The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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ing guard] Kobe [Bufkin] have come to- gether. We've built a great bond, made it our duty to take care of the ball, make sure we're efficient and take care of every opportunity that we get on the offensive end." And again, he's done that by slowing down a bit and knowing when to run, when to pull back. He's always been a pass-first point guard, he noted, but now he's concentrating on putting the ball in the right spot — where his post player or shooter wants it — as opposed to just get- ting it to them. "The biggest thing that I've seen him improve is just picking his spots on when to be fast and when to be slow," junior center Hunter Dickinson said. "He's one of the fastest players in the country, so we're going to use that speed to our advantage. "But there are times to be fast and times to slow down. He's doing a really good job of picking those spots and being a floor leader out there for us." McDaniel was averaging 6.1 points and 3.1 assists to 1.7 turnovers through his first 15 games — good for a first-year point guard. His shooting needs to improve (36.8 percent overall, 32 percent from three-point range), but Howard was confident it would. His point guard is, after all, still just a rookie. "Dug, he has a chip," Howard said. "… There are going to be some times — he's a freshman — where he's going to make some mistakes on the floor. But with the ball in his hands, we all trust he's going to make the right play." And he's going to get his op- portunity to prove it as Mich- igan's leading ball handler for the rest of the year. ❏ McDaniel was averaging 7.1 points and 3.4 assists through his first 17 games. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL FEBRUARY 2023 THE WOLVERINE 41