Michigan basketball is entering a new era with its program. This past offseason, the Wolverines got rid of Juwan Howard, who was their head coach for five seasons. A season ago, the Wolverines only won eight games all season long and didn’t even reach the NCAA tournament in three of the seasons that Howard coached Michigan.

With the firing of Howard, the university elected to hire Dusty May, who formerly coached at FAU. May led the Owls to a Final Four appearance back in 2023 and was milliseconds away from making the national championship game. He decided to take on a bigger program with more opportunities with the Michigan job, and so far he has looked pretty good. 

The top four scoring leaders for Michigan are all players that came from the transfer portal, as each of them are averaging 12 or more points per game. One guy who has been a major cog in Michigan’s offense is their versatile big man, Danny Wolf. The 7-footer is a transfer out of Yale, where a season ago, he helped lead his team to a NCAA tournament appearance and even pulled off a first-round upset of the Auburn Tigers.

On the season he’s currently averaging a double-double with 12.5 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. The majority of his rebounds come off the defensive glass, but he has his moments where he uses his size to generate second-chance scoring opportunities for his team. You can always count on Wolf stuffing the stat sheet.

What makes the Yale transfer so unique is his playmaking ability at his size. He is arguably the best passing big man in this year’s draft, which is why he has been rising up draft boards over the last month. His vision, feel for the game, and accuracy on his passes allow him to nearly average four assists per game.

In the NBA, it is a major plus to have a big man who can pass the ball like Wolf can, and it allows coaches to be unique and more flexible with their lineups. Now, this isn’t saying he’s a Nikola Jokic player or type of passer but having a guy like Jokic with the combination of his size and passing ability allows Mike Malone to run a ton of different unique lineups due to how that archetype allows you to plug in different players at any given time and not worry about the offense taking a massive hit.

As of now, it looks like Wolf is trending more and more toward being a first-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, as teams will need to do their best not to overlook the combination of size, playmaking ability, tough rebounding, and scoring versatility. The 7-footer will continue to be a hot name closer to draft night and he’s the type of player to have a magical march madness run to help boost his stock to a different level.

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