8 — Friday, February 19, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Donnal finds himself as ‘M’ big man

After long quest for 
confidence, junior 
forward appears 
ready to carry load

By LEV FACHER

Daily Sports Writer

As a high-school sophomore, 

Mark Donnal sat down with 
Bryan Borcherdt, a longtime 
coach and family friend, to 
discuss his future prospects.

Borcherdt asked Donnal a 

simple question: How do you 
envision your future?

The coach saw a 6-foot-9 

prospect who could run, shoot 
and defend, one with the potential 
to succeed at the highest level. 
For some reason, Donnal saw 
something different.

“I remember him looking 

at me, saying, ‘Maybe a mid-
major?’ ” Borcherdt said. “I 
don’t think he realized.”

Donnal may not have been 

aware of his potential then, but 
his abilities soon became obvious 
and unavoidable.

That 
potential 
was 
never 

more apparent than on June 15, 
2011, when Borcherdt let a call 
he never expected to receive 
go to voicemail. He had since 
been hired as the head coach at 
Anthony Wayne High School 
in Monclova, Ohio, and was 
engrossed in running a summer 
youth basketball camp, too busy 
for the unrecognized number on 
the other end.

When Borcherdt checked his 

messages a few hours later, he 
saw the call might have been 
worth taking after all. Waiting in 
his voicemail was a brief greeting 
from Chris Collins, then an 
assistant coach at Duke and now 
the head coach at Northwestern. 
Collins wanted to speak with 
Anthony Wayne’s budding star in 
the low post: Mark Donnal.

The Blue Devils had come 

calling for a player who had 

thought, 
albeit 
fleetingly, 

his 
potential 
more 
closely 

corresponded to a program like 
Toledo or Bowling Green. But 
upon consulting with Donnal, 
then a rising junior at Anthony 
Wayne, Borcherdt could only 
smile. Duke was too late.

As it happened, June 15, 

2011, was also the day Donnal 
committed to play for Michigan 
and for John Beilein.

“Mark said, ‘Tell them I’m a 

Wolverine,’ ” Borcherdt recalled.

It was a day Donnal never 

could have envisioned, even 
during 
his 
check-in 
with 

Borcherdt a season before.

In that year, Donnal morphed 

from a player who didn’t think 
he had a shot to play in the Big 
Ten to a player comfortable 
enough in his destination — Ann 
Arbor — to turn away interest 
from a program that had won 
the national championship the 
year before.

Donnal 
says 
the 
decision 

seems stranger now than it did 
four years ago. Turning down 
any level of interest from Duke 
simply seemed like the natural 
thing to do at the time, and he has 
never regretted the decision not 
to pursue Collins’ interest, saying 
he was “locked in” at Michigan.

It’s not that Donnal had a 

crisis in confidence. It’s simply 
that those around him assumed, 
perhaps too optimistically, that 
he knew his 
true potential. 
In 
the 
end, 

Borcherdt 
and the other 
influences 
in 

Donnal’s 
life 

needed 
to 

spell 
things 

out 
more 

explicitly. 
They 
told 

Donnal 
he 

was destined for a successful 
program 
in 
a 
Power 
Five 

conference, not a run-of-the-mill 
Midwestern mid-major.

“Just 
to 
hear 
somebody 

express that level of confidence 
in me was huge,” Donnal said 
of his early-career conversation 
with Borcherdt. “I think that was 
something of a turning point.”

Borcherdt 
was 
eventually 

proven right. Donnal is averaging 

10.2 points per 
game 
in 
Big 

Ten play this 
season and has 
embraced 
his 

role as a big 
man who can 
rebound, take 
charges 
and 

play 
defense, 

even 
against 

players 
who 

dwarf him in 

the low post.

Donnal’s 
junior-year 

emergence, however, was difficult 
to predict. He spent his freshman 
season redshirting, working to 
build strength and size so he 
could contend in a conference 
where big men take a beating.

The work paid off, at least in 

the short term. Donnal began his 
sophomore season as Michigan’s 
starter at the ‘5’ position, but 
struggled in the early going 
and quickly lost the job to true 
freshman Ricky Doyle.

This year, Donnal once again 

began the season as Michigan’s 
starter, but once again, his early-
season 
performance 
wasn’t 

enough to keep Doyle out of the 
starting five.

Donnal scored just 3.4 points 

per game that season, serving 
as a jarring symbol of the 
Wolverines’ lackluster year, in 
which they finished 16-16 and 
missed the postseason entirely — 
all on the heels of an Elite Eight 
appearance during Donnal’s first 
year and a Final Four run the 
season before.

