Caption: Michigan's Darius Morris, right, drives up the court after picking up a loose ball from Northern Michigan University's Raymont McElroy, left, during last year's season opener.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

The phone call came unexpectedly while Darius Morris was home in Los Angeles earlier this summer.

On the other end was his old friend John Wall, the presumptive No. 1 pick in this month’s NBA Draft, saying he relocated to California to train for the draft and extended an offer to
join him.

Morris, who was planning on training for his sophomore year as Michigan’s point guard regardless, gladly accepted. The next day, the two were in the gym together.

“We work on specific stuff,” Morris said earlier this week just before a workout. “We’re kind of like the same player, he’s just really athletic. We’ve always been compared to each other, so we’re both working on our jump shots and getting ready for how people will play us or coming off the screens, coming in spotting up and shooting.

“Really focusing on the shooting.”

That's a necessity for Morris, who shot 17.9 percent from the three-point line as a freshman last year. Teams could sag off Morris, knowing he’d either pass on the shot or that there was a good chance it wasn’t going in.

From the end of the season until now, that has been a major focus of Morris’ improvements as he worked out with Wall and his trainers at Impact Sports under the guidance of Joe Abunassar.

“I feel like I’m more consistent in terms of form and technique,” Morris said. “I’m way more consistent. I’m still working really hard but it’s come a long way and it can come even farther because you can always be a better shooter.

“I’m not relaxing until I see results. But I feel like I’m a better shooter all around.”

While basketball training has taken up a lot of his time home, he also managed to fit in time to pick up an actual job.

Morris has been working for an industrial real estate company in Los Angeles in an effort to figure out what he might want to do when basketball ends.

“It’s an intern-type deal with this real estate company,” Morris said. “Seeing how the workforce was and I’m interested in real estate a little bit.

“Because there is always life after basketball. I figured this is perfect timing if I wanted to do something like that for the summer.”

Working out with Wall, though, has given Morris more confidence in what he hopes will be his first career - basketball.

“It just assures me how good I was coming in and how good I can be,” Morris said. “Just playing against the No. 1 pick and hold my own and doing well against him, it’s not just like I’m out here playing against somebody who is just out here.

“He has credentials and he’s been through the freshman thing and everything like that. He tells me if he can do it, I can do it as well. It’s a matter of doing it. I have all the tools, I just need to start using them.”

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