BBall Freshmen on Campus
Trivia: It appears that Donnal's older brother (a 4-star O-lineman) got an offer from RichRod back in '10:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/iowa/football/recruiting/player-Andrew-Donnal-8…
Imagine the grocery bill in that house.
Fortunately, Donnal is a candidate for a redshirt, what with Morgan (Sr.), Horford (Jr.) Bielfeldt (So.) and McGary (So.) ahead of him.
So many people think Donnal is a lock to redshirt, I really see a possibility of his year going the way of Caris Levert's last season. Particularly if one of the bigs gets injured, I don't see Donnal staying out the whole year.
But the difference there is that LeVert took the place of a walk-on (Akunne) in the rotation. We have much better depth in the post for 2013-14. Even Bielfeldt may not get that much PT.
How much playing time can you realistically give five big men? Unless one of the other four gets hurt, it's really hard to imagine him getting any non-garbage minutes. Mop-up duty won't do a whole lot to prepare a guy for the B1G.
But this also doesn't take into account the fact that Donnal is a much different player from all of Michigan's other bigs. Horford, Morgan, and Bielfeldt are very limited offensively. McGary is developing his game, but even he doesn't have the offensive weapons of Donnal. The redshirt thing seems likely, but if Michigan actually plays a two big lineup for the season, Donnal probably will get some time because the offensive efficency will tank without somebody doing some damage at the 4.
Where's Bielfeldt in that rotation? You don't think he'll play at all?
Not to mention that it assumes that we'll go with 2 bigs 100% of the time, which I doubt.
Bring us a title, lads!
mgoblue.com press release: Dakich, McConnell Join Wolverine Program as Walk-Ons
Baumgardner article: Michigan formally adds walk-on guards Cole McConnell and Andrew Dakich
McConnell, a 6-foot-5 guard from the New Hampton School -- a post-graduate institution -- averaged 15.9 points and 4.4 rebounds last season, hitting 98 3-pointers. His 3-po;int total ranked second among all high school players in the state of California, and he was named the Mateo County Player of the Year.
McConnell had Ivy League interest, and has two brothers (Redd and Will) who play college basketball at the University of California-Irvine and Dartmouth, respectively.
. . .
Earlier this week, Beilein said he'd like to get his roster up to 15 players for next season -- which means Michigan may add two more walk-ons once the fall begins.
again in 12 months after a year in the weight room
Donnal looks like a father headed out to Chuck E. Cheese with his kids.
While looking up info on the walk-ons I skipped across the WWW and found this:
http://www.finance.umich.edu/reports/2006/michdiff/
If I connected the dots correctly, Cole's parents endowed an LS&A scholarship. (There's a blurb on it in the article.) Pretty cool ...
awww... they grow up so fast.