Playing 
time 
came 

inconsistently for Donnal last 
season, 
especially 
as 
Doyle 

excelled in the early season and 
Max Bielfeldt came on strong 
toward the end. Donnal played 15 
minutes or more just seven times, 
leaving him far short of where 

he’d hoped to be after his year on 
the bench.

To 
add 
insult 
to 
injury, 

Michigan 
announced 
at 
the 

beginning of the 2015-16 season 
that Donnal had been reclassified 
from a redshirt sophomore to a 
junior, meaning that a potential 
fifth year would have to be 
earned, not assumed.

“There 
are 
really 
two 

directions people can go when 
they’re frustrated,” said Donnal’s 
brother 
Andrew, 
a 
former 

offensive lineman at Iowa who 
currently plays for the NFL’s Los 
Angeles Rams. “Some people 
introvert. They go inside, they 
kind of clam up. Other guys come 
out, and that’s definitely Mark. 
He definitely excels in his game 
when things aren’t good.”

Determined to not let his 

sophomore season repeat itself, 
the younger Donnal did exactly 
that, 
punctuating 
an 
early-

season comeback with a 26-point 
outburst at Illinois on Dec. 30.

That performance harkened 

back to a similarly defining 
moment during Donnal’s high-
school days. His AAU squad, 
the Indiana Elite, traveled to 
Bloomington in May 2011 to face 
a team featuring three future 
college stars: Indiana’s James 
Blackmon Jr., Xavier’s Trevon 
Blueitt and current Utah Jazz 
forward Trey Lyles, who left 
for the NBA last year after his 
freshman season at Kentucky.

Donnal was unfazed.
“Mark kicked the living hell 

out of them,” said Dan Dakich, 
the current ESPN analyst and 
former assistant at Indiana, 
who coached the Elite at the 
time. “He tore up Trey Lyles in 
Assembly Hall when those kids 
were sophomores and juniors.”

Donnal’s 23 points paced the 

Elite, and his block of Blueitt’s 
buzzer-beating 
shot 
attempt 

sealed the 78-77 upset.

“I think there are definitely 

parallels,” 
Donnal 
said, 

comparing the AAU performance 
to 
the 
breakout 
game 
in 

Champaign. “Both were huge 
confidence boosters.”

After 
the 
Illinois 
game, 

Donnal said, he felt as if a 
weight had been lifted from 
his back. On the court, the 
difference in his confidence is 
palpable, especially in games 
when he’s forced head to head 
with some of the country’s elite 
interior players, like Maryland’s 
Diamond Stone or Purdue’s A.J. 
Hammons. Donnal seems to be 
in the right place at the right 
time far more often, and after 
fighting off a bout of early-
season foul trouble, he’s playing 
vertical defense and rebounding 
against 7-footers, keying the 
Wolverines’ upsets of then-No. 
18 Purdue on Feb. 13 and No. 3 
Maryland on Jan. 12.

It’s similar to the process 

that took place after the early-
high school conversation with 
Borcherdt, after which Donnal 
says he was more able to embrace 
his ability to excel. Playing with 
the mentality of a player who 
can excel at Michigan, Donnal 
says, has been a similar process, 
one that seems to be nearing its 
final stages.

Confidence, though, is hardly 

the only aspect of Donnal’s 
emotional profile that has changed 

since high school, when many 
close to Donnal say he needed to 
be angry to play his best.

“I told John Beilein, and I 

told Jeff Meyer when they were 
recruiting him, look, you can’t 
be nice to Mark,” Dakich said. 
“If you were nice to Mark, that 
was a problem. Because if you 
want him to be angry, you need 
to be angry.”

Donnal chalks that up to “high-

school Mark,” saying Dakich’s 
assessment rang more true in 
high school than it does now.

“Coach Dakich was always 

good about letting me know 
there’s another gear,” Donnal 
said. “The coaching staff here is 
the same way. I don’t know if it’s 
necessarily about a need to be 
frustrated, but they definitely 
let me know there’s always 
another level.”

Regardless of whether he plays 

to that level, Donnal displays little 
emotion during games, especially 
compared to teammates like 
Spike Albrecht or Zak Irvin.

Donnal prefers to do his talking 

on the court, and whether he’s 
getting stonewalled or playing 
the game of his career, that’s the 
way 
things 

have 
always 

been. 
The 

quiet on-court 
persona, 
however, isn’t 
necessarily 
intentional.

“It’s 
not 

necessarily 
that I prefer to 
fly under the radar,” Donnal said. 
“It’s just that I haven’t spent that 
much time in the spotlight.”

