Coming Home: Strong Family Ties for Former Lake Forest Star Matt Vogrich

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It’s a look Matt Vogrich has given hundreds, if not thousands of times before.

His team, the Michigan Wolverines, had a decisive lead in overtime on Feb. 21 against the Northwestern Wildcats, a game they would eventually win 67-55 in overtime. Vogrich had played one of his better games of the season, scoring nine points in 18 minutes, draining three of six three-point shots. 

The timing of the former product's performance could not have been better for Michigan, as they kept pace with intra-state rival Michigan State for Big 10 supremacy. On a personal level, Vogrich’s play was witnessed by more than a dozen family, friends and former coaches, all sitting behind the Wolverine bench at Evanston’s Welsh-Ryan Arena. 

And with his team ahead by nine points with a minute and a half left, Lake Forest’s all-time leading scorer glanced over, smiled a victory grin, and saw a familiar gesture from his father, Bob.

“He gave me a little fist pump,” said Vogrich. “It was just cool. He’s crazy. I love it when my mom (Mary) and dad are there.”

Although the 6-foot-5 shooting guard downplayed the significance of his entourage -- which included his grandmother, Georgine, his younger sister, Allison, a senior at LFHS, and his AAU coach, Steve Pratt -- a link between his play and their show of support cannot be ignored.

who entered his junior season expecting to make a quantum leap in his college career. But a knee injury two weeks before the opening game slowed him considerably as it marked the first time he has dealt with a basketball-related setback. 

“It affected me more than I thought. I thought it was a light thing and I would hurdle over it,” said Vogrich, who sprained the MCL in his left knee and was forced to wear a knee brace for a period of time. “I rushed it back and with the brace, I wasn’t shooting great. And when something like that happens, it hurt my confidence.”

Which for a shooter, can be dangerous. It wasn’t until Feb. 8 at Nebraska that Vogrich began to get his skis underneath him. Late in the first half, with starter Zach Novak in foul trouble, coach John Beilein told Vogrich he was going in, sprinkling words of encouragement into his substitution order. 

“Coach said, ‘I have a feeling he’s going to hit one,'" said Vogrich. “To hear that and make the first shot, it helped me come around.”

He finished with nine points in 11 minutes. And sitting in his familiar spot behind the visiting Wolverine bench? Bob Vogrich, who had made the 540-mile trip to see his son play. 

Overshooting Expectations

It was a hot summer day and Bob Vogrich noticed his son wearing a shirt that didn’t match the temperature or the 12-year-old’s temperament. 

“He was wearing a black sweatshirt and I should have known something was wrong,” said Bob.

Later that night, he heard the doors in the house slam shut and heavy feet running into the basement. Matt and a friend had come home. A few minutes later, a police officer knocked on the door “and said ‘some kid just threw a water balloon and it hit the front windshield of my car,’” said Bob. He immediately suspected his son.

“I knew it wasn’t the other kid. He didn’t have a good enough arm,” said Bob. 

Punishment was handled in-house: cleaning out where Matt attended elementary school. He spent the weekend “cleaning out the schoolyard, picking up every bit of scrap paper,” said Bob. 

Although Matt’s friend also took credit for the water balloon incident, his son’s competitiveness made it hard to not to believe he had pulled the trigger. 

“He was always working on his shot. He didn’t want to have missed,” said Bob.

It’s a shot that began to form as early as 2 years old. A recreational league player, Bob took his son to games where Matt would watch his dad tangle with the likes of Billy Douglass, the former Scouts great and Wisconsin basketball player who went on to be Matt’s coach.

By the time Matt reached third grade, he was now playing for a Lake Forest rec league team. In the finals that season, Matt was playing up a level when one of the team’s best players got sick. He was asked to take over the game. “Coach told him ‘Matt, you’re going to have to win it today,’” recalled Bob. 

Matt scored 22 or his team's 26 points in the fourth quarter as his team won the league title. 

“We were like, 'He’s pretty good,'” said Bob. 

A couple of years on the AAU circuit for high-profile Full Package Athletics gave Matt national exposure. He was recruited by basketball powerhouses Notre Dame, Illinois and UCLA.

Bob had loftier academic desires for Matt, who preferred to take his talents to the best combination of school and sport.

“I wanted him to go Ivy, use basketball to get a better education you couldn’t get otherwise,” said Bob. “He just overshot my goals. He wanted to play in a better league.”

Hello, Goodbye

Thirty minutes after Michigan’s win, a crowd wearing maize and blue colors still mingles inside the arena. They wait for players to come out of the Wolverine locker room, grabbing a few minutes of face time before they board the bus back to Ann Arbor.

Matt wanders over, sharing a hug with his dad and mom. He poses for pictures, engages in light conversation. Plans are being made for the next trip to watch Matt play and where to go to dinner. 

For the Vogrich family, it's a routine they wish to hold onto for as long as they can.

“He knows we’re here,” said Bob. “I think he appreciates that.”