A year ago this week, while much of the attention on Michigan men's basketball surrounded the

commitment of Hunter Dickinson and the chases for some other high-profile recruits, all of course

while waiting for some of those late non-conference buy games to get out of the way so we could get

back at a Big Ten play. Well, during this, the Wolverines picked up a new player. Brandon Wade committed to his hometown team, the Michigan Wolverines.

After electing to transfer from Duquesne, the Skyline product was an outstanding high school

player locally, and he did get some playing time as a freshman with a Duquesne program that

won 19 games and is ascending in a good league, the A-10.

Wade now a walk-on here at U of M had to sit out two semesters.

So he was officially available for the first time for this Michigan program on Christmas

Day.

He did not play in that win over Nebraska, and we don't know when we will see him for

the first time in a real-life game.

But Brandon's a young man who was a scholarship player for a good program in a good league.

So you may think, well, he's going to get less out of this experience.

And that may be from a playing time perspective.

But Brandon gave that up because he wanted more out of the entirety

of his experience at the college level. He talks fondly about his time at Duquesne, but as he'll

explain on this episode, that wasn't Michigan, it wasn't Ann Arbor, it wasn't home, and it wasn't

the perfect fit. The potential sacrifice of playing time, the certain, and fortunately for him, completed

sacrifice of a year without being able to play in games, all of that to him was worth it in

search of what felt best, and that was being at Michigan.

For a guy who grew up following Michigan athletics passionately, he wants to be in

...