While Michigan’s football team is winning a national title, the basketball squad has been struggling amidst a 6-9 season that has the Wolverines sitting in the basement of the Big Ten. Tough.
To make matters worse, the team has suspended star player Dug McDaniels for the next six road games due to apparent academic issues. McDaniel will miss matchups with Maryland, No. 1 Purdue, Michigan State, Nebraska, No. 10 Illinois, and Northwestern.
This is a heavy blow for a team that relies on McDaniels, who leads the team in both points with 17.8 per game and assists with 5.1 per game.
David Kaplan, Meredith Kaplan, and Juwan Howard made a statement regarding the McDaniels suspensions which reads as follows:
“We have very high standards within our program, culture and university. Serving as mentors, we need to set the standards and pathways for our young men to succeed.
“Beginning with our game at Maryland, Dug McDaniel will not travel to road games until further notice.
“Dug will dress for home games, however, when we are away from Ann Arbor, he will work towards meeting several academic goals he has set and needs to meet.
“While I am disappointed, this is not something we take lightly. This is an important step for Dug and his success as a student-athlete.
“Going forward we will not have further comment.”
Michigan will likely lean on backup point guard Jaelin Llewellyn to replace McDaniels in the lineup. Llewellyn, who transferred in from Princeton, has been in and out of the lineup this season with various injuries and has played in just five games to date. In his appearances, he averages 8.8 minutes, 2.2 points, 0.4 rebounds and 0.8 assists. Llewellyn’s best statistical season was in 2021-22 with Princeton when he averaged 15.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.5 assists. Michigan will need him to step up if they expect to make a late run at a low March Madness seed.