On Nov. 8, 2013, Michigan hung a
banner from the rafters.
It was Walton’s college debut, and
he took his spot in line alongside his
14 teammates during the national
anthem. For the majority of them, the
banner signified fulfillment, a lasting
commemoration of the Wolverines
run to the NCAA Tournament
championship the season prior.
For Walton, it was a symbol of
what he expected his future to hold.
“Walking into it, there was just so
much going on, and it was so fun and
the excitement was just through the
roof,” Walton said at Big Ten Media
Day. “I remember saying to myself,
like, ‘This is definitely what it’s all
about and how it is.’ ”
But with the banner also came
expectations.
From
the
outside
looking in, Walton was meant to
carry the torch Trey Burke had left
for him. Both were point guards.
Both were 6-foot-1. Both could
handle the ball and shoot. It was an
easy comparison.
Those on the outside were dead
wrong. His coaches didn’t want him
to emulate the former Naismith
Award winner. His teammates didn’t
either. And Walton just wanted to
play his own game, too.
“Derrick knew he wasn’t Trey
Burke,” said his father, Derrick
Walton Sr. “Everybody said their
game was similar, but Derrick is
actually a true point guard. He just
wanted to be Derrick Walton, he
didn’t want to be Trey Burke.”
Added 2013 center Jordan Morgan:
“Early on, we made it known that we
didn’t expect him to be Trey Burke.
We didn’t necessarily expect him to
lead us back to where we were the
year before. He would be a piece of
it, but we had a lot of experience in
place already from that run. And we
just wanted him to come in and be
Derrick Walton.”
His freshman year, he got the
chance to do just that. Walton just
wanted to work. He expected to arrive
in Ann Arbor having to compete
for time with the
man people tried
to compare him to.
But Burke went to
the NBA, leaving
Walton to take over
the reins.
Immediately,
he ran an offense
that
featured
future NBA draft
picks Nik Stauskas,
Mitch
McGary,
Caris LeVert and Glenn Robinson III.
He didn’t need to carry the team. He
just needed to facilitate.
While Burke starred from the
point, Walton came in ready to defer
the spotlight. In high school, he had
been Michigan’s Gatorade Player
of the Year, the runner-up for Mr.
Basketball
of
Michigan
(behind
current Big 12 preseason player of
the year Monte Morris) and a Parade
All-American during his senior year.
As a freshman, Walton started
every game at point guard except
one, helping to lead the Wolverines
to their first outright Big Ten
Championship
since
1986.
The
Wolverines rolled on to the Elite
Eight, and save for a 3-pointer by
Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison with 2.3
seconds left to play, Walton would
have been starting at point guard as a
true freshman in the Final Four, too.
In that moment, Walton got to
taste what all the hype was about.
Yet as soon as he tasted it, it was
gone.
Entering his sophomore year,
Michigan dealt with the departures
of Morgan, Robinson III, McGary,
Stauskas and Jon Horford. Still, the
Wolverines seemed to have enough
pieces in place to contend.
Quickly, though, those pieces
started to crumble.
In the fifth game of the season,
Michigan took the floor against then-
No. 14 Villanova. By the end of the
first half, Walton had picked up a toe
injury that would eventually end his
season — even if he didn’t know it yet.
He played through the pain,
laboring over 14 games after the
matchup with the Wildcats. Two
days after losing Caris LeVert for the
season to a fractured foot, Walton put
forth a 40-minute, 17-point effort in a
69-64 loss to then-No. 6 Wisconsin
on Jan. 24. He hit the 3-pointer that
sent the game into overtime. But it
turned out to be the final game of his
sophomore season, as
his year ended with a
foot injury after the
matchup
with
the
Badgers.
“I could tell that
really
hurt
him,
having to sit on the
sidelines and watch,
especially as we were
really struggling my
junior
year,”
said
former
Michigan
guard Spike Albrecht. “He had been
on a team a year before who won a
Big Ten championship and went to
the Elite Eight.
“I think him sitting on the
sidelines and wishing he could be
out there, knowing that he could
help, but he couldn’t play due to
his injury, I could tell that really
bothered him. You could see it every
day in practice, how bad he just
wanted to be out there.”
Faced with watching from the
sidelines as the Wolverines missed
the Big Dance for the first time in
five years, Walton found comfort in
his faith.
“I think it gave me a great deal
of humility,” Walton said. “It made
me tap into my own personal faith
and take things for what it’s worth.
These last two seasons definitely
opened my eyes to broader things
than just basketball.
“…I was on the track to do some
things that I thought I could do and
you know, the injury happened. As
a person that believes in a higher
power, I just think there are things
that happen for a reason.”
He would get the chance at
another fresh start. But adversity
reared its ugly head once more.
After making a full recovery, the
new season beckoned with the same
— if not heightened — promise of a
November 11, 2016
4
5
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Derrick Walton Jr. came to Michigan the year after Trey Burke led the Wolverines to the national title game as a point guard.
Walton’s last ride
KEVIN SANTO
Daily Sports Editor
“I just think
there are things
that happen for
a reason.”
returning to the NCAA Tournament.
Zak Irvin began the year with a
back surgery in September, and was
never quite himself despite returning
in time for the season. LeVert’s
464 minutes were an overestimate
of the impact he could have on
the program. Albrecht completed
the
trifecta
—
announcing on Dec.
11 that he would
end
his
Michigan
career to focus on
recovering
from
bilateral hip surgery
he underwent in the
offseason.
Suddenly
Michigan
was
without
its
two
marquee seniors, the
last remnants of a class that was
dubbed the “Fresh Five.”
It was that same class that had
set the bar Walton’s career has been
measured by. Now its last traces
were
ending
prematurely,
and
Walton was the one left to fill the
leadership void.
He always wanted to lead by
example. He hadn’t been as willing
to be vocal. But now, he had no
choice.
“I just always said, ‘Yeah Derrick,
well, your roommates are down. You
have to step up a little, bro,” Walton
Sr. said. “ ‘…You’re just going to have
to be the leader right now. They’re
hurt and you just got to do what
you’re supposed to do. You have the
ball in your hand 90 percent of the
time, but you have to go ahead and
open your mouth a little bit.’ ”
There
were
moments
when
Walton wondered how the team
could be so hampered by injury, how
it could be so unlucky. It had never
crossed his mind that the injuries
would pile up.
“Like I said, (it) just gives you
a different type of
perspective on life,”
Walton said. “Just
makes you appreciate
and try and get the
most out of every day.
That’s pretty much
where I’m at right
now.
“I just try to attack
each
and
every
opportunity I’m given,
and at the end of the
day, I think the chips will fall where
the may, and at the end of the day, I’m
going to be where I need to be.”
Now, Walton has a team equipped
to
make
another
run
in
the
postseason. He, Irvin and a host of
others make up a group without one
true star, but with all the necessary
ability to succeed.
Maybe more importantly, Walton
has one last season to stamp his
legacy on this program. And a large
part of that will reveal itself in the
standard he sets for younger players.
One of those players is a freshman
point guard named Xavier Simpson.
He starred in high school, and
now, he’ll be asked to step in and
make an immediate impact on the
Wolverines.
Perhaps that sounds familiar.
AMELIA CACCHIONE/DAILY
Walton led the Wolverines to the Elite Eight as a freshman, where Michigan ultimately fell to Kentucky on an Aaron Harrison’s late
game-winning 3-pointer.
“I just try to
attack each and
every opportunity
I’m given.”
JAMES COLLER/Daily
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily