Michigan’s basketball roster showcases a group with nine new faces among 12 scholarship roster spots. As Dusty May rapidly constructed the group from scratch this spring, he pulled together a group that features fifth-year veterans and freshmen recruits, SEC stowaways, and Big Ten mainstays. It was the result of the glorious hodge podge that only the new-era transfer portal can bring.
And even still, sophomore forward Sam Walters has yet to feel like a stranger in his own new home.
Despite being one of many in the Wolverines program to make an entirely new venture out to Ann Arbor, Walters already has roots connected with his team. In fact, when it comes to Michigan coach Dusty May, or reuniting with a former teammate in junior guard Tre Donaldson, with the Wolverines, Walters already goes way back.
“I chose Michigan because I feel like the playstyle really suits me,” Walters said Tuesday on the Defend the Block Podcast. “I mean, I’ve known Tre Donaldson since I was in seventh grade as well, so that was a really attractive piece. He was a guy that I’ve known for a while and a point guard that I know I would play really well with.”
Meanwhile, though Walters’ relationship with May doesn’t stretch as far back, the two were hardly strangers when the time came for Walters to enter his name into the transfer portal.
“I just remember talking to him when I was a sophomore a little bit, when the recruiting process was just getting started for me,” Walters said of his high school relationship with May. “He was one of the first people to reach out to me, and really get to know me when he was at FAU. And he was at the University of Florida before that, so he’s always kind of been in my general area down in Florida, so I’ve known him for a while.”