Everything Dusty May said after Michigan's 101-83 win over Maryland

Opening Statement

Give Maryland credit, I thought the first half, they played really good basketball, and obviously, their shot-making was at an elite level. It was a night where we had to counter their shot-making with our shot-making to hang around until we were able to get our defense ignited. We got contributions from a lot of guys. Obviously, the two guys that were up here (Elliot Cadeau and Yaxel Lendeborg) played exceptional floor games. But the beautiful thing about these guys, they believe, they trust and believe and respect each other’s unique talents that when one guy gets it going, they play through that guy because they also understand that, once we cause that overreaction, then that’s all we needed. So we played through Yax, and then as we played through him more and more, they gave him that much more attention and he just made the right plays. That’s the best part about this group. They’re all about winning, and they just made the right plays. Obviously, we weren’t perfect, but when you see 28 assists on 50 made baskets, it’s a tribute to a very unselfish basketball team.

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On whether the team switched things up defensively

Yeah, our assistant coaches huddled at halftime and talked about a couple of different coverages and a couple of different matchups, and I thought the players were able to carry that on to the court and execute it. It started with challenging more catches, our ball pressure got better. We got in foul trouble in the first half so we had to pull back our aggressiveness a little bit because we didn’t want them to shoot a bunch of free throws. In the second half, we weren’t in foul trouble. I thought our ball pressure got better, and we challenged—it was just harder for Coit to get his catches. Hopefully, that had a cumulative effect because he had a heckuva game.

On building his team by sharing the basketball

As a coaching staff, everything’s not important to us, but there are a few things that are paramount to play at Michigan. In our program, we all share that philosophy in recruiting, and once they get here, every minute of every day when we’re on the court together. The guys that we have bought into that vision and messaging before they got here, and, luckily, nothing’s changed. It’s very difficult to be all about winning in today’s climate, and our group continues to be all about winning.

On Pharrel Payne going down for Maryland changing the game

I mean, obviously, Payne, you have to account for him at all times. I thought his ball screens were really effective. He was physical and then his ability to get it in the post and score and go through Adai a couple times, I thought it got us on our heels. Most importantly, early in the game, he caused some overreactions, and he sprayed that thing out and got his shooters open shots. That’s just the flow of the game, but he’s a weapon. He’s a dangerous player. Praying that this is just a, you know, a half he misses instead of a season or whatever the case, but he’s a warrior. He’s a winner. Whatever it is. I’m sure their approach will be good, so that he’s gonna grow from it. Had a fortuitous break if you want to call it—I don’t even want to call it that, but yeah, he was a load, just put it that way.

On the team’s composure

They had some plays not necessarily after the whistle, but some physical stuff. I thought we knew coming into it that these guys play hard and physical. It could get chippy when you’re as aggressive going to the glass as they are because every single shot that goes up is feudal warfare in the middle. There’s no archers. It’s just straight mucking it up, Braveheart style.

And so we knew that and it can get chippy, I thought our guys did a great job of maintaining their composure not giving Maryland any free points or any of our guys being on the bench because of irrational decision-making.

On what went well for Michigan despite Maryland shooting well

We got in transition and I thought our bigs ran which caused the defense to collapse towards the paint. We made shots and I thought we needed our shooting tonight. I thought we made shots, but they were also mostly a paint touch or in-rhythm threes and we have a good shooting team, whenever we can do that. But Maryland, I thought Maryland played hard. I thought they obviously have some young guys that don’t have the level of experience that we have across the board. But I thought they competed, and obviousl,y the final score is not indicative of how close this game was.

On the bench production in the second half

We talk about it in-house We have nine starters. We don’t make a big deal out of it because our guys don’t really care. I mean, Roddy Gayle is a fourth-year player that’s very accomplished as a scorer in all facets. He just wants to win and be a part of something bigger than himself. And yeah halftime. I said that this is probably the least production we’ve gotten out of our bench this year.

Obviously, the second half, those guys came in and Trey McKenney missed a couple shotst that he typically makes, but I thought his defense and his energy. Once again, when it’s not going for you, turn all focus towards that, I thought he was all about winning. Same thing with Will Tschetter, those Will Tschetter screens, they’re not gonna show up in any box score, but if you went back and looked at the film at all those baskets, Yax was delivering the ball to Adai, those were because of Will’s screens and the spacing and the gravity he provides. So, like I said, our guys, they want to be in big games. They want to be playing in meaningful games late in the year. That’s the cost of sacrifice and minutes and whatnot. Especially when a couple guys had it going because we played Yax, LJ and these guys a lot more than we typically do because they were in such a good flow.

On the impact of the defense changing when Payne and Washington went out

You know, they were changing defenses so frequently, but, obviously, when you take Payne off their team, their rim protection and their physicality aren’t gonna be the same. I thought in the first half, he jumped a couple of times and even landed, but he shows his hands so well. He’s so physical with his chest that we missed some shots that we normally make. I think coming into the game, we were number one in the country in two-point percentage, and we missed a lot of baskets around the rim in the first half that we usually make. We’ve got to finish through power and all the stuff we work on, but most importantly, I thought it’s because of his physicality and his aggressiveness, just initiating the contact on those dump downs and whatnot.