If there’s anybody who knows 

how Donnal behaves when he’s 
frustrated, it’s Andrew, who 
claims to hold an advantage over 
his younger brother in a one-on-
one driveway basketball series 
that now dates back more than 
a decade.

“Everything 
was 
a 

competition,” 
Andrew 
said. 

“Who could drink their drink 
the fastest, who could eat dinner 
the fastest. We loved going in the 
driveway and playing basketball 
and beating up on each other.”

Mark disputes his brother’s 

claim 
that 
he 
was 
at 
a 

disadvantage in their sibling 
rivalry, 
three-year 
age 
gap 

notwithstanding. 
The 
two 

have obvious strengths and 
weaknesses. Mark, a willowy 6 
foot 9, has a body better suited 
for basketball; Andrew’s stocky, 
6-foot-6 frame is suited better to 
the duties of an NFL offensive 
lineman.

As Andrew recalled, a loss in the 

driveway used to generate roughly 
the same emotional response — 
outwardly, anyway — as a win at 
Crisler Center does today.

Mark agrees that he’s not 

one to clue somebody into his 
emotional state or his mind’s 
inner workings unless they’re 
in his inner circle to begin with. 
Donnal is as reserved when 
speaking to the media as he was 
before he was a starter averaging 
double-digit scoring totals, and 
rarely lets his frustration after 
a loss — or, for that matter, his 
elation after a win — show.

Andrew, 
of 
course, 
is 
a 

member of that inner circle, and 
Mark hasn’t hesitated to use 

his older brother as a resource, 
especially given their similar 
experiences as Big Ten athletes. 
Andrew 
also 
redshirted 
his 

freshman year, and though the 
hiatus was more expected for 
a developing offensive lineman 
than for a basketball player, he 
made sure to discuss the proper 
mentality for a year off during 
Mark’s freshman season.

“A lot of guys are physically 

ready and have the skill set out 
of high school,” Andrew said. 
“And it’s not that Mark didn’t 
— I just think that for him to be 
able to compete better in the Big 
Ten, he did need to get bigger 
and stronger. I just told him that 
it can be frustrating, because 
you’re the only one that’s gonna 
be redshirting. All the other 
freshmen he came in with were 
going to be playing.”

To add to the frustration, one 

of those classmates — junior 
guard Zak Irvin — made 3-point 
shooting his ticket to playing time 
during his freshman campaign. 
Donnal, known as much for his 
shooting ability as with anything 
else during high school, was 
forced to learn quickly that as a 

‘5’ at Michigan, 
he wouldn’t get 
the perimeter 
looks 
he 

enjoyed in high 
school.

“In 
our 

league, in our 
area, having a 
6-foot-9 player, 
I’d have been 

foolish to not have him in the 
post,” Borcherdt said of Donnal’s 
inside-out game in high school, 
when he dealt with the same 
dilemma.

Beilein has spoken similarly 

of Donnal’s transition, saying 
he likely came to Michigan 
assuming 3-point shooting would 
be his meal ticket. Michigan, in 
its media guides last season, even 
dubbed Doyle “The Rim Rocker” 
and Donnal “The Shooter.”

Donnal prefers the simpler 

set 
of 
nicknames 
bestowed 

upon the pair by assistant coach 
Bacari Alexander: “Thunder” 
and “Lightning.”

In his renaissance, Donnal 

has learned to play more like 
Thunder, showing off the type 
of 
competitiveness 
Andrew 

remembers from him as a child.

“He is emotional, but he’s 

emotional in his own way,” 
Andrew Donnal said. “He’s not 
outgoing, he’s not a hoo-rah guy 
— he’s a guy who’s going to come 
to work every day and do his job 
and not make a fuss about it.”

Donnal has certainly never 

made a fuss — not when Beilein 
told him he’d be redshirting his 
freshman year, or when Doyle 
beat him out for the starting job 
last season, or when it seemed for 
a two-week stretch this year that 
recent history had repeated itself.

Now carrying the confidence 

of a Big Ten big man, Donnal 
seems ready to carry the load 
down low for the Wolverines, 
doing whatever’s asked for a team 
still reeling from two season-long 
injuries impacting its two senior 
stars and struggling to stay afloat.

For that responsibility, Donnal 

finally 
seems 
ready. 
“High-

school Mark,” as Donnal put it, 
might be surprised.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Junior forward Mark Donnal, who lost the starting job at the ‘5’ position in each of the past two years, is now back in the lineup and averaging 10.3 points in Big Ten play.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Donnal burst onto the scene with a 26-point outing at Illinois on Dec. 30.

“It’s just that I 
haven’t spent 
that much time 
in the spotlight.”

“Mark kicked 
the living hell 
out of them.”

