Austin Hatch is a freshman basketball player at the University of Michigan (UM) who hit a free throw in an exhibition match, but his story extends far beyond that of a teenage recruit with hoop dreams.

According to NBC News, Hatch was in a medically induced coma three years ago due to a plane crash that killed his father and stepmother. Eight years before that, he was in a plane crash that killed his mother and two siblings.

After the second incident, Hatch had to re-learn walking and talking. Basketball was not even on the table. But the six-foot-six high school prospect moved from Indiana to Calif. to live with relatives and finish playing high school basketball.

"I can hear their voices in my head when I face a difficult situation," Hatch told NBC News of his family. "My dad and mom raised me to be an uncommon man. The uncommon man gets up at five in the morning to go work out, to get stronger, when no one else is. It takes an uncommon man to do that when no one is looking."

He returned to the court, graduated that spring and received a full ride scholarship offer from UM. In the first game since the second crash, Hatch hit a three-point jumper, a sign he took to mean he was on his way to being full strength.

"There were a lot of tears in the locker room," Hatch said. "Not that that shot meant that I was totally recovered, but it was a big step in the right direction."

Monday night at the Crisler Center, the UM Wolverines were shredding Wayne State 85-43 with 12 seconds left in the game and Hatch was at the line taking two free throws. After missing the first, he sunk the next one and was immediately taken out, allowing for the arena to give him a standing ovation.

"If I would've thought of this situation before it happened to me, I wouldn't have thought I could make it either," Hatch told NBC News. "It really comes down to character, just being able to persevere in the midst of tragedy and adversity.

"The time that you could spend wondering and thinking why me?

"That's time that you could've spent working your tail off to get better."