they will replace walton with jaaron simmons grad transfer from ohio. averaged 16 and 7 assist the last couple years shot 40% from 3. they will replace zak irving with kentucky transfer charles mathews. he sat out last year. was a 5 star out of high school. big time athlete. should be the best defensive team beilen has had.
Walton/Irving led the country in minutes played, 2 top Michigan scorers, 2 top Michigan in assists, 2 out of the top 3 in rebounds (with DJ Wilson, Michigan loses their top 3 rebounders), and most importantly, these guys came up clutch in big moments, especially Walton. Although Walton missed the last shot against Oregon, both Walton and Irving coming down the stretch in that game kept them in it. Without these 2 players, Michigan would not hang with Oregon. Watching Walton his Junior year, I couldn't understand why the analysts would sing his praise. I got it last year. Walton carried the team in critical situations and played bigger than his stats.
I don't watch any MAC basketball except for an occasional OOC game when a B1G team plays a MAC team and have not watched Simmons. Looks like Simmons has approx. the same ppg as Walton did last year, however, we'll see if he could do that against B1G defenses and in crunch time. The other kid sounds like he has tremendous potential. We'll see if these 2 players can lead Michigan to a sweet sixteen as Walton/Irving did.
