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

