Basketball Walk-On Sai Tummala leaves team
I am not sure if he's transferring schools or just leaving the Michigan basketball program, since he was a preferred walk on. Regardless, good luck to the kid in whatever he decides.
Per Freep:
This is definitely a loss for Michigan as he was valuable on the scout team, an excellent student, and may have contributed in the future. Having said that, nothing that's going to dramatically impact this team's chances in the future. Too low on the totem pole to make a big impact.
Wish him the best of luck
I think he's looking to transfer to a school that will give him a scholarship. Nothing wrong with leaving a school to get your degree fully paid for.
Walk-ons leave programs all the time. Many people think they would do anything to be on the football or basketball team, but the reality of most walk-ons is a job in which they spend most of the time working their butts off, while catering to the scholarship players and getting little to no time on the court (or even much attention from the coaches, as they understandably look to correct players that will benefit the team more in the long run). It's a rigorous life in which you don't get the opportunity to be a normal student.
Because of this, it isn't uncommon for walk-ons to leave programs. Wish him luck, but it's far from uncommon.
Yup. It's not for everyone. That was basically my middle school basketball career (in the understatement of the year, I wasn't very good at basketball) and it basically sucks being expected to know how to run the offense and defense just as good as everyone else while knowing that the only way you're ever going to put it to use is when the team is getting its ass kicked and you'll never play a minute that has any influence on the outcome. You have to like basketball. A lot. Pile on the added requirements of being a college athlete as opposed to a middle school one and I just don't know how you put up with the grind.
I had heard he was actually pretty good (for a walk-on at least). Good luck to him though
Being from Arizona, it was expensive for Tummala to be a walk on at 50K a year. I can easily believe that he was competing for the opportunity to earn both a scholarship and playing time. It was worth a year to try and make this happen. But with five guys coming in, and with Hardaway, Robinson, and Stauskas all being approximately the same size and position, and probably all significantly better than Tummala, the writing was on the wall. Kovacs is a great success story of a walkon in football, but it is a lot harder for that to happen in basketball.
Snyder still manages to get his little criticisms in there.
"The Michigan basketball roster continues to shift." and the mention of (incorrectly spelled) "significant turnover".
Sai what you need to Sai.
...onara.
he got redshirted... maybe burning a year wasn't worth 20 minutes of playing time when Christian is a available.
That being said, I thought Christian should have gotten more pt instead of ye ole 4 guard, 1 small forward set. 3 guard 2 small forwards would have been better defensively and rebounding-wise(??)