Everything Dusty May said during his 7/13 press conference
Opening Statement
The midpoint of our eight weeks, even though we’ve only had one week with the majority of our roster last week, we’re able to play some five-on-five and see these guys together. So we’re still rounding into form where we can start experimenting and tinkering and evaluating these guys. I felt like that last year when we signed Danny and Vlad. I was actually a little bit surprised that those two didn’t get a little more hoopla that comes with it. But yeah, we think that these guys all complement each other. When you look at their skill sets, when you look at what they do well, their physical attributes, they’re just, I do think all of them complement each other. And then even getting past the four that you mentioned, Oscar Goodman’s a versatile player that can allow us to play big or small. We haven’t seen Malick with our group yet, but Malick could be here soon. So we do think we have a lot of options and as the teams in the Final Four proved last year, you need great depth if you want to play late into March and hopefully April.
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On his thoughts on the team this summer and how good the team could be this season
Well, hopefully I’m here at Michigan for a long time. So I probably will be up here with an optimistic outlook every year going into the season. We get to choose our players. So hopefully we’re not choosing guys that we don’t like or we don’t believe in or that we don’t want to coach. So by nature, I’m going to be optimistic, but I like our team. This group and the three, two or three workouts that we’ve had, let’s say the majority of our practice, we’ve had one or two guys banged up. Like I said, one guy’s still not here yet. They seem to be a competitive group. They came in better shape than we anticipated and we have a lot of weapons. Obviously there are some questions, some question marks going into the season. We’re aware of that. And so we’ve got to address those, but I think every team has non-strengths and how do you think, can you figure out how to win despite those? I mean, last year we were turning the ball over this time. We turned it over all year and we had to find other ways to win this year. The turnover issue after such a small sample size has been cleared up simply through roster construction.
On what he’s seen from Aday Mara
Obviously, big men typically develop a little bit later. He wasn’t physically ready his first year at UCLA to play in that environment at that level. I should say at a winning level. He could play, but obviously UCLA like us, they’re competing for championships every year. So he probably, you know, and I don’t speak for anyone, but he probably wasn’t ready as a freshman like most big men aren’t. And then last year he really emerged late in the season. He had some big, big games. He didn’t play well against us, but through scouting, we felt like we had enough information to go aggressively at him when he went in the portal. He’s exactly what we thought. He’s a wonderful human being. He’s an elite passer. He’s really, really tall.
On whether Malick Kordel being the only player not on campus
He is the only one that’s not currently here, yes.
On how the team can be different from last year
I think we can be even more unique. There will be times when we roll out a really, really big lineup, like we did in the Big Ten tournament, when we were really struggling against Wisconsin. Look, there’s ebbs and flows in every season. There’s give and take with every substitution decision. We played Will Tschetter two-three last year with Danny and Vlad in the Big Ten tournament in some real pivotal times, and he banged in big shots. We rebounded the ball well. Because Danny and Will were able to defend smaller guards on the perimeter and stand in front of the ball, it allowed us to play like that. Offensively, when you have talented players, you can figure out a way to be efficient enough to win. It usually comes down to can those bigger guys guard smaller, quicker players? Can you keep the ball out of the paint and still contest on the perimeter? I think there’ll be times when we roll out a really, really rare, big lineup. There’s gonna be other times whenever we play small and quick and have one of our really skilled guys at the five so we can be explosive offensively. There’ll be times when we need to score quickly. We’ll downsize and play the faster, smaller lineup. I do think we have a group that we’re gonna have to figure out who plays the best with who and try to align those minutes. That’s what we have to do these next three or four weeks. Really figure out who connects with who and which guys don’t need the ball with this group and then they’re more aggressive with that group. That self-awareness will ultimately decide whether we’re gonna be good or not.
On watching Oscar Goodman and Morez Johnson Jr. at the World Cup
Every experience is a good experience when you’re playing on a team in a competitive environment. Merez, it’s just impressive to see him buy into that role. They needed him to be an enforcer in the paint, a finisher, and he did that. He was really, really effective playing his role for a championship, you know, for a gold medal team on the world stage. Oscar was great last year, U-17s. This year, for whatever reason, didn’t play as well or was effective but that’s, once again, that’s a good learning experience for him that these were the things that made you extremely successful 12 months ago that and now for whatever reason those things didn’t translate to this environment, this team, so I think it’s a great learning experience for both of them. Obviously, Oscar wouldn’t have tweaked his ankle where he was here at full strength but, you know, you’d love to have your guys here developing the chemistry and whatnot but for them to be playing on that stage where every possession matters, it takes some real stamina to get through that. Those guys play for a long time when you factor in the friendly games, the training camps, the practices, so I really, really enjoy watching guys with their national team because you see them in an all-star type of setting and it really shows who has that self-awareness.
