The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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two … we were very stagnant at that time, and he made two shots we re- ally needed to make." And he made one of the heady plays of the game with 14 seconds remaining. He drove hard to the rim and barely missed finishing righty off the left side glass, but when ju- nior big man Mark Donnal got the offensive rebound and was quickly surrounded by Terrapins, Walton ran to the official to signal for a timeout before Donnal got tied up. Donnal was fouled on the subse- quent inbounds pass, connected on one of two free throws in the closing seconds, and the Wolverines hung on. "Derrick has this in him," Beilein said. "He has more in him. You think of some of the guys he's played with, he did not have to take that [lead] role. Even with Caris this year, we were not putting him in that role. "He and I were talking about that the past couple of weeks, how he's got to assume that role. This was a good example of it." TAKING IT PERSONALLY It's not like Walton hasn't stepped up before. He's made his share of big plays down the stretch. Two years ago in East Lansing, then-freshman Walton's three-point play late in the game gave the Wol- verines breathing room in an 80-75 win at Michigan State, the last time before this year U-M had beaten a top-three team. Walton made 9 of 10 free throws in that game on his way to 19 points, many of them when the game was on the line. Last year, while essentially playing on one good foot, he buried a triple at the buzzer to send U-M to overtime in a game it would lose 69-64 to No. 6 Wisconsin. That would be all he had to give. His foot injury sidelined him for the remainder of the year, but he earned the respect of his teammates for toughing it out for several weeks. "Watching him play through that showed us how tough he was," junior Zak Irvin said. "He'd do anything to try to play through pain for us." Back healthy this season and play- ing with confidence, he's shown there are few point guards better. He notched a triple-double in Michigan's 105-46 thrashing of Youngstown State Dec. 19, finishing with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, living up to his billing as the team's best re- bounder, pound for pound. Against Maryland, the bounce in his step was evident from the start. Irvin knew well before then that his good friend was ready to bring it College basketball analyst Tim McCormick "When he's healthy, he's definitely in the upper echelon of Big Ten point guards. He has some areas of his game that he could tighten, but I like his leadership. I like his ability to impact the game in ways other than scoring."