Amid joyless season, Michigan hopes for ‘fun time’ on Senior Day
The Wolverines haven’t had much reason to celebrate during this lousy season.
But come Sunday, there will at least be a pregame celebration where the program will honor numerous seniors whose winding and intertwining college journeys will end at Michigan.
“This is a great weekend for our program to acknowledge our seniors on a special day, giving them the flowers that they deserve for all the beautiful time that they have been here,” coach Juwan Howard said Friday.
Michigan will honor three scholarship players — sixth-year guard Jaelin Llewellyn, grad transfer guard Nimari Burnett and senior forward Terrance Williams II — as well as walk-on forward Jackson Selvala and three team managers ahead of the regular-season finale against Nebraska at Crisler Center.
Grad transfer forwards Tray Jackson and Olivier Nkamhoua both opted not to take part in the pregame festivities, according to a program spokesperson, and senior forward Jace Howard is planning to take advantage of the extra COVID-19 year, according to his bio on the team’s website.
Of all the seniors, Burnett, Jackson and Nkamhoua have spent the shortest amount of time at Michigan,
and Nkamhoua had his lone year as Wolverine cut short when he had season-ending wrist surgery last month.
Burnett, Jackson and Nkamhoua all arrived in Ann Arbor via the transfer portal from Alabama, Seton Hall and Tennessee, respectively. Yet, Howard didn’t get to spend as nearly as much time coaching them as he would’ve liked, since he missed the start of the season recovering from September heart surgery.
“Being around them and watching them, I felt like they’ve gotten better. The time that they were able to spend with my staff and I, they were learning the game of basketball from a different lens than where they came from,” Howard said. “It’s nice to see three guys who have embraced all the teaching that we have given to them. They didn’t fight it. There was no resistance on their end.
“At the same time, I think whichever coach is going to get them in the years to come, they’re going to enjoy working with those three young men. All of them are talented in their own right, and I feel there’s a lot of basketball left in all three.”
Llewellyn has faced the biggest obstacles of the bunch, considering he’s had to overcome an Achilles tear and ACL tear during his college career. The latter occurred last season, in what Llewellyn fully
anticipated to be his one and only season at Michigan after transferring from Princeton.
Instead of going out that way, Llewellyn was granted a medical redshirt and received a second chance to write a better ending, something that Howard said the guard is “deserving” of.
Howard noted Llewellyn, who returned to action nearly one year after the ACL injury, wanted to play last weekend at Ohio State, even though his surgically repaired knee was swollen. Howard opted against it because he wanted to make sure Llewellyn was healthy enough and available to play in front of his family in the home finale.
“Those are two injuries no player wants to ever experience,”
Howard said. “It shows his perseverance as well as his physical and mental toughness. Some people will end their career after having those two injuries. But Jaelin, the toughness that he’s displayed to be able to overcome those injuries and fight through it and still to be effective out there on the floor, it shows he also has a special skill set about him.”
Then there’s Williams, who has experienced the highs and lows — from winning a Big Ten regular-season title as a freshman to tying a program record for losses this season — as the first Howard recruit to play at Michigan for four years.
Howard described Williams as being “like a son,” since he’s witnessed his evolution as both a player and a person from the moment he set foot on campus.
“He’s one of mine. When you spend four years with a young man in your program, that’s your family,” Howard said. “Terrance has been one of those guys who’s got better each year…and he’s embraced being a student here at the University of Michigan.
“On the court, he’s another guy that always consistently comes in and gets work in when no one’s watching. He’s not a guy who’s looking to always get a pat on the back. But I’m always going be the one to give him a pat on the back because I see the work and I’ve seen his growth.”
While this season will mark the end of the road for some of the seniors, Burnett and Williams both have eligibility remaining if they want to take advantage of the additional COVID-19 year. Howard said he hasn’t had any conversations about next year. Those talks will occur after the season.
The focus is on making sure the pregame ceremony won’t be the only reason to celebrate on Sunday.
“This is a special time,” Howard said. “We have a very good opponent that’s coming in here. We’re going to give our seniors their flowers before the game, but I guarantee those seniors are going to be locked in and ready to compete. Sunday is going to be a fun time.”