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'He's a fighter': Michigan freshman Winters Grady 'should have a really great career here'

clayton-sayfieby: Clayton Sayfie06/17/25CSayf23
Four-star SF Winters Grady should play as a freshman. (photo credit - MIchigan basketball)
Four-star SF Winters Grady should play as a freshman. (photo credit - MIchigan basketball)

Michigan Wolverines basketball freshman guard Winters Grady is on campus for summer workouts, and as he’s posted on social media, he’s ready to “work.”

Michigan head coach Dusty May said the members of his star-studded freshman class needs to come and add their “special sauce” within their roles in their first season. For Grady, that means knocking down outside shots.

Grady is as well-suited as anyone to come in and play a role right away, having done so at the high school level at powerhouse Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep. So while his shooting prowess is important, doing the little things will also be paramount.

“I think he’s a competitor,” assistant coach Justin Joyner said on the ‘Defend The Block’ podcast with host Brian Boesch. “He’s a fighter. He’s not a guy that it’s come easy for. Obviously, he has a great skill set, he’s big, he’s strong, he can really shoot the ball, he can really score the ball.

“But I think his experience as a junior at Prolific Prep really prepared him for the role that he’s going to play here. He played with [BYU’s] AJ Dybantsa, he played with [2026 five-star] Tyran Stokes, he played with some really high-level guys — and he had to find a way to be a factor on a really good Prolific Prep team as a junior.

“To do that, he had to defend, he had to rebound, he had to make open shots, he had to be really efficient in his opportunities. And by doing that, he got more opportunities.”

There’s more to Grady’s game than those things, however, and they’ll show up as his career at Michigan unfolds.

“That’s a great place to start for him,” Joyner continued. “As he expands his game, I think you’ll see a guy that can score the ball in a lot of different ways, not just as a shooter.

“I think you’ll see a guy that’s really committed to the craft, and a guy who’s going to continue to grow as a teammate, grow as a part of a program that is certainly bigger than himself, like all freshmen need to understand.

“He should have a really great career here.”

Michigan has four other freshmen in the 2025 haul, including forward Oscar Goodman, who enrolled early with the program last semester. Four-star guard Trey McKenney, small forward Patrick Liburd and center Malick Kordel out of Germany are the other members.

The goal for that group early in their Michigan careers is to grind early and often to earn the trust of their teammates.

“The best way to do it as a freshman, just because you’re not going to be as comfortable leading with your voice, is to put your head down and work,” Joyner said. “Show your teammates how much it matters. Understand that you’re going to have great days, understand that you’re not going to have great days — and whatever happens, you gotta show up the next day with a focus, with an energy and with a consistency.

“I think that’s the hard part. Like with [sophomore guard] L.J. [Cason], there are going to be a lot of bumps. You can’t break. You can bend, but you can’t break. You gotta bounce back, and you gotta really focus on stacking great days. If our freshmen do that this summer, they’ll get better — most importantly — but I also think they’ll gain equity within our program and with our veterans.”

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