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Michigan basketball health updates: Will Sam Walters return from back injury this season?

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•03/07/25•

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Sam Walters
Michigan Wolverines basketball forward Sam Walters transferred in from Alabama. (Photo by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Michigan Wolverines basketball sophomore forward Sam Walters has missed the last seven games while dealing with a back injury. According to assistant coach and general manager Kyle Church, he hasn’t been able to practice in recent weeks.

The 6-foot-10, 200-pound Alabama transfer is one of Michigan’s best sharpshooters, connecting on 36.6 percent of his 3.1 three-point attempts per game. He’s averaging 5 points and 1.6 rebounds in 12.7 minutes per contest, and has taken strides defensively.

Michigan is shooting 28.4 percent from behind the three-point line over its last 13 games and could use Walters’ range.

“We miss Sam a lot,” Church said. “The obvious is the three-point shooting dip. That’s his gift as a player, along with his size. Certainly missing that has contributed to a little slump.”

Walters’ back issue isn’t new, but it did become bad enough for him to miss games and practices altogether beginning in mid-February.

“It’s something behind the scenes he had dealt with basically, I want to say, since we played Arkansas in New York [Dec. 10],” Church revealed. “This has been kind of lingering. I think it hit a tipping point, I can’t remember the exact date, maybe about a month or so ago.

“I think it’s slowly getting better. Some days are better than others. We’re hoping to get him back. Obviously, it’s difficult. We want to be cautious. Obviously, our first priority is his long-term health, but I know he’s working, doing what he can to get back, and we’re certainly supporting that.”

Michigan graduate guard Rubin Jones missed two games (Nebraska, Rutgers) with an illness, before returning for the last two (Illinois, Maryland). Instead of starting, he came off the bench the last two, playing a combined 30 minutes, after seeing 24-plus minutes in each of the previous four contests before getting sick.

“Rubin, too,” Church said of Jones and Walters. “He obviously missed a couple games, but even the last couple, I think anybody knows he was kind of a shell of himself. I think he lost 11 pounds in a week. Those are two huge, huge pieces for us, whether they start, whether they come off the bench, they helped us win a lot of games throughout this season. 

“It’s given opportunities to some young guys. Obviously, guys gotta step up, and we gotta play a little bit better. We gotta tighten up. But Rubin’s on the mend. I know Sam’s doing everything he can to make it back and join us and help us for the stretch run.

“Hopefully, [freshman guards] Justin [Pippen] and L.J. [Cason] getting some extra minutes will benefit on Sunday and going into the postseason.”

Michigan concludes its regular season with a clash at Michigan State Sunday (noon ET, CBS). The Wolverines are locked in as a top-four seed in next week’s Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis.

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