On recruiting 7-footers at center
We’re recruiting this niche. I mean, when you play a certain style, players that thrive in that style, usually they recruit you a little bit and this started way back when our first year at FAU, we were trying to figure out a blueprint for us to be successful there. We recruited, I think, all European international bigs and fast American playmaking guards and thought, you know what, this is the best way for us to acquire talent that we can win with and then be a little bit different and so because of the first bigs we signed at FAU, we played through them, they were involved, they were good passers, they were good screeners, they were great teammates. That led us to being able to recruit the higher level talent like Vlad and so it’s, you know, those guys, Karlis Silins and those guys back from day one are the reason we’re able to attract bigs now that because we’ve evolved into a system that they are involved in the offense, they’re involved in getting other bigs away from the rim and things like that. So, ideally, we’re clicking with five guys in unison playing wonderful music and we’re able to recruit anyone but I do think if you’re a big guy that likes to pass and be involved in the offense, then they see us play and they’re attracted to it.
On his observations of Yaxel Lendeborg
He’s an unbelievable human being, he’s great to be around every day, he enjoys passing the ball. You have a guy that’s been as publicized as Yax, you know, if they’re selfish, if they’re about numbers, if they’re about themselves, it can present a number of challenges and with Yaxel, he’s so team-oriented that it’s been a pretty smooth transition.
On whether he sees similarities between Lendeborg and Danny Wolf
Yeah, they’re very very similar in a lot of ways and we actually even in a breakdown last week tinkered with the four or five ball screen to see if those guys had — what their natural instincts were and you could see Yaxel as a player in the perimeter position, he can handle it under pressure, he can handle smaller guys on him, with bigger guys on him, he’s a playmaker so in that regard he’s a lot like Danny. I think we’ll be a little bit more talented across the board so we probably won’t have to rely on it as frequent, but in big moments I could you know looking forward several months in advance I could see us using the four or five ball screen a lot again with Yaxel as a playmaker.
On what Elliot Cadeau brings to the program
Elliot has been incredible as far as getting into the paint, getting anywhere he needs to on the court. He has a burst to him, elite speed and quickness, he has elite speed and quickness, his ability to see the floor, manipulate defense, he’s able to throw the lobs if they’re in our passes so just an elite pick-and-roll player that can play in space and just trying to figure out the best way for him to find his spots to score in our system and when to get to the rim and when to shoot and when to facilitate. He’s been really good so far, very very pleased with Elliot.
On LJ Cason’s development
LJ, he’s had a very productive summer, he’s become more consistent, he’s changed his body, his condition’s improving, he’s a weapon. Right now, he’s still adjusting to when he’s in the game, as you go to his nature as far as scoring and putting a lot of pressure on the defense or changing, flipping his mindset and being more of a facilitator so he’s gonna have to play multiple roles for us. There’s gonna be times when he needs to break down the defense, he’s so good in the open floor and he has such great body control. I think he just gives us another unique weapon on offense and someone that brings, I guess his skills, the skills that he brings to the table we don’t have an abundance of so we’re gonna lean on him.
On how he’s approaching the high school recruiting process with the transfer portal
I think right now the plan is to continue recruiting good balance and we need, you know, I can’t even, we’ve sat here and Tschetterr’s names came up one time and Nimari Burnett’s name hasn’t came up yet and through summer workouts, Nimari might be our, he’s probably been our most productive basketball player as a whole so that continuity, the continuity they bring, the character that they bring, the work capacity, the unselfishness where they’re trying to help the younger guys 24-7. They’re spending their time and energy trying to help guys that could potentially chip into their minutes because they want to win and they want to be great teammates. So that’s, if we’re ever going to be at a championship level and time will tell if we’re going to be in a championship level this season, a big part of it is going to be because of the leadership and continuity of those guys and then now you throw in Roddy Gayle and LJ, when the prognosticators are talking about not, you know, we went to the portal and signed this guy and that guy and we brought in this five-star recruit and this four-star and whatever the case, those guys get lost in the shuffle but if we win this year at the level we’re capable of, if we max out as a group, those returners are going to be a big reason why.
