Darius Morris found out about the switch last Wednesday at practice. For the first time since travel team basketball in middle school, he’d be coming off the bench.

Throughout his four years of high school, four years of AAU high school travel basketball and nine games with the Michigan basketball team, he always heard his name in the starting lineup. Until Saturday against top-ranked Kansas, when sophomore Stu Douglass had his name called instead.

Kansas guard Sherron Collins goes up against Michigan guard Darius Morris during the second half Saturday.

AP photo

“At first I was just like ‘OK,’” Morris said. “I embraced it and moved forward. A lot of people would pout about it or something like that.

“I know coach knows what he’s doing and has a strategy to everything he does, so you just have to go with it and value your minutes when you get out on the floor.”

Michigan coach John Beilein said he made the change to get his best lineup on the court to begin the game. The switch will stay intact Tuesday against Coppin State - and it was something that helped spark the freshman from Los Angeles.

Morris sat for more than nine minutes to start the game. By doing so, he saw what Kansas was doing to Michigan on offense and defense. He understood the pace of play.

And for the first time since he arrived in Ann Arbor, he was able to take everything in before he needed to check in.

“Coming out of the preseason he was handling the leadership role the best of anybody coming out of the preseason and then as the season began and he experienced the tough spots every freshman has, his confidence went down so quickly,” Beilein said.

“We said ‘time out, we probably should have done this in the beginning.’ Now I think he’s very comfortable with his role in the beginning and now we’re going to make him more comfortable with it.”

If there’s anything for Michigan to take away from its fifth loss of the season, it is that Morris is beginning to play like the player Michigan thought it had when it recruited him to be the point guard out of Los Angeles. He had nine points, two rebounds and four assists against the Jayhawks.

Most importantly, Morris had no turnovers.

“It helped my confidence a lot,” Morris said. “Going to the No. 1 team’s place and play solid. It just lets me know I’m capable of doing this on the college level and just try to get better.”

It took a little bit of an adjustment, though. When Morris first checked in, he immediately took a three-pointer and missed. Sitting on the bench had left him cold and unable to jump right into the flow of the game.

Yet once he did, it all felt normal - just like he had started the game, just a little bit later on.

“After that,” Morris said, “I was fine.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.