Everything Dusty May said after Michigan's 121-78 win over Oakland

Opening Statement

I want to begin by showing gratitude to our fans, a Monday night late tip. I thought the energy was off the charts. We felt the environment. I do think our players gave them something to cheer for, a very unselfish effort by us. I thought we looked connected. We looked determined to fix some things. And overall, I thought we did some really nice things with a long way to go for us to be as good as we can possibly be.

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On his thoughts on the offense

I thought Charlie May was dynamite. Beat you guys to the punch. I like our passing ability. We have such a great passing team as a whole, and we’re not going to take that for granted. It’s one thing to have guys who are capable of passing, and we have guys who are extremely adept at passing, but they also enjoy it and they take pride in it. I thought there were a few times when we turned down pretty good looks because we were too eager to pass it, but I’ll take that any day twice on Sunday. Overall, just proud that you come out, first game of the year, you want to play really well, and I thought we played for each other.

On whether it’ll be harder to keep expectations in check after the game

No, not at all. Every game, every possession is its own entity. Every game has its own life and history to itself. We can come out the next game and miss all those shots and whatnot. We’re just trying to get to the point where when the shots are going in, we’re able to separate, and the nights the shots aren’t going in. We’re still tough enough defensively, we’re still gritty enough on the glass to find a way to win when things aren’t going as smoothly as they did tonight.

On raising the Big Ten Tournament championship banner pregame

Well, it’s tough for me personally to do it on a night whenever you’re playing the following season. I haven’t thought too much about it, to be honest. It’s obviously very cool. I’m extremely proud to be a small part of Michigan basketball history and lore, and the group that came together last year to do that took a lot of perseverance. We took a lot of hits throughout the process, and they just stayed the course and stayed together. Our season’s so long, and so I’m sure we’ll refer back to a lot of those lessons, but to be honest, it’s cool to see that you’re a part of it, but we were more focused on Oakland and what we need to do to get better.

On Morez Johnson Jr.’s performance and his ceiling

Yeah, Morez, I thought, he made a lot of tangible plays, and he made a lot of invisible plays when we were watching some things at halftime of what was working and what wasn’t. He was involved doing the dirty work in a lot of the plays that worked, so it’s easy to look at his line and say, wow, he had 24 and 3 and 3, but I thought his passing has improved greatly. I’m sure it’s contagious playing with Yaxel and Elliot and Adai and those guys who really pass the ball well. Roddy’s a good passer, and Nimari’s becoming a really good passer, so yeah, I thought he did a lot, and he’s not even really in game shape yet for what he’s going to be. I think if he wouldn’t have had the injury and he’s in great shape, then he probably finds a way to score another three to five baskets, but certainly happy that he’s on our team, and he’s fun to coach.

On Adai Mara’s rim protecting ability

Yeah, you know, Adai has so much ability, and when you play the high majors, he fits in a lot better. It’s a similar situation in junior college. I recruited junior college when I was at the mid-major for a long time, and big guys struggled in junior college because they were guarding small, quick 6-5, 6-6 centers, and so when you play these teams from mid-major conferences, hopefully we’re playing one as we’re a high seat in the NCAA tournament, and they’re going to have, you know, we played Fairleigh Dickinson in the second round after they beat Purdue, and one of the main reasons they beat Purdue that year was because they had a center come off the bench that shot a terrible percentage throughout the year and banged in three, and I think he banged in three against us as a terrorist.

They made six in two games, so you know, you’re just trying to minimize risk, and so we’re trying to get Adai to think more like a versatile basketball player versus just being a rim protector, paint clogger, and I thought when he came out in that second period, and it’s probably around 12 minutes ago in the second half, I thought that four minutes was the best he’s played defensively and the most determined he’s been, so that’s a good sign going forward because we can’t just have him play against centers well. He’s got to be able to guard smaller, quicker guys and perimeter shooters.

On whether he expected things to be so cohesive in game one

No, I was extremely worried about this game. I know Oakland gives teams problems every year with their zone, and obviously, when you bring back a post player who’s a player of the year, and I said it ad nauseam this week, he’s going to be trying to face up and drive our bigs and go make plays, and I thought he did tonight. He was 6-16, a couple didn’t drop, but he walks out of here with 18-5, and he made three threes against us.

He’s not typically a three-point shooter, so even though that’s not his game against our bigs, it became his game, so going forward, that’s a great matchup for us to learn from, but no, I didn’t expect us to be this cohesive.

On the health status of LJ Cason and Winters Grady

Yeah, LJ could have played tonight, and we had him ready for emergency purposes. He said he could go, and he said he was 100%. He’s been clear to play, but he hasn’t looked great in the last day or two. He hasn’t played enough, so we just felt like with eight days in between now and Wake Forest, he’ll get a couple practices under his belt, he’ll get his win back, and we just didn’t want to risk it if we didn’t have to. Winters, I believe, starts practicing tomorrow or the next day, maybe off tomorrow, I don’t know exactly, but he’ll be practicing the next couple days. He had a minor foot injury that we were being very cautious with, like we do early in the season. These guys could play if they absolutely had to, but we’re more thinking long-term, and we have so much depth that we’re not going to put a guy out there 75%, 80% unless we absolutely have to.

On Yaxel Lendeborg’s health status

You saw it. He played left-handed. Yesterday was his first day back at practice after missing a few. He played left-handed, and I thought he was a borderline All-League player with just one hand going left-handed. To be honest, he was trying not to use it at all yesterday.

