If you've been around here for a while, and even if you haven't, you know how big of a fan I am of Will Cheddar.

Obviously, not a controversial statement.

Cheddar has gone from the least known of the Wolverine six-man freshman class of 2021 that was Tops nationally at that time,

to a true fan favorite and an outstanding leader and player for a Michigan team with high

expectations in this his final collegiate season. I thought, though, that the most quintessential

Will Cheddar Nuggets from this interaction, and you'll hear the interview momentarily,

came in Will and my conversation afterward. We were discussing his class schedule and this is second and final year of his

master's program. All of those classes for him right now include group work that's been the case

for a little while. And he shared that a couple of individuals in one of his groups, a group he's

worked with for some time now, did not realize he played basketball at Michigan until just a few days before we caught up.

Now, that story reflects a couple things to me.

One, the more fun one, that he's in such a unique master's program, environment and sustainability and ecosystem science,

that even on the campus was such a great blend of academic and athletic success,

there are some students so immersed in those group projects in that master's program that

this topic didn't come up.

That's the fun part.

The somewhat applicable part to Will and this season is that Will Cheddar is so in the

moment in everything he does that it didn't become a topic when he was with that group, when it was just some

passive time to have a conversation.

Will told us on this podcast a while back that he really enjoys practice because he can

throw himself fully into it, giving him a break from the real grind of his day-to-day life,

and that's the academic pursuits and the challenging ones he has.

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