At this point in his career, Michigan basketball wing Nimari Burnett is done expecting anything.

After all, very little has gone the way he thought it would since the days he was a top-50 consensus player in the nation and 2020 McDonald's All-American committed to Texas Tech.

The Chicago native began his career in Lubbock, Texas, but struggled to consistently crack the playing rotation as he appeared in just 12 games and averaged 5.3 points in a year ended by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It precipitated a transfer to play for Alabama and Nate Oats. His first year ended before it began when he suffered a torn ACL in September and underwent season-ending surgery without ever taking the court for the Crimson Tide.

The following year, in 2022-23, Burnett was back, however he suffered a mid-season wrist injury. It sidelined him for more than a month and he finished the year averaging 5.6 points across 27 games.

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That led to last year, his first in Ann Arbor, which statistically was his best at 9.6 points per game on 39.9% FG shooting, but it was hard to feel anything was truly positive about the Wolverines 2023-24 campaign, as they went 8-24 (their most losses in a single season in program history) which included a school-worst 3-17 record in Big Ten play.

Burnett, already a graduate student, went through senior day ceremonies on the final home game of the year; he was unsure about where he’d play basketball in the year to come but wanted to make sure he said farewell to the college game just in case.

He watched as Juwan Howard got fired after five seasons and Dusty May got hired at U-M a few weeks later.

During that time, Burnett went through the NBA draft process for two reasons. The first was to get feedback on where scouts would like to see his game improve. The second was to give himself some time to process the past season.

In the end, Burnett came to the same realization he did about 12 months prior when he committed to Howard: Ann Arbor was the place he wanted to be.

“I can tell how much he loves the game of basketball and I felt like that we really have that in common,” Burnett said about May to Brian Boesch on a recent episode of the program’s in-house podcast, ‘Defend The Block.’ “Not only on the court, but off the court, I do nothing but basketball. And I was like ‘hey coach, we got that in common’ so that’s been seamless already.”

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Burnett said he has spent the past few months studying his coach’s approach to the game; noting how he likes to “put points on the board, but also (one) can see a defensive intensity is in there as well.”

The free-flowing style of offense that May ran at Florida Atlantic was one of the top appeals for Burnett to stay with the Wolverines. Burnett explained when he arrived in Ann Arbor last year his ability to put the ball on the deck and get downhill is a part of his game “many people haven’t seen yet … that I’m looking forward to show I improved.”

But a close second reason would be the staff May put together.

Burnett has connections with a number of them. He knows Mike Boynton, former Oklahoma State coach, from his time in the Big 12. He's known Justin Joyner via the recruiting trail for years and has bonded with former Georgia assistant Akeem Miskdeen as fellow Chicago natives.

Each layer was essential for Burnett, who technically could have another season after this if he exercised both his medical redshirt and COVID-19 extra year of eligibility, but in all likelihood, this will be his final collegiate campaign.

He’s one of just three players to stay as holdovers from the previous regime — Will Tschetter and former captain Jace Howard are the others — and just as there’s a reason he chose May, there’s a reason May kept him around.

“Guys you could leave at your house for a month and have no concern they’re throwing a Project X party,” May said of the returning players’ character earlier this month. “They’re great guys who represent this place well and we’re very gracious they stayed — going to help us and hopefully hang a banner on their way out.”

That’s certainly the hope for Burnett, who carries himself well for a player who’s had one setback after another. A man of faith, Burnett said he leaned on exactly that the past 12 months, in particular for guidance when making his decision on whether or not to return.

It’s not that he didn’t have positive moments from last season — Burnett scored in double figures 15 times, which included 21 at Madison Square Garden against Saint Johns, 14 in consecutive wins vs. Eastern Michigan and Iowa and had three more games with 15 points or more (17 in a loss to Minnesota, 18 in a loss to Nebraska and 15 in a loss to Northwestern) — however, U-M was just 4-11 in those contests.

“Knowing what eventually leads to losing and trying to avoid that,” Burnett said of the lessons he took away. “Me and Will, guys that have been around the college experience and who are pretty vocal, I feel like we can do a good job heading into this year getting a new group ready.

“I think the best teams are the ones that everybody is a leader, so I’m looking for where everybody can have a say in producing this year and doing whatever it takes to win.”

It’s been a winding road for Burnett, who‘s injured both his wrist and his knee as he’s gone through three different schools and is on his fourth different head coach in the past five seasons.

But with that time and journey comes connections. He played with U-M’s expected star center, Vlad Golden, at Texas Tech in 2020-21 and was one of the primary players who recruited Sam Walters (now on U-M) to Alabama two years ago.

He’ll be the first to admit he did not expect to be here at this point, but that doesn’t mean he won’t make the most of it. Burnett got specific feedback from the movers and shakers at the next level and now knows what he needs to do in order to get there.

“Using that as motivation,” Burnett said of the NBA feedback. “To prepare me for whatever is to come.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Nimari Burnett has plenty of motivation in Round 2 with Michigan