TRANSCRIPT: Dusty May weekly press conference 2/23

Opening Statement

We’re extremely excited to get back home and continue competing for a Big Ten championship and taking the lessons that we learned from our last game moving forward, and see where it takes us.

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On wrapping up a share of the Big Ten title

It’s not done. We’re so consumed now, and playing well against Minnesota. They’re going to play desperate, they’re shorthanded, they have five or six guys that are playing significant minutes and those five guys can all play. We’re not really thinking that big of a picture now as opposed to just taking care of business, and we know if we get this win, we at least, at worst case scenario, clench a share. But I don’t think anyone in our locker room wants to share anything. And so we’ve just got to continue playing one possession at a time and get back to playing good ball.

On his thoughts on Minnesota

Yeah, I don’t think it’s any secret teams that really shoot the ball well from deep. It can present problems for us at times. Not overall, just that’s how Wisconsin beat us and Duke used a different model. But yeah, they can spread us out, they can shoot it, they run great offense. Their cutting is probably as effective as any team in our league. They cut with great space, purpose, they set you up for the next thing. So just a well-coached team and it’s going to be a challenge.

On what makes Minnesota’s offense unique

They’ve been running this, he’s been running a variation of this offense for as long as I’ve been watching his teams play. I’ve always enjoyed, you know, Mountain West games late at night or whatever the case. So I’ve watched him play over the years several times.

It’s the speed, it’s the cutting, it’s the skill level, it’s the connectivity. They’re all working in unison to create a good shot for the team. But the speed, the spacing, it’s an offense that was built to combat ball denial, things like that, when you go back to the methodology of it all. And it’s something we don’t see much. You see pieces of it, but you don’t see it a lot. And so any time you don’t have the reps going against it, it can present challenges.

On saying Michigan would be better for the loss against Duke

I said I hope we’d be better. There’s no guarantee. You know, I don’t really want to divulge what we learned internally. I can go big picture that as of February, whatever the date was, we weren’t ready to beat one of the top programs teams in the country. And so we didn’t have to be ready in mid-February. Hopefully, we have a chance to see them again because they’re going to be playing late in March and possibly April. So it’d be awesome to have another opportunity, that means we’re taking care of business.

But you know, Duke, they made winning plays. It wasn’t after the first six or eight minutes, the game was a slugfest for both teams. And it’s rare that our group doesn’t outperform the other team the last three, four minutes of a game in a tight situation, and we weren’t able to do that. And so credit them. You know, them playing well doesn’t take away any of our shine of what we’ve been able to do. You know, that’s kind of how we’re wired, where if he does this, then that takes away from something with us. Not necessarily. That day, they played better. They’ve got a great program. We’re striving to be that on a consistent basis.

So yeah, we learned a lot schematically. We learned a lot that we would do differently. And you know, we tried some new things also in the game because we feel like later you get you’re going to have to go make some adjustments. And so we tried some different things and credit Duke. They used Boozer really, really well to leverage us in so many, leverage our defense in so many different ways. And the intangible plays that he made were more impressive than his reputation, than his winning percentage, whatever the case is. Just, he’s a great screener. He played, if they put two on the ball, he passed it, just kept the game very, very simple offensively. And then he made his desire to go get 50-50 basketballs, and rebounding was as good as I can remember in recent memory. His drive to win is incredibly impressive.

On the reports of the preferences in location to play in the tournament

Yeah, that decision hasn’t, I mean, we haven’t even submitted, we don’t have, we haven’t even hit that deadline yet. So with any decision, is that something that someone prefers? I don’t know. I don’t know. I didn’t make that decision. I’m not sure where it came from, to be honest.

Is that our final decision? No, because we’re not at the point where we have to make that final decision. We’ll gather all the information from our administration from years past and figure out what’s best for our team going forward and that’s what we’ll do.

On whether the report would be a distraction

I really didn’t. So I didn’t know, I didn’t really know there was any hoopla. To be honest, I don’t even, I think someone said Tampa. There’s a first-round side of Tampa. We may choose Tampa. I’m just joking. But yeah, we’re going to play ball. You know, who we play, where we play, those things. So it’s not that big of a deal to us internally.

Yeah, he came in after that and banged in a big shot after, you know, when we needed it. So I took that as a full go. He practiced yesterday.

On the decision to put Adai Mara back in the game

Hey, first of all, you guys can criticize. Everyone’s welcome to their own opinion. You guys have watched a lot of ball. You guys have your own opinions, and it didn’t work. So once again, if we talk about resulting, then yes, it was a bad move, it was a bad decision. No, if we’re resulting. It was obvious.

He picked up his third foul and it didn’t allow him to play aggressive. Yeah, I wish, in hindsight, we wouldn’t have done that. But when you sit down and you say, all right, can we really go the next 15 minutes without Adai? And can he play well in the second half if he sits for these next 15 minutes? And so we trust him. We trust our guys.

