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Michigan guard Nimari Burnett announces return for sixth season of college basketball

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•04/21/25•

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Nimari Burnett
Michigan Wolverines basketball guard Nimari Burnett put up 20 points against Rutgers. (Photo by Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images)

Michigan Wolverines basketball guard Nimari Burnett announced on his Instagram account that he will return for a sixth season of college basketball. Burnett, who declared for the NBA Draft before withdrawing last offseason, won’t go through the draft process this time around.

Burnett has played five seasons of college basketball, having been at Texas Tech (2020-21), Alabama (2021-23) and Michigan (2023-present). He has one year of eligibility remaining.

Burnett made the announcement that he will return with the following caption: “Let’s win it all.”

The Chicago native has started all 69 games over the last two seasons for the Wolverines. In 2024-25, he registered 9.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per contest, while shooting 62.7 percent on two-pointers (52-of-83) and 40 percent on threes (66-of-165). Per Kenpom, his offensive rating took a huge jump from 104.2 in 2023-24 to 117.4 in 2024-25.

Burnett came to Michigan from Alabama with high hopes, but the Wolverines finished 8-24 in his first season in Ann Arbor. He’s grateful for the turnaround that was led by head coach Dusty May, a new coaching staff, transfer portal newcomers and fellow returnees such as forward Will Tschetter.

“Coming off of last year, Coach Dusty came in, like the guys said, with a plan to win and to get a group of guys together that were fit to win and eventually become brothers, and that’s exactly what we did,” Burnett said March 28.

“Coming off a tough year last year — especially the returners, me, Will, [guard] Jace [Howard], etc. — the plan was to write the story and represent the Block ‘M’ in the right way. This season was amazing. Not only did we build a brotherhood, but we’re going to talk about this for the rest of our lives. It’s something we’re all going to remember.

“I’m grateful to be a part of this group, and I’m grateful to be a part of the University of Michigan as a whole.”

In his first season at Michigan in 2023-24, Burnett averaged 9.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists, carrying a much bigger burden as one of the team’s top ball-handlers. He shot 46.9 percent on twos and 34.7 percent on 150 threes.

Dealing with a wrist injury during his final season at Alabama in 2022-23, Burnett averaged 5.6 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. Burnett saw time in 12 games as a freshman at Texas Tech in 2020-21, before missing the entirety of the 2021-22 season with a knee injury.

Burnett was the No. 29 overall player in the nation from the 2020 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking

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