{"id":112907,"date":"2025-08-02T12:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T12:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/112907\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T12:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T12:04:09","slug":"could-this-veteran-be-the-best-player-on-michigan-basketball-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/112907\/","title":{"rendered":"Could this veteran be the best player on Michigan Basketball in 2025?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Michigan Wolverines\u2019<\/a> basketball program brought in four new transfers and three incoming freshmen to not only attempt to recreate the magic from the 2024-2025 season, but to go further than head coach Dusty May\u2019s inaugural season.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines saw Danny Wolf go in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft<\/a> while Vlad Goldin signed a two-way contract with the Miami Heat. Rubin Jones is also no longer in college after running out of eligibility. In addition to those three, freshmen Phat Phat Brooks and Justin Pippen hit the transfer portal, opening up five roster spots.<\/p>\n

With so much focus on the new faces to the program, it is easy to forget about the returners that stuck with Michigan through Juwan Howard\u2019s firing. However, they have been making noise in summer workouts, and May wants everyone to know Nimari Burnett, in particular, is coming with another level of progression in 2025.<\/p>\n

Entering his sixth and final season of college basketball, Burnett is not only a deep-ball threat \u2014 he is a leader, a facilitator, and in the words of his head coach, the \u201cmost productive basketball player as a whole\u201d on Michigan\u2019s roster throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough summer workouts, Nimari might be our \u2014 he\u2019s probably been our most productive basketball player as a whole,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe continuity (Burnett and Will Tschetter) bring, the character that they bring, the work capacity, the unselfishness where they\u2019re trying to help the younger guys 24\/7. They\u2019re spending their time and energy trying to help guys who could potentially chip into their minutes because they want to win, and they want to be great teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if we\u2019re ever going to be at a championship level, and time will tell if we\u2019re going to be at a championship level this season, a big part of it is going to be because of the leadership and continuity of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

May has made it no secret he values experienced players from the portal. And while some older players around college hoops don\u2019t necessarily want to focus on helping those around them, Burnett has done the opposite. He has taken guys under his wing to coach them up and bring the best out of his new squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried to be as personable as possible,\u201d Burnett said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve always been a personable person, and a high character person, but, to really get engaged with the new guys \u2014 it\u2019s all like brotherhood here, especially at the University of Michigan. I\u2019ve enjoyed my time here and people have welcomed me with open arms, so I just wanna do that in return and just have one last final hurrah with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnett\u2019s teammates have recognized his contributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been holding my hand, helping me out and talking to me,\u201d Morez Johnson Jr. said of Burnett. \u201cThings that Dusty says that I don\u2019t know, I just walk up to (Burnett) and he will fill me in. He\u2019s been very helpful with my transition, giving me guidance a little bit. I appreciate him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yaxel Lendeborg added: \u201c(Tschetter and Burnett) have been giving 110 percent every single day, communicating the most, just bringing a lot of energy, bringing a lot of love as well, which is great. (They are) making it feel like we\u2019re all together, like we\u2019ve been here for five years. We all just got here, so it\u2019s been great. Nimari and Will are my favorite on the team … those are my favorite guys to talk to, look up to and just ask as many questions as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going into his final season of college basketball, Burnett\u2019s goal is to be consistent, keep his body in tip-top shape and shoot with conviction. Coming off a season where he averaged around nine points per game and shot 40 percent from three, if Burnett is showing signs of being the most productive player on the team, Michigan could be even more dangerous than anticipated.<\/p>\n

It may only be the summer, but if the Wolverines are to outperform expectations in May\u2019s second season, leaders are going to need to step up to keep the group intact. As it stands, Burnett has assumed that role, leaving everyone on the team in the best position to thrive before they take on a gauntlet of a schedule this winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Michigan Wolverines\u2019 basketball program brought in four new transfers and three incoming freshmen to not only attempt…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1388,16380,3254,7631,204,1412,3252,214,3255,49269,3253,1317,1337,1338,5824,9323,62,448,13050,67,132,68,11457],"class_list":{"0":"post-112907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-be","10":"tag-best","11":"tag-brew","12":"tag-could","13":"tag-front-page","14":"tag-in","15":"tag-maize","16":"tag-michigan","17":"tag-michigan-mens-basketball","18":"tag-michigan-mens-basketball-analysis","19":"tag-n","20":"tag-ncaa","21":"tag-ncaa-basketball","22":"tag-ncaabasketball","23":"tag-on","24":"tag-player","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-the","27":"tag-this","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-veteran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114959080915375083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}