He was trying to see if he could practice so he could play today, and he literally was making unbelievable passes with his left hand and catching with essentially one hand and fanning opposite and whatever. He literally can play with his weak hand, and then there’s no break or anything like that, so it’s not as if we’re concerned with long-term damage other than just another random injury. But we also told him today that a lot of times when guys have a thumb injury or finger injury, a lot of times they shoot it better for whatever reason. I think it probably eliminates a little bit of the noise in our minds, and so I thought all of his threes were clean. He went 2-for-2. I was saying he went 2-for-3. Yeah, he went 2-for-2. He went 2-for-2 from the line, so I thought he played a very intelligent basketball game with the hand injury that he’s had, but it’s day-to-day. I mean, same thing. We pulled him out. We limited his minutes just because we wanted to minimize risk.

On tempering and embracing outside expectations of his program

I do think it’s reassuring that people outside of your locker room believe in your guys. They believe in your team, and so, yeah, I don’t mind it at all. It doesn’t impact our day-to-day, and there will be times when we use it that if we’re going to be there in March, April, late March, early April playing meaningful games, then we need to have incredible practice habits today, so we’ll use it in a positive.

We’re definitely not going to raise a banner for preseason Final Four, but it’s great for recruiting. It’s great for our fan base. It brings more excitement to the game. I mean, just like you guys do. You guys all cover the game and promote the game, so I’m all for it, but it doesn’t mean anything.

On what makes Morez Johnson so easy to coach

Well, he’s very, very serious and literal, and I’m neither of those things other than in the heat of the moment, and so I’ve had to communicate with him differently, but he’s a guy you can, because he’s such a hard worker and he’s so accountable, I can get on him for a mistake that maybe wasn’t his sole responsibility because he’s so mature and he can take it, and so we’re still learning how to coach these guys better, but he’s a great teammate. He’s a junkyard dog.

He’s a warrior. He’s competitive. He talks in practice. Like I said, when he was out the first day back, we looked like a different team. There was a different level of energy. It’s very similar. If you guys watch us practice with Will Tschetter there and Will Tschetter not there, we look like two different teams as far as energy and enthusiasm, so Morez brings some of those similar traits, and we’re trying to get him to be even more vocal because his voice carries because of the way he plays.

On who is the go-to back-up point guard

Trey did it tonight. Roddy did it all offseason, and he did it really well, and LJ also will be a guy. In a perfect world, at FAU, probably at least half the games we played without a point guard. It was whoever rebounded, pushed, and we were interchangeable, and we were playing positionless basketball with the exception of five men, and so I would like for us to evolve to that. Yaxel’s a good enough ball handler and playmaker where he could play point guard in a pinch, initiate offense, whatever the case, but yeah, I’m very comfortable with Trey, Roddy, LJ. We called a couple things that were slower developing for Roddy against Cincinnati, and we didn’t help him, and so that’s on me as much as anything.

But yeah, I’m extremely confident, and especially when you factor in that we have a couple pressure releases with Adai and Morez, so it’s get it up the floor and find the weakest defender and initiate offense with that guy is probably what I would answer today. That’s why I was pleased with Trey McKenney tonight. I thought he kept this organized.

I thought he had a real plan when he caught the ball. It’ll be by committee. Elliot’s a true, true point. LJ is evolving into that because he’s always been a scoring combo guard, and I’m fine with that too because I’m not changing his bread and butter, but it’s going to be by committee, but it’s a great question. Against pressing teams, we’ll have to be creative and find different ways.

On Trey McKenney’s performance

Well, Trey, I think a lot of times, Adai at the garden is a good example. I think when you put a lot into this, and it means a lot to you, and you’ve always dreamed of these moments, the excitement sometimes can cause you not to play very well. It’s very, very common. I’d almost be worried if he came out and played great his first game and he would think it’s too simple, too easy. He’s had a good week of practice. He wants to do the right things.

He has great character, and we talk about as a staff, when you’re a real person like Trey is, like authentic, curious, you genuinely care about your teammates as much and not more than yourself, good things are going to happen for you. So guys like that with his personality traits usually get the benefit of the doubt, even if they don’t play well, just because of who they are as people. Sean, do you want to close us out?

On the difference from the crowd vs. the first game of last season

The first game last year was Cleveland State, and I would say that the intensity of the building was probably doubled, and I think we could still make another leap going forward for our next home game. Tom, if you could help me, who’s our next home game? Middle Tennessee State, who’s a really, really, that would be a challenging game as well. They’ll be long, athletic, and they’ll have high major type of talent. So there is a jump we can still make, but I was extremely, I should say pleasantly surprised when I walked out and saw the crowd tonight on a late tip Monday, and to feel the energy that they brought.

You guys probably know better than I do the Cleveland State attendance and whatnot, but it felt different than it did one year ago. And we’re appreciative. The Maize Rage has been awesome as well.

On Charlie May scoring and the bench reaction

I told Ed when we did the post-game that as a coach’s son, these guys go through a lot, good, bad. And my boys have grown up when my career’s gone much better than it did earlier in my career. But you pull them out of schools, you move towns, they have to find new friends, they have to find a new community everywhere. And our guys in our locker room have embraced them. I don’t think they’ve ever felt like they’re talking to the coach’s son. I think they’ve always felt like they’re talking to one of their teammates.

And we keep that line where I want, especially during the season, I want him to be that player on that team versus being my son. And so it’s cool to see him have that much fun playing with his guys, because our managers are walk-ons. They show up every day in practice just to serve in any way possible. And so just to be rewarded with a Division I bucket, it’s pretty cool. So, yeah, just happy for him, but more than anything else, just excited to see the family group chat tonight, buzzing. I know the Heat are playing on the West Coast, so I’m sure Jack will get to it later.