Almost two months have passed since Ben Cronin decided he was done with college basketball for at least the rest of this season.

He played minimal minutes for the Michigan basketball team against Coppin State, lumbering up and down the floor, clearly in pain, rehabilitation from his off-season hip surgery obviously not taking hold.

Advice from his doctors: Stop playing. Definitely for the rest of the season. Perhaps for the rest of Cronin’s career. So he sits on the end of the bench with the rest of Michigan’s in street clothes crew that has grown with academically ineligible freshman Eso Akunne and freshman Jordan Dumars, forced to sit out until next winter after transferring from South Florida.

It doesn’t mean it’s been easy.

“It’s frustrating for me just not being able to play,” Cronin said. “That’s real big. But it’s real frustrating to also see us not playing real great right now and us not getting the wins we gotta get. That’s real tough. I know how frustrated everyone else is right now, too.

“I’m frustrated on my own, but I’m feeling it for these guys, too, because I know how hard they’re working, and it’s just not going our way right now.”

Cronin, a 7-foot redshirt freshman, isn’t giving up his dream,. Despite proclamations that his injury will likely end his career, he hasn’t closed that door. He’s continually rehabbing his hip.

“I’m rehabbing as hard as I can right now,” Cronin said. “And it’s coming along well. But we’ll have to see how it goes.”

To get through it, Cronin turned to friends outside of basketball. He’s also looked to the organization Athletes In Action, which uses the prism of sport to help teach religion.

In bonding with them, the 20-year-old Cronin has found peace with what has been a disappointment on the basketball court having played in seven injury-plagued games over two seasons, averaging 1.6 points and 1.4 rebounds a game.

“I have a really strong faith, and I understand that there’s more to my life than basketball,” Cronin said. “Basketball doesn’t make me who I am. I’m really not happy and upset how things are going, but I know there’s something bigger than basketball and even me out there.

“It’s just kind of like that’s helpful to think about, and it’s helpful to have great friends who can remind me of that.”

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.