Obviously, some have better impulse control than the others. And it’d be a good learning experience for him because the thing with his fouls, his first one was a missed blockout. And so it was legit. And then the second one, I think we all, other than Boozer, we probably all feel, everyone on the planet feels the same way about that call. But if you don’t make the first mistake, then that second call is not nearly as relevant. And so you’re going to get some, I mean, we received some bad calls. They received some bad calls. It’s positioning. It’s a very, very tough job. So we talk about minimizing risk a lot. And if you don’t make that first mistake, then the second one’s not near as consequential. But would we do it again tomorrow? I’m not sure.

On decisions changing depending on whether it’s a tournament game or not

Depends on who you’re playing. I think Duke is, you know, there’s a couple teams in the country that jump out as far as just putting the onus on the officials. They’re going straight through you. And we’re probably not going to draw a lot of charges against Duke as primary defenders. Just not. And so certain games, I think we would do different.

We’d make different decisions, if that makes sense. And different players and different opponents and how they play, how we play. But teams that are able to just go through you, probably sit or go zone or whatever the case. There’s some solutions. But would we want to sit out and die the last 14 minutes? I think probably that situation, he’ll learn and grow from it where next time he can, if that makes sense also.

On situational challenges and the importance of them

Some games, I think we’ve done a great job. And some games, we haven’t. And yes, it’s situational. In the first half, if we can get a possession back, and we feel like it’s 100%, because most of the time, you go home with them in your pocket anyway. So if we’re 95% or 90% in the first half, there’s no question. We use it and we try to get a possession back. Every possession’s important. Obviously, the ones later are more important. But yes, the other things, as far as the appeal, losing a timeout for an appeal, they’re crafty.

And so that one was, we felt like at that moment, that was worth losing the timeout. But the challenges, you saw Duke, they used theirs early in the game. We would have used ours early in the game. We just weren’t quite, it wasn’t as conclusive from the angles we were getting in real time. So there were a couple that, obviously, I’ve said in my office yesterday, like, rewind and back and forth, and slow, slow, slow, slower. I mean, if we had five or ten minutes, I think we would have challenged a couple more. We just didn’t have the amount of time to go for it.

On using a different brand of basketball impacting shooting

We shot it poorly, so it was a terrible decision on our part. No, I like the decision. You know, it’s a ball. It’s round. We’re both playing with the same ball. Obviously, there are times if one team uses that regularly, and you use it twice a year, there’s a slight advantage, but we don’t spend a lot of time on the things we don’t control.

We don’t have any control over the NCAA ball. We don’t have a choice. We don’t really have a choice what we use at home, all these things. So yeah, I thought it was a great idea. Our guys would be more comfortable with that ball. Neither team shot it well, so maybe next time, both use the ball. We’ll both shoot it at a much higher clip.

On whether he’s open to doing another midseason non-conference game again

100%. We have a responsibility to do what’s best for the enterprise of college basketball, to do what’s best for the University of Michigan, for the Big Ten Conference. And I can’t imagine, I mean, I can’t wait to see what the ratings were, but the buzz, all the attention around the game was very NCAA tournament-like. And so we have a game simulation of the energy, the distractions that are around a game. And then we dealt with some adversity. We got in at whatever time the night before we had travel issues and this and that.

And so that’s part of having to prepare differently and make decisions on the fly. How do we respond to this and how do we not? So yeah, I think we learned a lot and it will have us better prepared for the NCAA tournament. Obviously, you don’t want to lose a game in February, but I’m very confident our guys are going to bounce back and play well going forward.

On whether guard play is important in the tournament and whether he believes his are good enough

I mean, I think you look at last year’s national champion, Florida, had good guards, they had good bigs. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, when we went to the Final Four, we had good guards. UConn, who won it all that year, they had a lot of everything. So I’d prefer to have good guards and bigs and take my chances. But I like our guards. I think we have a very good backcourt and I think we have a very good frontcourt. I like having them both. Good on both.

On whether there’s comfort in knowing the team didn’t play the best and the game was competitive

It’s funny you say that. Absolutely. When I went back and watched the film again last night, possession by possession, I was surprised at how many errors we made that we don’t typically make. And for us to still be in position to win, it gives us confidence that, man, we could have an off night and still be able to compete. You’ve got to make the plays to get over the hump. But also Duke, I don’t think they played anywhere near their best game and the enemy always gets a vote.

And so probably us not playing our best has a lot to do with them and their size and length and physicality. I was really impressed with how physical that they are. You don’t see that on film. I didn’t pick up on film how physical they are. Their length, their intensity jumps out at you, but the physicality, you know, we felt it early and we think we’re physical as well. So I would like to think that they felt our physicality and that was the reason both teams, once we settled in, struggled a little bit to be their best. But the enemy always gets a vote. So if we don’t play well, then the Duke in their program has a lot to do with it. But yes, absolutely, we can not play well and still compete with maybe the best team in the country, second best, fourth best, whatever the case, one of the best teams in the country. Yes, we can compete with them. So it gives us confidence, yes.

