Michigan’s junior point guard Zavier Simpson has been named a semifinalist for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year award.
Simpson is one of 10 semifinalists for the award. The junior guard averages 1.5 steals per contest, good enough for sixth in the Big Ten. Likewise, Simpson leads the Big Ten in defensive win shares at 2.4.
This comes just one day after freshman David DeJulius called Simpson, “the greatest thing to ever happen to my game” because of how tough the junior guard has been on him in practice.