Michigan Basketball: Tre Donaldson Gearing Up For a Special Game
Throughout the past month, every time Michigan basketball has needed a clutch shot, Tre Donaldson has made it. The coast-to-coast, game-winning layup against Maryland. The 3-pointer to take the lead against UC San Diego. The acrobatic prayer thrown in against Texas A&M to extend the lead late. If not for Donaldson, the Wolverines would not be where they are today.
In almost storybook fashion, the Wolverines’ point guard now finds himself squaring off with the Auburn Tigers, who are not just the number one overall seed, but Tre’s former team. He spent his first two years of college with the Tigers, where he averaged less than 20 minutes per game.
Donaldson put up a respectable 6.7 points and 3.2 assists per game last year off the bench, but has seen his role expand immensely in his first season with Michigan basketball, averaging 11.5 points and 4.2 assists per game. This is also the deepest run in the tournament he’s made thus far, as his Auburn Tigers lost in the second round to Houston when he was a freshman and were upset last year by Danny Wolf’s Yale Bulldogs in the first round.
Things could not have been scripted better for Tre Donaldson. The Tallahassee native will be back in the South when the team plays in Atlanta on Friday, against his former teammates, coaches, and managers. Now, playing the best basketball of his career, he has a chance to put on a show. When Donaldson left Auburn, the team wasn’t offering him the role he was looking for. Friday night, we’ll see if he can roll past them in the tournament.