On things he’s learned last year that he will take into year two at Michigan
I learned so much every day. I was watching some clips from practice last summer trying to tweak a drill and learned a couple things that we probably should have been focused on when we were focused on this. So, I mean, I don’t want to get into the nuts and bolts but that’s the beautiful thing about our staff and our program. I think all of us are blown away at how much we didn’t know one year prior, so that’s kind of where I am at. We can go on, we need another hour segment, we have practice. But the physicality, obviously, the ability to have your plan in earlier because you don’t have the chance to practice and adjust at certain points in the season, those are probably the two things that jump out the most, probably the most broad.
On how he envisions the role of the freshmen this year with how much leadership is on the team currently
Well, that’s, the role for the freshmen are really going to be up to them. You know, we don’t go into the season with guys sharpening into starting spots or positions or roles. And so each guy brings something different to the table. Obviously, traits, maturity, and physicality, I have a few coaching friends that we share practice film and share ideas and talk about it on each other’s teams. I was sitting with him yesterday on the road recruiting and he said, who’s number one? Is Trey number one? I’m bad at numbers. He said, who’s number one? And I said, you know, I don’t know all of our guys’ numbers. They switch and this and that. I said, describe him, describe him. And he actually pulled out his laptop and said, this kid. And I said, oh, that’s Trey McKinney. He’s a freshman from Michigan. And he said, he’s a freshman. He said, man, I would have thought he’s a fifth-year grad transfer that you guys found from somewhere in the back. I mean, just the level of maturity, physicality, pace, poise he plays with. He’s been great. And his work capacity might be as good as anyone that I’ve ever been around. He just, he loves to work. Winters Grady’s the same way. He loves to be in the gym. It’s almost as if we’re anticipating having to kick those guys out of the gym, out of the weight room. I was in Switzerland. I checked in on both of them. And Trey was running hills with a sled when I checked in on him on the Fourth. And the Winters, they said, finished like his fourth workout of the day, where the coaches said he was in the weight room and he was running on the football field and he’d already shot that morning. And he was on the gun that night. So just those are the guys we love having in the program. They love ball. They love to work. But this is really, really important. And whether they play at the highest level of basketball or not, that work ethic and those traits will lead to success down the line. And so, you know, I don’t know what the role of most of these guys are going to look like because they have to decide that on the court. But like I said, we believe that raw gap sacrifice and depth is going to be a real weapon for this team.
On his thoughts on the shooting
Proven in college? Yeah, correct. Once again, I’m very optimistic. Elliot shot 41%, I think, last year on catch and shoot threes. Typically, you make a jump from your sophomore to junior year. Yeah, we don’t have volume guys. Yaxel’s 37 career, didn’t shoot a lot. And part of that was because the role he played in his last school. Roddy shot it well early and late. Obviously had that funk in the middle of the season. And L.J. Cason didn’t shoot it as well as he can. So, you know, I would think just looking at it from the big picture, if we shoot it poorly, then with the size and athleticism, we need to be an elite offensive rebounding team. And when you look at the most efficient teams in college basketball, their first-shot offense isn’t that great. When you just go back and look at the Final Four teams, the Houston’s, the Florida’s, their first shot offense, obviously, it’s good. But what makes them unique is that they go get it when they miss. And I think we have the ability that if we don’t shoot it well this year, then we’ve got to figure out another way to win. I’d love to put together the perfect roster every year and this all click on all cylinders. But that’s not realistic. That is a question mark. We’re all aware, but we’re not sitting here saying, man, I don’t think we’re gonna play this year. We don’t have it. We didn’t sign enough shooters. It’s you make in Trey McKinney, Winters Grady, you know, those guys are good shooters and they haven’t done it before. But we signed them because we believe that they will and they can.
