Reloading: Derrick Walton's amazing highlight video

you are forgetting mark donnal. he's not too bad either

Donnal will be key for subbing in at the 4 next year.  The four bigs of Donnal, McGary, Horford, and Morgan with Bielfeldt as a backup will give us depth at the 4/5 if not true talent.  Truth is we need GRIII to come back one more year to fill that slot for us while our younger players get more experience.

Walton will be thrown into the fire from the get go, and I hope to see a move even split between him and Albrecht with Albrecht being more of a contributor.

All in All, if only Trey leaves this year, this team next year could still be very good.

Amazing vision on both sides of the court, great quickness, good shooter, and has already mastered the alleyoop. I'm excited about next year, even if (when) Burke goes to the draft, we're still going to have another great team.

I'm really looking forward to him and Zak Irvine. I think those two will be all conference players

Pretty impressive stuff. I'm still holding out hope that Burke somehow decides he loves this team too much to leave.

Impressive highlights.  Time will tell if he's as polished as Trey, but I'm excited about his potential.   I really like his ability to absorb contact and still finish at the rim...very reminscent of Trey.

It will be interesting to see which factor trumps. I have to believe the loss of burke will hurt more than the gains made by everyone else will help, but I hope I'm wrong...Donnall should be a great fit in Coach Beilein's offense in the long run. Reminds me of Jon Leuer, the Wisc player...It seems like Zak Irvin is yet another Beilein recruit who just keeps getting better.

Doesn't have a left hand at this point. He reminds me more of Yogi Ferrell than of Trey Burke.

Walton looks good. Football commit CT York plays on the same team.
What's his number?

Also, Trey should go for pizza with Taylor Lewan. Please stay.

I looked up his stats on MaxPreps and holy mother of Zeus his numbers are insane.

26.1 points per game

7.3 boards per game

7.0 assists

7.3 steals

73% field goal shooting (!!!!!!!!)

78% 2pt field goals

58% 3pt field goals

80% free throw

He had 4 triple doubles, 1 quadruple double, 8 double doubles, and a number of near triple doubles.

He had one game where he dropped 47 points on just 12 shots!

His stat line for that game was 47 points - 10-12 FG - 6-6 3ptFG - 21-27 FT - 12 rebounds - 5 assists - 6 steals.

The only 2 games he failed to score at least 20 points were both huge blowout wins.

Damn.

Walton will obviously be the 1. No doubt about that: he's too talented to sit behind Spike.  However, this team will have to have other scorers. Right now, Burke is the go-to guy down the stretch. He's the guy we go to when in trouble. I'm not talking about what we do against teams we're WAY better than (see: the OOC schedule) but rather, the good teams we'll play (IE, teams like IU, MSU, OSU, etc). 

Walton is a pass-first guy. There is no problem with that; in fact, that's my ideal PG. But he's not playing with an ideal team; he's playing with a REAL team. GRIII, THJ, Zak, and (especially, I think) Stauskas will have to carry the load scoring-wise. They can, and I believe will. Nevertheless, this kid is not the type of player that Morris/Burke was/is. He is a TRUE PG, not a scoring PG. 

The portents, the things you should glean from this? Michigan will have a wonderful PG next year, and for (I'd assume 3 years) the future. Yet, we're not gonna be like this year's team. No player will dominate the ball like Burke does ("dominating the ball" is not bad, merely the truth as is).   Instead, Walton and I presume, Stauskas, will be the drivers. We will rely on off-ball movement (IE, that which we've seen from GRIII this year) to score. As most players will be a year older, this should be enough.

Caveat: I presume Stauskas will get a lot of time as the 2. This shifts the line-up to 
1- Walton
2- Stauskas/THJ/Irvin (rotating)
3- THJ/Irvin
4- Morgan/Donnal/McGary (if he learns the position; totally up to coaches)
5- Morgan/McGary/Horford (I'm still not sure on McGary's position)

Walton is NOT a score-first guy. He's awesome, but we'll see a different offense. And for those not in the know, umhoops has a great article on Stauskas' efficiency in the PnR. So, Walton, THJ, and Stauskas should be the main ball handlers, while we see 4 guys in 10+ PPG. 

Anyone think THJ goes to the league? I've seen him projected in the 20-30 range. Is his ceiling any higher? I honestly don't know if he could get a whole lot higher (although he has had a few games where he seemed to disappear).

Yeah, I think the OP's assumption that both THJ and GRIII are back next year is unlikely.  While I would certainly love to see them back, I just don't know if it happens.  I'm not sure how much THJ can do to improve even more, and GRIII is frequently included among potnetial lottery picks in spite of his late season disappearing acts in some games.  While I think he could have major improvements and be a huge factor at UM next season, it would be tough to turn down lottery pick status.  People like Zeller just last year have done it with no regrets, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

state fans take glee in Burke most likely being NBA ready.

Enter Derrick Walton.

Sucks to be them. 

In terms of the regular season, I think next season is a bit of a step back. How can it not be? M most likely isn't going to be 25-5 and playing for the BIG regular season title at this time next year. I think Hardaway and Burke are gone and everybody else returns.

2014-15 will be the year M is favored to win the BIG. The 6 freshman on this years team will be Juniors. Horford will be a senior and the highly touted incoming class will be sophomores.

Having Bigs who are juniors and seniors is a big advantage. Big men develop slower, Horford, McGary, and Bielfeldt will all be around 22-23 years old and ready to be factors in the BIG in 14-15. Look at Nix and Payne this year for MSU, they both made big step up, and MSU is a very tough matchup  in large part because of Payne and Nix's experience and improvement.

Of the 6 freshman on this years team, I think there is a good chance 5 will still be around in 14-15. GRIII will likely be gone but the rest could very well be back. Stauskas, LeVert, and McGary all have big upsides, but it going to take some time for them to develop. Albrecht and Bielfeldt don't have as much upside, but in two more season's will be productive assets to the team.

This has been a very fortunate season. It is not often you get a 25-5  season while going through the growing pains of 6 freshman. Not even the Fab Five had this kind of success during the regular season of their freshman year, but by the time they were juniors, they were a couple minutes away from a BIG championship,until Big Dog dashed their dreams.

I agree with one of your main points; Walton does play a lot like Trey Burke.  I know it' s just a highlight tape, but it was a lot of fun watching him make that team in green unis look like the Washington Generals; it reminded me of what Burke did to Sparty in the last minute the other night.

As for Burke leaving, he has to.  CBS has him at #9 as the best PG and ESPN at #12 as the second-best PG, and both have him in the lottery, but I think both are underrating his draft potential.  Somebody is going to take him earlier than #9.  

Burke has nothing to gain, career-wise, by coming back,. and all to lose.  The maximum insurance policy allowed by the NCAA is $5 million, and one just like it cost Clowney $30,000.  Maybe the cost would be less for a basketball player than a football player, but the problem is that the policy doesn't cover what would happen if his "stock" went down after another year.

This is simply how things are done in this era; the better a player is, the less time we get to cheer for him in a college uniform.  Luckily, the playing field is level; everyone else does it that way, too.

I plan to enjoy the last few times (hopefully 10) that we get to see Trey Burke in a Michigan uniform.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/prospect-rankings

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft/results/top100/_/year/2013

First, like another poster, I was watching his left.  He did have at least a couple of left handed plays, but did also take a couple layups from the left with his right hand.  And he clearly prefers driving right.  [/High class problems]

Question: I don't know much at all about hoops recruiting...who's #23?  The dude on the back end of all those ally-oops and easy dunks off Walton feeds...  Seems like a player in his own right.