At the beginning of the summer, when American Jewish college basketball player Danny Wolf transferred to the University of Michigan, no one believed that in January he would be talked about as a leading candidate to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft . But it happens - and to be honest, with great reason. The Jewish center continues his fantastic start to the season with the Wolverines - and on Saturday night he delivered another extraordinary performance.
Wolf scored a season-high 21 points and also added 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 blocks (the most by a Michigan player since Ekpe Udoh in 2008) en route to an 85-74 win over Southern California. This is, listen carefully, a statistical line (13 points, 7 assists and at least 6 blocks in a single game) that has not been seen in the NCAA (in Division 1) since 2010 (!).
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Danny Wolf is a center for the University of Michigan Wolverines
(Photo: Jose Juarez/AP)
"Another great performance by Danny Wolf," wrote Sports Illustrated. "It's hard to overstate how much Danny's transition from Yale has had an impact this season. Michigan looks like a team that could compete for the Big 10 Conference championship, and that's largely because of him."
In a mock draft by the NBA Draft Room website, Wolf reached a record ranking last month - 39th place (where, by the way, Deni Avdija's Portland is currently ranked).
Southern California coach Eric Musselman also admitted that there is no reason why we won't see him in the best league in the world next year. "He will be in the NBA," Musselman claimed. "He has worked on his game and is so efficient. Shoots 9 of 12 from the field, and he controls every aspect of the game - points, rebounds and assists. He is simply an NBA player, that's clear as day."
In 13 games this season in the NCAA, Wolf is averaging 11.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.4 blocks per game.
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It was also a great game Saturday night for Israel's national team player, Yarden Garzon, who scored 19 points in Indiana's 73-62 loss to UCLA - one of the best colleges in the US. Gal Raviv, in her first college season, led Quinnipiac to a 64-52 win over Marist with 16 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals.