Derrick Walton

Derrick Walton

File:20140102 Derrick Walton (5).JPG Walton in the Michigan–Minnesota 2013–14 Big Ten season
No. 10 – Michigan Wolverines
Position	Point guard
League	Big Ten Conference
Personal information
Born	(1995-04-03) April 3, 1995 Detroit, Michigan
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Listed weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High school	Chandler Park Academy (Harper Woods, Michigan)
College	Michigan (2013–present)
Career highlights and awards
Third-team All-Big Ten (2016) Big Ten All-Freshman team (2014) First-team Parade All-American (2013) Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year (2013) All-State 1st team (AP - Class B & Detroit News) (2013) All-State 1st team - Class B (AP, Detroit Free Press & Detroit News) (2012) All-State 1st team - Class B (AP) (2011)

Derrick Walton, Jr. (born April 3, 1995) is an American college basketball player for The University of Michigan where he has completed his junior season for the 2015–16 team. He was a 2013 Parade All-American, the 2013 Michigan Boys Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year and the runner up in the 2013 Mr. Basketball of Michigan as a senior at Chandler Park Academy. He was a 2013–14 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season All-Freshman selection in the Big Ten for the 2013–14 team. He was a 2015–16 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season All-Big Ten third team selection by the coaches and honorable mention selection by the media as a junior.

Early life

Walton was born in Detroit, Michigan to Angela and Derrick Walton Sr. on April 3, 1995. Walton had considered attending Saginaw High School with a close friend of his named Dorian Dawkins, but Dawkins collapsed at a basketball camp on June 12, 2009 due to a heart defect and Walton Sr. got the coaching job at Chandler Park Academy. June 13, 2011 was the first day that Michigan offered scholarships to the class of 2013. On August 1, 2011, Walton announced his non-binding verbal commitment to Michigan. At the time, he was ranked 77th, 88th and 92nd in the class of 2013 according to Scout.com, Rivals.com and ESPN.com, respectively. This commitment came one day after Zak Irvin joined Michigan's 2013 recruiting class. As a junior, he had a breakout season that included posting 47 points and had 12 rebounds against Crockett High School on March 9, 2012, and a quadruple-double against Cesar Chavez Academy on January 31, 2012. During the summer of 2012, Walton jumped in the Rivals.com ranking from 57th to 44th in the national class of 2013. On November 16, 2012, Michigan men's basketball received a signed National Letter of Intent from the 6-foot (1.83 m) Walton. At Chandler Park Academy, he was 2013 Mr. Basketball of Michigan runner up by a 2130–2086 margin to Iowa State signee Monte Morris but had one more 1st place vote. He was a 2013 Parade All-American honoree and the Michigan Boys Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year. By the end of his high school career, he was ranked 37th by Rivals.

Name	Home town	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Derrick Walton PG	Detroit, MI	Chandler Park Academy (MI)	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	172.5 lb (78.2 kg)	Aug 1, 2011
	Scout:   Rivals:   247Sports: N/A    ESPN grade: 89
Overall recruiting rankings: Scout: 36, 7 (PG)   Rivals: 37, 8 (PG)  ESPN: 30, 8 (PG), 2 (MI)
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources:

College

Walton joined a team that had just lost Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway, Jr. to the 2013 NBA draft. The 2012–13 Wolverines had reached the championship game of the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, losing to Louisville.

Freshman season

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Walton shoots over Jabari Parker of Duke

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Walton and DeAndre Mattieu in the Michigan–Minnesota 2013–14 Big Ten season opener

In September 2013, Sports Illustrated named him the 9th best freshman. Sporting News named him the 3rd best Big Ten newcomer. On November 8, the Wolverines opened the season against UMass Lowell. Michigan played 6 freshman and Walton started. Michigan played its third game of Walton's freshman season against Morris' Iowa State Cyclones and Walton outscored Morris by a 13–2 margin, but it was Iowa State who won the contest, upsetting the AP Poll #7/Coaches Poll #8 Wolverines 77–70 on November 17. On November 22 against Florida State, Walton contributed 15 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds to a two-point overtime victory. Walton posted 7 assists for the first time on November 29 against Coppin State. On January 9 against Nebraska, Walton contributed key baskets at the end of each half in a one-point victory, giving Michigan its first 5-game win streak since the 2013 NCAA tournament. He made a buzzer beater from beyond half court before the half to give Michigan a halftime lead and a layup in Michigan's final possession to take the lead. On January 25 in the Michigan–Michigan rivalry game, Walton set a new career high with a team-high (tied with Nik Stauskas) 19 points and added 6 rebounds and 4 assists to help Michigan defeat the (#3) Michigan State Spartans 80–75. The victory marked the first time in school history that the team defeated three consecutive AP Poll top ten opponents and marked the first time since the 1986–87 Iowa Hawkeyes that any team has won three consecutive games all of which were against top 10 opponents. It also gave Michigan a 7–0 Big Ten start, which is the best since the 1976–77 team won its first eight games. In the game, Walton went 9-for-10 from the free throw line including 8-for-9 in the final two and a half minutes. For the week, Walton earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week recognition. On February 11, Walton posted his first double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds against Ohio State helping Michigan win at Ohio State for the first time in 11 years. Following the regular season, he was named a Big Ten All-Freshman team selection by the coaches. The 2013–14 team advanced to the elite eight round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament before being eliminated by Kentucky. He posted a career-high 4 steals in an upset loss against the EMU Eagles.

