He's coming through in the clutch and dropping the jaws of his teammates with flashes of brilliance. Freshman guard Maurice Ager may have finally hit his stride.

After an offensive slump late in the Big Ten regular season, Ager has come alive recently, hitting clutch shots and playing shadow-tight defense.

To ask the 6-foot-4 Detroit native about his resurgence, however, earns replies dripping with self-confidence about his role on the team.

"I feel this is the part of the year when you have to step your game up," Ager said. "It's do or die, and you go home or move on."

One thing Ager and his teammates will attribute to him doing well as of late is his defense. His defensive performance against Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament was deemed "a hell of a job defensively" by head coach Tom Izzo.

"He's playing so well on defense it's scary," sophomore forward/guard Alan Anderson said. "Playing that well on both sides of the ball, not that many people in the country can do that."

Although Ager's performance in the Big Ten Tournament - 12 points, 2.5 rebounds and 23 minutes per game - asserts Ager's revival offensively, it came at the price of a perceived freshman slowdown.

In the last five games before the Big Ten Tournament, Ager's statistical figures went sharply downhill, averaging less than 3 points, 2 boards and 13 minutes during that time. Ager doesn't blame that on wearing down.

"I feel physically I'm getting stronger," he said. "I think this is the time for me to come on."

The progress Ager has displayed comes from his roots, said Ager's coach at Detroit's Crockett Technical High School, Rob Murphy.

"That's the best thing about him," Murphy said. "He's very coachable. He doesn't try to do things that he can't do.

"As a sophomore, he was just a shooter. As he continued to work on his game, athleticism started to take over. He has a great work ethic and just wants to be a great player."

Murphy said Ager's emergence could have been much earlier without the injuries.

"If he didn't get that stress fracture, you might've seen this a month ago," Murphy said. "It really set him back."

But with his flashes of brilliance, Ager's time off should prove to be only a small detriment.

"If he keeps it up," Anderson said. "He's going to be something nice to see in the future."