Dug McDaniel tweets message reacting to criticism from Michigan fans

When it comes to sports, public opinion, especially in a fan base, isn’t always consistent. That’s exactly the problem that Michigan’s freshman point guard Dug McDaniel is learning the hard way.

McDaniel has essentially been thrown into the fire after the Wolverine’s starting point guard, Jaelin Llewellyn, tore his ACL. As he learns about consistency at the college level, there are going to be growing pains and, after last night’s loss to Maryland, they were on full display. However, McDaniel wasn’t shy about how some Michigan fans switched up on him after the poor performance when he took to Twitter later on.

I was just a fan favorite couple days ago, I have a bad game now im terrible, need to be benched, the worst player, etc😂😂😂 Great fan base we have for sure lol💯 Make sure yall come out and support on sunday We back at it Go Blue!!💙

— Dug McDaniel (@AyooFlyy) January 20, 2023

McDaniel played 38 minutes against the Terrapins and scored just four points on 2-10 shooting. He did dish seven assists but, overall, it was an underwhelming performance. With that said, McDaniel had proven to be a quality option in Llewellyn’s stead.

In the 10 games with his increased role, McDaniels has averaged 9.2 points per game with five double-figure scoring games. He has also put up 4.8 assists in that time.

Before last night in College Park, McDaniel was coming off his best game as a Wolverine with 17 points and five assists. The pendulum still swung with some in the fanbase, though, based on their reaction to his performance on Thursday. The problem now is that kind of reaction isn’t ever going to change altogether. It’s now up to McDaniel to find his own way to mute that outside noise as he and his teammates prepare for their next game this weekend against Minnesota.

Reed discusses the growing confidence of Michigan, Dug McDaniel

Michigan outlasted Northwestern on Sunday in a back-and-forth Big Ten matchup 85-78 in a game where the Wolverines freshman class has a major impact. Freshman forward Tarris Reed spoke about what the difference has been in the team lately and he attributed their recent success to the mental side of the game.

“Mindset, definitely mindset, and we’re getting, like you said, more comfortable out there,” Reed said. “We’re able to play on the defensive side, play on the offensive side, and really help each other out.”

Reed played a major impact in Sunday’s game off of the bench, logging the second-most minutes of his young career with 18 and stuffing the stat sheet with six points, eight rebounds, two blocks, and a steal.

But the freshman star that stole the show was Dug McDaniel, who scored a career-high 17 points and five assists, which included a highlight alley-oop play to Reed in the second half.

“Shooting, shooting wise he’s pulling the three now, he’s attacking the rim, especially the lob today. I told Dug this during practice like hey, when I’m right there just throw the lob up I’m gonna finish it for you. So we’re out there just playing, playing our best basketball,” Reed said.

The emergence of McDaniel, Reed, and Michigan’s other freshmen combined with some of their veteran experience could be the recipe for success this season for the Wolverines. Michigan hits the road for their next matchup as they take on Maryland on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in a game airing on ESPN.