Scholar Stories: Wilson Seeks to Turn U-M Hoops Dream into NBA Reality
10/14/2020 10:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Features
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Absopure.
By Annie Schnoll
Luke Wilson has been around the game of basketball his entire life. It is that passion that keeps him coming back to the court day after day.
Every basketball player wants to see the floor. They dream of hitting the game-winning shot, of hoisting a championship trophy or making in the professional ranks. Yet for some who do not have the opportunity to hear their name in the starting lineup, simply having a spot on the team is a dream come true.
Wilson, a senior from Boulder, Colo., has only played in 18 games for the University of Michigan men's basketball team, all off the bench. He has found an invaluable role as a member of the scout team, a group of hard-working, often-overlooked individuals whose sole job is to prepare their teammates for the opponents they are about to play.
It's a role that Wilson relishes.
"I love playing against our actual starting five and showing them plays that they have never seen, and seeing our own team progress," he explained. "That's something that is really special."
Because of this, Wilson sees the game differently than most, and it is this experience that will hopefully lead him to land a job either as a coach or in the front office of an NBA franchise.
His academics play a big role in that. He is on track to graduate with a degree in sport management and a minor in business, a competitive and coveted two-year program at the Ross School of Business. While Wilson did not need a minor to graduate, he decided to pursue it anyway with the confidence that it would be manageable and would help him in his career aspirations.
A two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, Wilson gained a natural interest in the sport management program because of his prior basketball surroundings and passion, and declared for the major through the School of Kinesiology upon arriving at Michigan.
The educational aspects of balancing both programs with basketball he always saw as important to make time for, he knows it will put him ahead when he enters the industry next year. It also does not hurt that his coach, Juwan Howard, has an extensive background in the NBA both as a player and a coach.
"Over the past three years, being a player and kind of seeing things from the bench, I've been able to analyze the game a lot differently and see other aspects of it," Wilson said. "And I always find myself helping my teammates or giving insight to the coaches. I'm not even trying, it's just something I've been doing. It makes me think that coaching is something that I should pursue. It's got my mind on it."
While Wilson sees the day-to-day opportunity to help out his teammates as special, a couple moments that have really stood out to him in his college career have been the run to the national championship game in 2018 and the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament last November in the Bahamas.
To be a part of such important moments in Michigan basketball's long and storied history is not lost on him. Wilson grew up as a diehard Michigan fan as his parents lived in the state for many years before moving to Colorado. He ultimately chose Michigan over D-II and D-III offers even though he did not have a spot on the team when he initially committed. He was drawn to the prestigious academics, but also the opportunity to try out and eventually make the team.
The entire experience at the Battle 4 Atlantis really stood out to him as an opportunity to get to know Howard and to understand the continued importance of his role on the team.
"He is all about the players," Wilson said of Howard. "He wants to learn from us as much as we learn from him. He's really invested in us. That really went a long way. We wanted to play for him as much as he wanted to coach for us. It was something really special because no one really put us on the map."
Looking ahead to this season, Wilson has put a lot of thought into his role as a senior leader on the team and looks to take advantage of the opportunities to contribute and prove himself a role model to the younger players.
"I'm not afraid to give my insight. I always want to help the team as much as I can," Wilson said. "I've kind of always had that in me. I really want to take that to the next level, really be a leader, and I think the team understands that. At the end of the day, I'm here just to help the team win in any way possible and whatever I can do to make that happen, I'm extremely happy to do. That's just how I look at it."
Wilson's selfless attitude and willingness to contribute in all sorts of ways make him an extremely valued member of the team. However, Wilson views his role and the opportunity given to him by Michigan as a dream come true.
"To have that dream as a kid of playing on the team, it's something I've always wanted to do, but it was kind of an outlandish dream," he said. "A lot of things went my way, a lot of people helped me, I had a lot of luck, and I was able to make it to walk on to the basketball team, which is unreal. Just to think about how I wanted to do this when I was 5, and now I'm able to do it when I'm 21, I'm just really grateful and thankful for everyone who has helped me get here."
