You notice his gait first, the long strides almost painful to watch, a man not yet reaching his prime thump-thumping down the floor like a guy 20 years past it.

The limp is noticeable in every step, every long movement 7-foot center Ben Cronin makes. He can barely jump, sort of run and, in an ideal world, the hip injury that forced him to sit out all of last season would be much better by now.

But the world isn’t an ideal place. It isn’t all positive and rainbows. Things happen. Surgery happens. Rehabilitation, despite all the hard work and doing everything right, sometimes takes longer than you think.

There are setbacks that seemingly feel like forever. Injuries nag. Cronin knows this. He was supposed to be healthy by now, gobbling up minutes and rebounds and blocked shots for the Michigan basketball team (4-4 overall), which plays Detroit (6-3) on Sunday (noon, Big Ten Network).

Instead he’s relegated to spot duty, two minutes here, some mop-up time there. He has one basket this season. He's made one free throw and has three rebounds. Yet he still believes, still endures. He sees progress. He sees himself able to run and jump and play basketball like he’s always played basketball.

“I’m getting a little bit healthier here, and there so I’m excited about that,” Cronin said Wednesday, his team having lost for the fourth time in five outings. “And we have got a really good game plan about my rehab now and things seem like they are coming around a little bit.

“So it’s good to gradually get a couple minutes here or there but I still have a lot of work to do to get ready to really compete for the Big Ten, for the Big Ten season.”

This wasn’t always the goal. At one point, it was to play immediately, be the long, intimidating shot blocker and post presence Michigan basketball sorely lacks and clearly needs.

Then October rolled into November and those setbacks came. The major minutes Cronin thought he might see turned into chance appearances depending how well he ran in practice, how well he jumped, whether the bounce his coach, John Beilein, mentions has shown signs of returning.

So far, it hasn’t. But there are small improvements. Running up-and-down the court has become easier. Lateral movement is a pain.

So is jumping.

If there is one thing Cronin has an abundance of it is faith. So he continues rehabbing, seeing progress no matter how big or how small, hoping to reach the point where those preseason thoughts become more than merely potential or a pipedream. They become the truth.

Until then, he waits. And he takes his biggest victories in noticing even the smallest differences in returning to his old form.

“Oh, yeah, even in the last couple weeks,” Cronin said. “The doctors have come up with a couple great things that I’m doing and even the last week in practice I’ve been better with a couple things here and there.”

There goes progress, thumping along, one day of rehabilitation at a time.

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.