{"id":225727,"date":"2025-10-15T04:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T04:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/225727\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T04:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T04:57:07","slug":"freshman-trey-mckenny-built-for-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/225727\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Trey McKenny built for Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Basketball for the state of Michigan, a consensus top-25 recruit and a McDonald\u2019s All-American \u2014 freshman guard Trey McKenny stepped<\/a> onto the No. 7 Michigan men\u2019s basketball team as \u2018that guy\u2019 in high school.<\/p>\n

But even as a blue-chip recruit, McKenny joins a Wolverine squad littered with talent. With other oversized guards in the form of graduate Nimari Burnett and senior Roddy Gayle Jr. as well as other big-time names like graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg, McKenny\u2019s position as the one star gets reduced. It could have taken a season or longer adjusting to a more backseat role, but luckily, no one has anything but praise for his development and team camaraderie so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like any freshman, (McKenny) has really good days and then he has some other subpar days just like everyone on our roster,\u201d Michigan coach Dusty May said Sept. 30. \u201cBut he\u2019s been awesome to coach. He wants to be better. He wants to win. He loves representing Michigan. Trey McKinney is a lot of what\u2019s right about college basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, McKenny\u2019s high school resume speaks for itself. As a bonafide scorer, he averaged 23.8 points per game senior year while shooting 42% from behind the arc. Not just a shooting threat, McKenny also averaged 2.9 assists while grabbing 10.2 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

Slimming down by 18 pounds throughout the offseason while increasing his athleticism, McKenny\u2019s frame alone synergizes well with May\u2019s fast-paced offense. Standing at 6-foot-4, McKenny has the tools to become a weapon downhill and in the post against smaller guards. Further, his deep-range shooting opens up the court and makes him a dangerous inverted pick-and-roll player.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just ahead of the curve: physically, high IQ shoots the ball at an elite level, (in) all three levels,\u201d Burnett said Thursday at Big Ten Media Days. \u201cYou could just see that he\u2019s above, especially in a high school, that he was above in those areas and he\u2019s going to help tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensively, McKenny\u2019s physical traits also lend themselves well to the Wolverines\u2019 style of play. With a 6-foot-9 wingspan, McKenny will thrive in the switch-heavy defense Michigan likes to employ, even when he has to pick up the opposing teams\u2019 forwards.<\/p>\n

And while McKenny wasn\u2019t a point guard in high school, May\u2019s offense requires all but select centers to be able to carry the ball up the floor \u2014 a skill that McKenny has improved greatly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe uniqueness with (McKenny) is just his ability to be able to facilitate as well as score,\u201d Gayle said. \u201cEverybody knows him as a great scorer, but this summer, he\u2019s taken long strides of being a facilitator, being able to read the defenses and be able to kind of pinpoint passes, even playing some backup point guard, especially with some of the guys dealing with sicknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this together \u2014 the shooting, the defense, the size and the feel for the game \u2014 encapsulates exactly what the Wolverines are looking for from a high profile recruit, versatility. Some days McKenny will start, and some days for the first time in his young career he\u2019ll come off the bench. Some days he\u2019ll have to be a 3-and-D guy and others he\u2019ll be the main engine of the offense. But regardless of his role, McKenny should and will be expected to be a key contributing member of the Wolverines.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated articles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr. Basketball for the state of Michigan, a consensus top-25 recruit and a McDonald\u2019s All-American \u2014 freshman guard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":["post-225727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}