Great read on Mark Donnal. If you have yet to read it, I highly suggest you do so. http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2016/02/column_1.html?utm_medium=twitter
He’s definitely been a bright spot in an otherwise rough year. The transformation has been stellar and all credit goes to Mark. Good work.
1 Like
We were just discussing him a couple of days ago. One member suggested that Mark would never be as good as Matt Costello. Good for Mark.
Either the same or a like-minded poster a couple months ago was adamant that Donnal was not worthy of a MAC scholarship, never mind a B1G one. Conference averages of 11 p/g, 5 rb/g, 58%/37%/73% shooting, 1.3 bl/g with two years of eligibility left after this one suggests otherwise.
1 Like
I was also once told that he isn’t even considered a big ten quality backup…I would say otherwise.
1 Like
Donnal puts together a good 2nd half and people are drawing conclusions off of it.
Let’s see him play like that consistently.
1 Like
Yeah I wonder why the kid was reclassified but people are forgetting that I guess.
Kid has improved thank goodness. He went from a heaping pile of dung to serviceable.
You go with Donnal on your team I’ll go with other Bigs in the B1G we will see who has it better.
This laughable at this point the great lengths everyone is going to defend him. He literally was ignored all game by a defensive game plan.
I was asserting that, while not making any final conclusions, we can draw certain inferences from 15 games of a B1G season (not one half). On the other hand, some posters prefer to insult Michigan players than concede quite obvious points – e.g., insulting Donnal rather than admitting they were wrong that he wasn’t worthy of a MAC scholarship.
2 Likes
Reclassified to get him out of the program quicker.
No one is saying he is an upper tier big 10 center. They merely said pointed out that various posters said he wasn’t worthy of a MAC offer and that he wasn’t even a B10 backup.
How could you take issue with those comments?
He made them…
Hahaha. Thank goodness. I didn’t know I was suppose to expect otherwise
It’s amazing the lengths some of our own “fans” will go to crap on the players. A couple of people point out that Donnal, contrary to what some said before the season, is better than “not worthy of a MAC offer.” And somehow those are fighting words? Unbelievable. Usually the sunshine-blowing crowd can’t be objective, but on this board, it’s pretty clear that the detractors can’t be objective.
And who calls anyone a “heaping pile of dung?”
1 Like
Not worthy of a MAC offer or he would flourish in the MAC? Which I believe is what I said a couple of weeks ago.
With that being said, he’s had performances this year that make me question that statement.
He is good enough for the Big Ten. He is in no way and should not be considered “elite” but he is good enough. He is rebounding much better and is active with out the ball. Most of his baskets is because he puts himself in position for an easy hoop. That is what really separates him from the rest of UM’s bigs. I would clearly take Hammons, Haas, Swanigan, Stone, Dodd, Carter, Bryant. etc. over him, but he is definitely active enough for me.
I wasn’t quoting you. I’m not even sure who made the exact comment or what it was. I was quoting the posts in this thread.
The point of this thread and the tone of the original posts was to suggest that Donnal has been a pleasant surprise. He’s not a world beater and he’s been wildly inconsistent. He doesn’t go up strong, and he doesn’t play very good defense. But he’s showing some promise, and he’s only a sophomore.
Alum he is a junior. He is listed as a Junior. His red shirt year was taken from him at the beginning of the year. Can he get it back, I’m sure he can but he is fighting for his life to stay at Michigan. As he should be
I understand that. Based on his play last year, that was probably the right thing to do. Maybe it was a motivational ploy. After all, Beilein didn’t have to officially reclassify him. He could have just given him the firm handshake after his 4th year. Regardless, he’s our best big by a good margin at the moment. Maybe others will catch up and/or surpass him before the end of next year.
I was referring to posts like the following direct quote from a certain poster here: “Donnal would struggle in D2 let alone D1.” There were plenty others along these lines.
2 Likes
FWIW - last April/May there were so many posts on these forums counting Donnal as one of the guaranteed transfers that would help reduce our scholarship situation via attrition. Many many negative things said about him and his game on this site. And his on-court performance made it hard to argue.
I will never contend that he is a top-tier big man in the conference. But I do think a lot of us should be eating crow for at least writing him off as a waste of roster space. The dude can play basketball, and the more outings he puts on tape like yesterday, the more it will open things up for this offense (even if his stat lines don’t compare).
I think we’re allowed to be happy/proud at the steps he has taken in his game, while also hoping that in future years we can upgrade the talent at the position and the guys on the roster who are playing behind him currently.