Michigan basketball's Hunter Dickinson will return for "one last ride," hoping to lead the Wolverines to a National Championship. He explained his decision to Field of 68's Jeff Goodman.
"I'm coming back to Michigan for one more year," Dickinson said. "There was a lot of flip flopping for me. It wa a really tough decision for me ... I spent a lot of nights up at night thinking about this decision. I just really felt like coming back doing one more year was the safest approach for me.
"I really enjoyed last year. That was something that was a big factor — the guys, the team. Even though we didn't have a normal year because of COVID and everything, I really enjoyed the basketball part of things. Next year, hopefully having it be a more normal year, I felt like giving it one more year was the best option for me."
The biggest thing NBA teams want him to do is make threes for an entire season, he said, even though he did well in individual workouts. Using the right hand, guarding ball screens, switches and hard hedges were all aspects they wanted to see improved — not a surprise — and he's continued to improve and work on them.
There were a couple weeks, he added, that he felt ready to go, but coming back to Michigan was the "last flip-flop."
"The biggest factor for me was the places the teams had me picked was probably mid second round pick, late 40s. Teams were saying if you come back for one more year, you're really going to have to play your way out of the first round," he said. "For me, I really feel like I'm a first round talent. Being end of second round wasn't something I wanted to be.
"Then, that college experience. Michigan is known for football and the stadium. Being able to go to some of the football games ... that's one of the reasons I chose Michigan. The alumni base, the support, the social aspect to Michigan is really underrated. It's something I missed out on and something I was upset I missed out on, so being able to kind of experience that next year was something that was really important to me."
He also has another shot at the National Championship. The Elite Eight was a great accomplishment, as was the Big Ten title, but he's ready to go bigger under Juwan Howard, who he calls "one of the best human beings I've ever been around."
"With Coach Howard now, this new era of Michigan basketball, obviously we're competing for Big Ten championships because it's one of our goals," he said. "Every year we're in consideration for a National Championship. This year coming up is going to be no different, I think.
"The team we have is really underrated right now, like it was last year. There are some polls where people [only] have us in the top 25. That's okay. I'm not really worried about that right now. I'm just excited to get better with the guys over the summer, keep improving every day, get better, bring the young guys and new transfers along and get that chemistry we had with last year's team."
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
