CHICAGO -- Stretching on a beige couch in his grandmother’s house two weeks ago, Charles Matthews’ size 14 feet were planted on the ground.
Three of his Michigan basketball teammates were 14 miles away, at the Quest Multisport facility, just outside of downtown Chicago, interviewing and working out for NBA executives at the combine. They stayed in a luxury hotel downtown.
Matthews, U-M’s wiry wing who sat out last season after transferring from Kentucky, had no plans to see them and bask in the NBA experience. Once a one-and-done hopeful, he came to Ann Arbor after his freshman season in Lexington didn’t go as planned, after battling injury and struggling to separate himself from his star-studded peers.