X" with Trey Burke.
A season ago, Morgan's first in the starting lineup, there was more flair. Now a veteran, he wanted it simpler.
So they brainstormed.
"I just keep it real simple," Morgan said. "Just a little handshake to get going and give a little point up to God, thanking him for the opportunity. Keep it real simple."
Simple, yes. But Person needs to learn all of it, too. Because as the starter does it, he also mimics it in unison. It's part of getting his teammates ready to play.
Person infuses some of the player's personality into the few seconds of pregame individualism. For Novak, he knew he was an obsessive Packers fan. Stuart Douglass' introduction is the beginning of a complicated 30-second handshake the two had for four years.
Person switched Tim Hardway Jr.'s midseason. Knowing Hardaway Jr. loves the Miami Heat, he caught guard Dwyane Wade doing Cam Newton's "Superman" move to the Panthers' quarterback after Wade made a big shot in a game at Charlotte.
He mentioned it to Hardaway Jr. A new introduction was created.
"We did it the next game, and Tim had a really good game," Person said. "So we had to stick with it."
After the lineups are done, Michigan gathers between its basket and the bench. No coaches are involved -- Wolverines coach John Beilein doesn't even pay attention to it -- but all the players gather in a circle and start to sway.
In the middle, Person starts to move. Sometimes he'll plan it. Other times it'll be spur of the moment. His ideas don't always work and sometimes, if Novak is too focused, he'll cut him off before he gets started.
But this is Person's moment. His contribution. His teammates chide him and say he loves the spotlight, reminding him he was the first one jumping out of his chair after Michigan was announced as an NCAA tournament participant last season. They say he likes to mug for the camera, to ham it up at any opportunity.
"The dancing," Douglass said. "He loves it."
So does Douglass. If Person didn't do it, he said he might have to get in the middle with Novak, and not many people, he said, want to see that.
Keep an eye out Saturday. Michigan doesn't know what Person has planned yet. No one outside of the Wolverines might know who he is. But those are his moments -- ones he has earned.
"A lot of people don't know him," Novak said. "He's not going to get his jersey in the rafters.
"People might not remember him, but he has just as much a stake in Michigan's resurgence as Stu and me."
Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for WolverineNation. He can be reached at michaelrothsteinespn@gmail.com or on Twitter @mikerothstein.
- Reporter for WolverineNation
- Covers Michigan Wolverines sports
- Joined ESPN in 2011
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