Sophomore season

File:20150303 Derrick Walton pregame.JPG

Walton's season was cut short in January.

In its preseason top 100 player rankings, ESPN ranked Walton #87. Walton was named along with Big Ten point guards Yogi Ferrell and Melo Trimble to the 36-man Bob Cousy Award Preseason Watch List.

File:20150303 Derrick Walton and Caris LeVert on the bench (2).JPG

When Walton and Caris LeVert were sidelined for the season in January 2015, the 2014–15 Wolverines began to struggle

Walton opened the season with a career-high 22 points against Hillsdale College on November 15. On November 29, he was sidelined with an undetermined toe injury against Nicholls State. On December 9, Walton set a career high with 4 steals in a loss against Eastern Michigan. On December 22, Walton posted a career high of 9 assists against Coppin State. In the January 17 win vs. Northwestern, Walton made a career-high 4 three point shots. On January 20 against Rutgers in the first game after Caris LeVert (the team's leader in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and minutes) was lost for the season, Walton scored a team-high 12 points, including 10 as Michigan rallied from a 42–37 deficit to assume a 52–44 lead with just 32.5 seconds left. The 10 points included two three pointers that tied the score at 42 and gave Michigan a 45–42 lead and 4 free throws in the final minute. On January 24, Walton scored a team-high 17 and hit a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds to go against (AP #6/Coaches #5) Wisconsin to tie the game and send it to overtime, but Michigan eventually lost. On January 27 Walton was sidelined as Michigan defeated Nebraska, which began extended time out of the lineup. Walton missed the January 27 game against Nebraska and the final 12 games of the season due to a toe injury.

Junior season

After playing only 19 of Michigan's 32 games the prior season for the 2014–15 Wolverines, Walton began the season as a starter against Northern Michigan. On November 16 against Elon, Walton led all players with 24 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists. His performance included career highs of 24 points, 8 field goals (10 attempts) and 6 three point shots (7 attempts). Walton sprained his ankle in the first half of the December 1 ACC–Big Ten Challenge victory over NC State. The injury was caused when NC State's Abdul-Malik Abu stepped on Walton's foot. In the subsequent game on December 5 against Houston Baptist, Caris LeVert started in his place at point guard while he sat out. On December 15 against Northern Kentucky, Walton returned from an ankle injury that sidelined him for three games, and posted 16 points, one rebound, one assist and one steal. On December 19 against Youngstown State, Walton posted 10 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists, becoming the fifth player in Michigan program history to record a triple-double. The rebound and assist totals were career highs. On January 12 with leading scorer Caris LeVert sidelined, Michigan defeated (#3/#3) Maryland 70–67 as Walton had a 12-point/10-rebound double double. On January 23, Walton's 19-point, 12-rebound double-double helped Michigan defeat Nebraska 81–68, and his 13-point, 10-rebound double-double on January 30 against Penn State helped lead Michigan to victory in the inaugural B1G Super Saturday game at Madison Square Garden. On February 10, Michigan defeated Minnesota behind a career-high 26 points by Walton. Following the 2015–16 Big Ten season, he was listed as a third team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches and an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection by the media. On March 11, during the quarterfinals of the 2016 Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament against Indiana, Walton set a Big Ten Tournament single-game record with 12 assists. Walton finished the Big Ten Tournament with 22 assists over the course of the tournament, tying him for third on the all-time single tournament list with Brent Darby (2003), until Denzel Valentine went on to total 28 assists for the tournament the next day. On March 18, Michigan lost to No. 6 seed Notre Dame, 63–70. Walton recorded a career-high six steals, along with 10 points, eight assists and four rebounds.

External links

• Official Michigan Bio
• stats at ESPN
• stats at CBS Sports