Longtime Michigan basketball fan Danny Wolf helped guide the program to a Big Ten Tournament Championship and Sweet Sixteen during his lone season with the Wolverines in 2024-25.
Now, the 7-footer is showcasing his rare blend of size and skills at the 2025 NBA Combine. It's the latest step for Wolf, whose career has taken an unusual trajectory for someone now projected as a first-round pick.
"I'm lucky to be here. My basketball journey was anything but linear. It was extremely up and down," Wolf told media at the Combine. "I didn't play much my freshman year [of high school]. I don't even think I played sophomore year. Barely played junior year was canceled due to COVID.
"When I tell my guys that I'm working out with in LA for pre-Draft that I averaged three or four points in high school, no one believes me. A lot of the other guys in this room averaged 20 a game in high school or were one-and-dones."
Wolf came off the bench as a freshman at Yale, averaging 2.6 points and 2.1 rebounds in 2022-23. Then he exploded onto the national scene as a sophomore, when he became a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection as he led the Bulldogs to an NCAA Tournament berth and first-round upset over Auburn.
He followed that with All-Big Ten play last winter at Michigan.
"I was lucky to have great coaches along the way to help me develop and had a great two years at Yale and had an amazing year at Michigan," Wolf said. "I'm super thankful for everyone that's helped me get here."
In Ann Arbor, Wolf played in a formidable frontcourt alongside fellow 7-footer Vlad Goldin, who is also representing the program at the NBA Combine.
"At Michigan I played predominantly at the '4' and was in a bunch of ball screen actions and DHOs [dribble hand-offs] and played with another big and expanded my game in that sense," Wolf said.
"… At first, we had a lot of shooting and there was a bunch of spacing and you had a bunch of high-level guys around us that made it work. And then Vlad has some of the best hands and some of the best finishing in all of college basketball and it made everything so seamless."
Though the NBA Combine is ongoing, many publications see Wolf as a first-round pick. The Athletic has him going 15th, CBS has him going 18th and ESPN thinks he'll hear his name called at No. 17 overall.
"Deep down I always knew it would be possible, and I'm just super appreciative of the position I'm in today," Wolf said of his basketball journey. "There's a lot of more work to be done, but it's been an awesome journey thus far."
The 2025 NBA Draft Combine will finish May 18, and the 2025 NBA Draft begins June 25.