Before Evan Smotrycz arrived in Ann Arbor for his freshman year with the Michigan basketball team, he took advantage of a situation most college athletes would relish.

He needed to gain weight so he wouldn't merely be a 6-foot-9 piece of fresh meat in the Big Ten.

“A lot of steak dinners,” Smotrycz said in June. “Other than that, just turkey sandwiches throughout the day.

Freshman Evan Smotrycz averaged 14 points a game at New Hampton Prep.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

“When I wake up, I’m not a big breakfast guy, so like cereal or something, but after that I’ll have for lunch a little turkey sandwich. And two hours after that, another one, and then a snack after that, and dinner and a late-night sandwich, too.”

When Smotrycz arrived on campus, he lifted with strength coach Jon Sanderson. He now weighs 225 pounds - down from the 230 in June, but 20 to 25 more than he carried at New Hampton Prep in New Hampshire. And he feels stronger.

Smotrycz is in position to compete for a starting slot with freshman Colton Christian at the Wolverines’ four - or power forward - slot.

In fact, weight isn’t Smotrycz’s biggest issue. It’s his defense.

“We’ve really stressed defense a lot,” Smotrycz said during Michigan’s media day last week. “So I could tell you I haven’t played as great of defense as I would have liked to, but since we’ve got back (from Europe) we’ve really stressed defense a lot, and I think I’ve gotten a lot better at trying to defend down on the low block and on the wing.”

Smotrycz said learning to stay in a defensive stance along with communicating are among his main issues, but that “it’s something you’ve got to do in order to be good and to win.”

Overall, though, Smotrycz has lived up to what Michigan thought he would be when it recruited him out of New Hampshire. He’s always been a player who could shoot - and shoot well.

He averaged 14 points a game as high school, but developed a reputation as a shot-maker. Since he got to Ann Arbor, that hasn’t changed.

“That’s good,” Beilein said. “I’d rather have that than someone tentative. But he has really worked hard since he came back this summer. … The last five weeks in his workouts I’ve seen a little bit more bounce, a little bit more quickness.”

Smotrycz made 34.6 percent of his shots (9-of-26) in the Wolverines’ four-game European tour but just three of 14 3-pointers. He also averaged 3.8 rebounds, tied for third-best on Michigan. This, despite spending part of the pre-Europe practices recovering from a freak Wiffle ball accident that broke his right pinky toe.

What Smotrycz showed Beilein in Europe was a multi-faceted player who has the potential be good. Smotrycz still needs to work on shot selection - and defense - but displayed enough that either he or Christian likely will start when Michigan opens its season with an exhibition on Nov. 5 against Saginaw Valley State.

Start or not, Smotrycz will play.

“Yeah, I’m definitely really excited,” Smotrycz said. “I’ve been thinking about it more and more as practice has been approaching. I know it’s going to be a lot different than Europe with those games.

“But I’m excited.”

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