Every scholarship player on the 2023–24 Michigan men’s basketball squad will have a player profile released by Maize n Brew as part of our preseason coverage leading up to the collegiate basketball season. In order to estimate how big of an influence they will have this season, we will look at what they accomplished in past seasons.
We’ll examine graduate transfer Nimari Burnett today.
The Chicago native was a highly-touted high school recruit who played high school basketball at Prolific Prep in California. He was a four-star combo guard who was ranked just outside the top-30 in the 2020 class on the 247Sports composite. He began up his undergraduate career at Texas Tech and was a McDonald’s All-American. He played in 12 games during his rookie season, averaging 17.7 minutes per game, 5.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.4 steals.
After injuring his ACL, Burnett missed the whole 2021–2022 season and switched to Alabama for the 2022–2023 campaign. He was a crucial part of the Nate Oats squad that won the top seed in the competition.
Burnett played in 27 games, nine of which he started, despite missing a little more than a month due to a wrist injury. He averaged 5.6 points and 2.0 rebounds in just under 15 minutes per game while shooting 36.8 percent from the field, 32.1 percent from three, and 78 percent from the line.
Burnett was the first player to pledge in late March and entered the portal at the end of the season. In an interview with MSTV’s Ed Kengerski, Burnett said that he and Juwan Howard have a long history of friendship. Burnett visited Howard’s summer camp as a youngster, and the Burnetts and Howards later became close family friends. Nimari also spent time with Jace and Jett during his youth.
Burnett excels at taking advantage of poor closeouts and diving into the centre of the lane to score many of his goals near the rim. He’s also a great cutter off the ball, setting himself up for easy baskets with bold cuts.
Burnett is a decent defender as well. He’s got good size at shooting guard at 6-foot-4, and uses his length and quick hands to corral steals and start the fast break.
Burnett also plays solid defence. At 6-foot-4, he is a decent shooting guard with length and quick hands that help him gather steals and initiate fast breaks.
When asked to describe his position, Burnett responded, “I would say a voice and a presence on the defensive end and a guy that can do it all on the offensive end and impact winning in multiple ways.”
In response to a question about what the transfers bring, assistant coach Saddi Washington said: “They bring a level of maturity to the locker room, they bring a level of experience, especially with Nimari and Olivier (Nkamhoua) in terms of winning championships, postseason play, playing at a high level…they understand what it takes to be a next level team, and we’re going to draw on them for that.
This squad doesn’t appear to have a lot of guard depth. Burnett looks to be installed as the first-team shooting guard, mainly due to his scoring prowess and somewhat out of necessity. Only George Washington III, a rookie, is a genuine combo guard, but if the Wolverines accumulate fouls, Jace Howard and Youssef Khayat may be called upon to play the two off the bench.
Burnett has performed admirably as a reserve throughout his collegiate career, but as a graduate student, he will be expected to take on a more significant leadership position and contribute more on both sides of the court. With Michigan’s top three scorers from 2022 to 2023 all on the roster, points will need to come from someplace.
As a former McDonald’s All-American, Burnett came into college basketball with a lot of fanfare, but due to his injury history, he hasn’t really lived up to that potential.
He has an opportunity to flourish in a larger role and more minutes at Michigan. In college basketball, you are only as good as your guards; perhaps, Burnett can use his knowledge from Texas Tech and Alabama to assist this team play winning basketball.
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