On addressing the turnovers issue from last season
It was an ongoing project. And even after the season, I asked a couple of guys on staff that aren’t as busy recruiting some other things. Why don’t you take a look at these from a different perspective? Categorize them in these four or five things. And let’s really figure out, do we not put them in the right situations? Do we not practice the right things? Is it just simply poor decision-making? What did the defense have a lot to do with it? You know, I read the quote this summer. I really, really like that. The enemy gets a vote as well. When we go into battle, the enemy has a vote. We don’t just get to decide what we’re good at and what we’re not. I mean, we have to work to improve. But yeah, there were times when it was the most confusing project. I didn’t really find any definitive answers. I like to after the fact. And we did the same thing at FAU after one of the first couple of years. And we found a couple of definitive answers and said, you know what, there’s a solution here and here’s what it’s going to be. And it’s going to take some time, but we’re going to fix it. With issues last year, I mean, we’d be playing well and the guy would just dribble off his foot in that possession or whatever the case. So it was just a lot of random ones that obviously we don’t practice dribbling off our feet or punish them for months. I mean, I know I read the articles about our teams like Coach Knight would just make them run to Brighton and back and turnovers would be fixed. Well, we did that. And then we gave them incentives not to turn it over. So we tried just about everything. Maybe we didn’t try a couple of them long enough for the duration. But for our fans and you know, we’re all experts in every field now. We spent a lot of time really, really trying and didn’t do a good enough job. So yeah, we’re gonna figure out roster construction is one of the ways we try to figure out a solution to that.
On what he’s seen from Nimari Burnett to make him one of the best players on the team
With Nimari, he’s a first of all, an incredibly hard worker, and we challenged him to get his legs a lot stronger. He’s had he’s battled some injuries throughout his career. But the thing that really stands out, I think on really good teams, and we say this about our best players that weren’t our All-League guys, like, they can really score, but they don’t care if they do or not, they can really shoot that they’re not hunting shots. And that’s kind of where Nimari is now, like he’s just finding shots. He’s just in the flow. He’s not trying to do too much. He doesn’t care if he has the ball in his hands. And that’s probably the biggest thing. You watch these guys in the Summer League, the smart, efficient, older players that are very secure in themselves, like, they don’t care if they have the ball. And then you look at their stat, you say, oh, this kid had 26. And he was just, he wasn’t very aggressive with the ball in his hand. So, to me, that’s what stood out about Nimari. He scored, but he hasn’t needed the ball.
On when he’s expecting Malick Kordel on campus
Very soon. Yeah, very, very soon.
On his thoughts on NCAA Tournament expansion
Yeah, it’s funny. I was talking to Matt Norlander from CBS, and I enjoy Matt and Gary and those guys on the pod. So there’s a couple podcasts on college athletics that I enjoy listening to, and that’s one of them. And for me, it’s like, what’s our objective? With anything, what’s our objective? And then here’s the best thing for that objective. If our objective is to create the best tournament, then 64 seems perfectly symmetrical in whatever case. If we want to expand, and we want to generate revenue, and we want to grow the game and grow publicity, and you see the NBA expanding in Europe, and you see the NFL playing games in wherever, I mean, I do think that’s part of our responsibility also as coaches, as athletes, to expand. And then the next group of coaches and players, this is better for them than it was for us. Obviously, we’re all taking the current landscape. It’s not as if the market says this, but the market also is dictated by the last 100 years of work by all these people and what they’ve done for the game. So if our objective is to continue to generate more revenue, then I’m going to leave that up to people that do that for a living. But I’m here for it, whatever it is. I’m excited if the tournament stays. I’m excited if the tournament grows.Whatever they decide, the people that are in those positions, I don’t have a strong opinion on either one. Unless you tell me if we have one objective, then I’ll have a strong opinion. But I think we probably have multiple objectives.
On his thoughts on the new coach challenge rule
Yeah, I like it. That’s one of the things. I think we’re all wired differently as people. The stoppages in play. I’m at these summer games, and the officials will stop the game. They’re doing their job, and they’re being evaluated, so it’s a letter of the law. They’ll stop the game, and it’ll be a minute stoppage to run two seconds off the shot clock. I used to officiate games coming up as a high school kid to generate revenue. You just try not to stop the game because everyone enjoys playing it and enjoying watching it. I think it will eliminate some of those stoppages. I’m a fan of that, and they’re going to miss some. The officials are going to miss some calls. They’re going to miss an out-of-bounds. I’m going to make a bad play call. Our players are going to miss an open cutter. That’s part of the game, but I do like having it work. There’s a pivotal moment, and you can impact a game with one challenge. I do like it.
On roster limits expanding from 13 to 15 impacting recruiting
We do need to win consistently, and I think once you lose momentum in today’s landscape, it’s tough to recover from. I think it gives you an opportunity to go after some guys you see something in that maybe could just be a gamble or a calculated risk.