Michigan basketball preview: Dug McDaniel leads a hungry backcourt

The Michigan basketball big men are expected to take big leaps this year, led by sophomore Tarris Reed and grad Olivier Nkamhoua. But they’ll rely on the “little guys” to get them the ball, and the Wolverines have a good one in sophomore Dug McDaniel (8.6 ppg last year). He was forced into more action than expected a year ago when Princeton transfer and fellow point guard Jaelin Llewellyn went down with a season-ending knee injury in week 8. While he had his ups and downs, he played well for a freshman. 

RELATED
• Candidates to be Michigan basketball’s top shooter, including one with ‘a flamethrower’
• Michigan Board of Regents approves three major athletics projects – including new locker rooms, alcohol sales

McDaniel continues to improve his shot, but for a player not known as a shooter, he fared pretty well a season ago. He shot 35.5 percent from three-point range and 76.8 from the line, 38.4 percent from the floor overall. He’ll be asked to finish better at the rim and continue to improve his midrange game in 2023-24. 

“With Dug, I would say he’s shooting the ball more confidently and he’s making shots at a higher rate,” Martelli said. “He needs to continue to grow in terms of care of the ball. The other thing he’s doing very well is he’s defending the ball aggressively. Because he’s defensing the ball aggressively, a kid like [freshman] George Washington III is improving. [Alabama transfer] Nimari Burnett, his ball skills are improving, because Dug is committed as a good teammate to helping his teammates improve.”

He’s also taking it upon himself to be more vocal with his teammates and develop into a leader, Martelli added. 

“And now his goal is to get into that elite conversation of point guards in this league,” Martelli said. “He’s a different guy — not physically, but he is not a freshman anymore. Last year there were lots of times he was a freshman.”

Lllewellyn’s first goal is to return healthy — he still hadn’t been cleared to go 100 percent as of Oct. 17 — and then to improve upon his 2022-23 performance. He made only 5 of his 27 triples — he’s a much better shooter than that — and 30.9 percent overall. 

The Wolverines are going to need another ball handler behind McDaniel, though, and Llewellyn has been rehabbing hard to make that happen. He’s running and jumping in drills, but still needs to take another step. 

“Certainly, progress and commitment to improving is a really big deal with that injury,” Martelli said. “Really, his surgery was in January, so this is the 10th month. If you look at those ACLs, this is about the time. And again, there’s no benchmark. I’m not giving a date. We are anxious for him.”

At shooting guard, Burnett — a former 4-star, top 40 prospect out of Chicago — comes to Michigan after a year at Texas Tech and two at Alabama. He’s joined by freshman Washington III, the Gatorade Player of the Year in Ohio, and both have been shooting the ball extremely well in practice. 

Burnett is known more for his defensive abilities, but he’ll have the ability to play with the ball some this year. Washington III could be a zone buster, but he’s striving for more than that in year one. He knows there’s a role for a shooter, and he wants to be that guy and more.

“For me, the biggest thing for me on the playmaking side of things is still figuring out that level of what worked in high school coming off of plays and what doesn’t work at this level,” Washington said. “What defenders are looking for, what’s being baited, what’s not. Right now, those are the fastest things.

“But I’ve been making a lot better reads coming off that ball screen and reading the low man, reading if that defender helps over, who he’s leaving, who’s sliding back up. That comes from a lot of film, a lot of getting in with our coaches and going over play by play to make sure I’m improving.”

Burnett shot 32.1 percent on 84 three-point attempts last season. Twenty two of his 27 triples came in catch-and-shoot situations a year ago, according to Synergy.

“Nimari Burnett is making a lot of shots,” Martelli praised. “George Washington can make a lot of shots and Will Tschetter can make a lot of shots. [Senior] Terrance Williams II is shooting the ball really well. We have to keep looking for that go-to guy, though, because he has to have the courage and the willingness to miss the shot.”

Williams has lost good weight and worked on his form in the offseason, to the point he could be a reliable option on the wing. He shot 38.5 percent from long range a year ago but only 25 percent in averaging 6.1 points per game for Michigan.

“What he did is he went home and whoever he worked with changed his shooting form. He is a much more confident, willing, and able shooter right now,” Martelli said. “We have to see how it all kind of all fits together, because it may not be from that small power forward. He might be a bigger small forward. But he has changed his form and dedicated himself to that form. He has stayed consistent.”

Michigan sophomore wing Youssef Khayat hopes to be a bigger part of the rotation this year after playing sparingly last year, and junior Jace Howard will bring energy when he’s on the floor and compete for minutes. While nobody knows exactly what it will look like, Martelli is pleased with the progress. 

“They players are responding really well,” he said. “When you have a guy you can throw the ball in there and he’s going to score … we don’t have that. But we have versatility. We have a competitive spirit, and we’re making progress. 

“I more look at this team as compared to that team, because it is … maybe that’s the way college basketball is going to be. The idea of building a program … you can have your baselines, but you’re really building a team each year now. That’s really what we’re doing. We’re building a team this year.”

He and the rest of them are hopeful they have the pieces for a good one at Michigan that will exceed many expectations.