Sports

Michigan fresman McGary copes with ADHD to emerge as tourney’s MVP

ATLANTA — Louisville is the last obstacle standing in the way now for Mitch McGary. It is remarkable enough that his overnight transformation into Michigan’s Monster in the Middle, a 6-foot-10, 254-pound Fab freshman firebrand who has shed 20 pounds in a month and a half, has lifted the Wolverines to tonight’s NCAA championship game.

Even more so when he tells you how he has learned to cope with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a disruptive learning disorder that from the time he was a sophomore in high school threatened to stand between him and the basket — and a night like tonight.

“It was kinda scary, I guess,” McGary says now. “I was just a happy-go-lucky kid in class, but I’d be spacing off. … I wasn’t really performing well in the classroom because I couldn’t focus as well. And I didn’t realize it until I matured a little bit more and got about 18, 19, and realized like, ‘Wow, I have to do something here.’ ”

What he did was head from Chesterton, Ind., to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., where he began to control his ADHD.

“If I feel myself spacing off in class, or at practice, or in anything, I just try to bring myself back in and stay focused, and just keep my attention on a string, I guess,” he says.

He spent two years at Brewster and roomed one of those years with JaKarr Sampson and Max Hooper, now at St. John’s. The specialized guidance McGary and Sampson received there helped them immensely, cementing a bond.

“Us both having ADD, that’s our relationship,” Sampson said yesterday by phone.

Sampson was asked for his most fun Mitch McGary anecdote.

“It’s super-cold out there, and before the lakes freeze over, we have this day called a Polar Bear Plunge, right?” Sampson said. “You get up at 5:00 and you go down to the lake and you jump in. Mitch woke me up, and I walked down to the lake, and he jumped into the cold lake and got out, running back to the dorm cold with no towel or anything. It was crazy, but it was funny to watch.”

Sampson is amazed by McGary’s emergence. Remember: McGary had started only two games before the NCAA Tournament, during which he is averaging 16 points (69.8 percent shooting) and 11.6 rebounds.

“He’s a monster on the court,” Sampson said, “but off the court, he’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.”

McGary is not your typical freshman, just your typical 20-year-old: “My favorite player is Lamar Odom.”

Why?

“Lefty, 6-10. I loved him and Kobe — that was when Kobe passed the ball a little bit. Now people say I remind them of David Lee, Kevin Love. … I’m not that much of a Kardashian fan, but you know, that’s cool as well.”

His diet?

“I have a few cheat days here and there. Don’t tell our strength coach, he knows I do.”

His cheat foods?

“Maybe I’ll have a pizza here and there — not a whole pizza, no, don’t write that down.”

His fiery late-game exhortation on the bench in Saturday’s win over Syracuse?

“I don’t know if I can say half of it.”

McGary’s improved footwork has him pondering the NBA.

He hasn’t just impressed his own coach but opposing coaches and centers.

“He’s made a good team a great team,” Michigan John Beilein said, “because he’s played that way.”

Louisville Rick Pitino: “Mitch McGary has gone from a raw basketball player to a David Lee in the shortest period of time. Mitch McGary has improved so much in a short period of time to be one of the better players in the country right now.”

Louisville center Gorgui Dieng: “He is playing better basketball than anybody in this tournament right now.”

McGary is locked in.

“My teammates have begun to trust me a lot more,” he said. “I think my confidence level has just skyrocketed. I bring the energy and they feed off of that.”

Go ahead and root for Kevin Ware. But make sure you root for Mitch McGary, too.

steve.serby@nypost.com