The Records Zavier Simpson Broke During His Illustrious Michigan Career
Senior point guard Zavier Simpson's career has come to an end with the Michigan Wolverines' basketball program, with the Lima, Ohio, native setting several new school records during his final year in Ann Arbor.
His national assist numbers were well-documented this season (his 7.9 dimes per game finished third nationally, behind the eight that North Carolina A&T's Kameron Langley and UT Rio Grande Valley's Javon Levi each posted), but take on a bit more significance when examining where his season/career statistics rank in the Michigan record books.
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An impressive statistic unrelated to assists that Simpson became the program's all-time leader in is total games played.
The 6-0 point guard competed in 30 contests this year to give him 146 for his career, overtaking Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman's (2014-18) previous school record of 144.
Simpson also wrapped up his collegiate tenure with 667 career assists, which are the second most in Michigan history behind the 731 that Gary Grant accumulated from 1984-88.
If the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments would have occurred, Simpson would have needed 64 more assists to match Grant's all-time mark, a feat that would have been incredibly difficult to reach.
A passing statistic the Ohio native did best Grant in, however, is U-M's assists per game in a season record.
The 6.8 Grant averaged during the 1987-88 campaign had been the best mark in Michigan history, but Simpson's 7.9 this year shattered that total by more than a full assist.
To further exemplify how impressive the senior's 7.9 total was this year, consider this: prior to this season, there had only been seven campaigns in U-M history that had seen a player average more than 5.9 assists per outing.
Simpson enjoyed eight different games this year that saw him rack up 10 or more dimes (a school record), giving him 11 such contests for his career (second most in program history).
Darius Morris (2009-11) compiled 10 or more assists seven times as a sophomore in 2010-11, which had been the previous Michigan record.
Simpson's season-high 14 dimes in the Nov. 22 win over Houston Baptist were tied for the second most in a game ever at U-M, only trailing Derrick Walton's (2013-17) all-time mark of 16 in a 2017 blowout win at Nebraska.
A statistic that was unfortunately interrupted in a big way by the cancellation of the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments was Simpson's pursuit of Trey Burke's (2011-13) single-season assist record of 260 in 2012-13.
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