KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The subject is Michigan’s D.J. Wilson, the kid with the wild, funky hair and the short shorts and the incredible potential. His mother is on the phone, talking about one of the breakout stars of March Madness.
“Some people don’t understand him,” Taniya Ballard is saying about her only son.
“How would you describe him?” I ask.
She laughs and pauses and laughs again.
“Hmm,” she said. “That’s hard.”
Because D.J. Wilson defies an easy, singular definition. He is not a one-word kid. Not the way he is playing for the Wolverines, who will play Oregon on Thursday night in the Sweet 16.