Mark Snyder

USA TODAY Sports

While many expected Mitch McGary's Michigan career to end early, no one expected this.

McGary will head to the NBA after his sophomore year but not because of his talent alone.

He was left with little choice after his failed drug test during the NCAA Tournament, when he was not playing for U-M due to a back injury.

That earned him a one-year NCAA suspension for recreational drug use.

"I made a terrible decision that I do regret," he said in an mgoblue.com video. "I tested positive for marijuana during the drug test during the Sweet Sixteen. I do regret this decision. It's hurtful for me. I want to put it behind me and move past it."

Michigan coach John Beilein said the incident, which was revealed to Michigan during the Final Four, surprised him.

"The Mitch McGary I know this is out of character," Beilein said in the video. "We're very disappointed that he had a lack of judgment to put himself in this position. But that's not the true Mitch McGary. We've learned that over the time. We've learned a lot about who he is and this speaks a lot to his integrity, that he's coming out publicly and telling people that he made a poor choice. He wants to get this behind him because I know it's been bothering him since the NCAA informed us of their decision. As a result, he's ready to move forward and we're ready to move forward. We're with him every step of the way."

The timing was also bad for McGary.

Had he failed a test administered by Michigan, the first offense would have been a week suspension and 10% of the competition season, three games, the second 33% of the season and the third a one-year suspension.

By failing a test administered by the NCAA, it was one year immediately according to bylaw 18.4.1.5.1, Duration of Ineligibility, which said the student-athlete would be "charged with the loss of a minimum of one season of competition in all sports if the season of competition has not yet begun for that student-athlete."

McGary told Yahoo, which broke the story, he has been tested eight times in his two years at Michigan, including five times this year when he was mostly injured, and passed all of them.

It's even more dramatic given the NCAA changed the street-drug violation policy for next year to just half a season, but it doesn't go into effect until Aug. 1.

The decision to reveal the news himself — Michigan is not allowed to reveal specifics without student consent — showed Beilein about McGary's character.

"He's not hiding behind this," Beilein said. "He's made a very difficult decision while he's going through exams here to finish up strong. This took a lot of guts to do. And he'll learn from this and I sense that he's learned from it and one of his hopes is others learn from his error in judgment here."

For three weeks, McGary has known the result but his announcement remained quiet as he pondered his fate.

It hasn't been an easy path, watching his teammates Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III celebrated for their decision to depart with a press conference and praise.

But him declaring was a likely result all along given the many factors pushing it including his age (22 years old at the time of the June draft), the possibility of re-injury in college, etc.

"He's moving on," his mentor and former AAU coach Wayne Brumm told the Free Press. "Mentally he's been preparing for the NBA anyway. He's pretty upset about the bad choice he made and he just really wants to move on and I think everybody's supporting him in that. Now he's just got to get ready for the NBA and workouts and continue his rehab."

Ironically, Beilein spoke late in the season about the uniqueness of this Michigan team, that the Wolverines had no distractions during the season aside from McGary's back injury and even his return was smooth and he was very supportive of the team.

Most expected his health to be the most significant obstacle in his NBA decision.

McGary was a sensation as a freshman in the 2013 NCAA Tournament and could have been a lottery pick according to many analysts last year. But he returned to school and injured his back in August. That limited him to just eight games this year before he had season-ending back surgery in January.

Beilein, who now has had seven players leave early for the NBA since 2010, said in the video that he put McGary through a conditioning test just before the end of U-M's practices and McGary ran well.

Brumm said "he will be" healthy enough by the NBA workout time.

"He's doing really well," Brumm said. "It's still early in getting in shape — he's not having any contact yet — he's not 'playing' but his rehab is going well, his strength is coming back."

That health is critical for a player whose game relies on rebounding and effort, as he described it in the mgoblue.com video. When he was on the court, he was a physical presence, averaging 9.5 points and 8.3 rebounds in the eight games this season, with four starts.

During last year's NCAA Tournament, he averaged 14.3 points and 10.7 rebounds in the six games as U-M lost in the championship.

Now, he needs to regain that form in the NBA Draft workouts plus answer questions about this transgression.

"His mental mindset is he's conflicted," Brumm said. "He's disappointed that he's let fans down and let people that believe in him down and that's not who he is down to his fibers. He's anxious to set the ship right and get on with the next stage of his life."

Mark Snyder writes for The Detroit Free Press