Sam Walters enters transfer portal after one season with Michigan Basketball

After one season with the Michigan Wolverines, sharpshooting forward Sam Walters has entered the transfer portal:

After one season with the Michigan Wolverines , forward Sam Walters has entered the transfer portal.

Playing 12.7 minutes per game in 23 games, the 6-foot-10 sophomore averaged five points and 1.6 rebounds per game while shooting 68.8 percent from the field, 36.6 percent from three and 73.7 percent from the free throw line.

Walters was one of many players to transfer to Michigan last offseason. He spent his freshman season with an Alabama team that went to the Final Four.

The Florida native was a key bench piece for the Wolverines this season, often swinging momentum in Michigan’s favor after knocking down a few threes and firing up the Crisler Center crowd. Walters had a season-high 13 points in the win against Tarleton State , and tied that mark in the win over Western Kentucky .

Walters is the type of role player that good teams need in college basketball. Three-point specialists are valuable in this sport, especially in a conference like the Big Ten where offense can be hard to come by against defenses that pack the paint.

He was always able to get his shot off with his big frame, but Walters didn’t do much else. His minutes were partially limited because of his defensive limitations — he struggled against forwards smaller and quicker than him, was a bit late on rotations, and didn’t always move his feet well on that side of the floor.

Walters hadn’t appeared in a game since Feb. 8 due to a back injury that the program didn’t get into specifics about. Before Michigan’s home finale, a source told Maize n Brew Walters was questionable for the Big Ten Tournament and beyond and that he had been talking to both Michigan doctors and family doctors.

It would have been nice to have Walters for the NCAA Tournament, and Walters could have grown into a starter in Ann Arbor. There’s a world where he improved as a shot creator, got better from inside the arc, and became the program’s next Duncan Robinson. But Walters has enough tape to draw plenty of interest from Power 4 programs. Pretty much every team could use a 6-foot-10 guy who can shoot threes at a reliable clip.

We wish Walters the best of luck with the rest of his collegiate career and beyond.