On how he feels about the messaging in sharing the conference title or winning it outright

I don’t know how I’m going to feel tomorrow. You know, we even talked about all the different scenarios. I don’t even like talking about this stuff because you have ball to play and you have to. It’s nature of the beast. But if we do win tomorrow, we clinch a share and then after that, you know, I think I’ll just be thinking next thing. We have a big game Friday. Is it Friday? Who do we play? Illinois. Okay.

Second biggest game of the year coming up. The Illinois game Friday night, the biggest game of the year is obviously Minnesota. Second biggest game is Illinois and then who’s after that? Iowa. Iowa. Third biggest game of the year is Iowa. So I don’t think I will. Now I will say this, that out of the year we broke through at FAU, when we clinched at home, we clinched a share at home and we still had two more games on the road to go play and the university wanted to do the thing on the court with the nets and all the stuff and I was against it. But I did feel like our players deserved it, our fans, and that was probably the coolest moment because you have the court marked off with the ropes and inside the court you have your players, their families, the coaches, their families, and so you just have this area of everyone who poured into this experience and so ideally we celebrate later on after more work has been done. But we’re just happy to be in position to be playing meaningful games in February and this game tomorrow is incredibly meaningful.

On what he saw from Duke and how the gameplanned for them

I’d rather not divulge what we would do schematically unless you could guarantee me we’re not going to play Duke again. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I’m not going to tell you what we would do differently if we play Duke.

On his thoughts on Boozer being considered the national player of the year

Yeah, I don’t follow that stuff that closely. I thought he was incredibly physical, I thought his unselfishness, I thought he just tried to make a winning play every single possession and there was never an agenda about trying to outperform anyone else on the court, outperform who’s runner-up player, national player of the year, I don’t even know. Who are they saying? I don’t know. Dybantsa. Dybantsa is unselfish. I heard who? Dybantsa, who else? Jefferson and Iowa State, yeah. Okay. Dybanta is unselfish. Okay, so all those guys.

Never felt like he’s trying to outperform Jefferson and Iowa State, it was just about how do I help my team win? I thought those things were impressive. But his screening, his wall-ups, his physicality, his desire to go get a 50-50 ball, those were the things that ultimately impressed me much more than the three he made or whatever the case was. When you look at their possessions down the stretch, they have a 6-11 center like a guy that can really pass and when Boozer’s screening the way he does and then if you switch a guard onto him, then he’s able to punish that guard with a double-team kick-out or an offensive rebound. He just presents a number of challenges and so he does all of those things plus the loud plays that everybody sees.

On messaging his gives his players facing their former team

Yeah, yeah. Kind of the last message I just said. This is about us playing for a championship, trying to play championship-level basketball possession by possession. When we start thinking about it’s about me or this, and we’ve all been there, I mean last year I had distracting games, the assistants, I mean these games with these side plots, none of that matters during the 40 minutes. Obviously it’s emotional, Meraz just like Adai, just like Roddy, they have relationships at their old place and we’re not going to war and fighting Illinois, we’re competing in a basketball game against, and that’s just the new modern climate of hoops and so it won’t be any more than him trying to be his best for our team.

On whether there’s more of a drive to win for teammates facing former teams

I think it adds a little more connection where it’s something that’s bringing us together to really work and fight as a group. So yeah, that’s the way I look at it. There’s a lot of things that can bring a group together, or splinter a team, and it’s one of the many things that can bring a team together.

But if you don’t have the foundation of care, of work, of shared sacrifice, of mutual respect before that, it doesn’t really matter. But since we have that foundation, then when it comes time to play that game, which is relevant right now with Minnesota, it gives those guys something to really focus on other than how they’re playing as individuals, or how their shot’s not dropping, or whatever the case, all the stuff that players think about.

On whether Morez Johnson is a victim of his own success with his physicality

I don’t know. I don’t really want to comment on the officiating, because we have to adjust game to game, and it’s not as if we have a uniform set of officials that call and rotate around. So we take a lot of pride in adjusting to the game, and we’re optimistic that the three officials are going to adjust to each other.

So if those fouls are on one end based on where an official’s positioned, and the other end they’re going to play off of each other like we expect our players to do. But Morez is never going to shy away from contact. I think anyone that’s ever missed a shot probably feels like, if you’ve ever played open gym or watched open gym, I think every shot that’s missed the player feels like he got fouled, and then every time there’s a foul called the player who allegedly fouled didn’t feel like he fouled. But Morez is a very good finisher, as his percentages say. He’s getting better and better, and I didn’t really notice his frustration. If you did, I’ll take your word for it. But he gets to the next thing pretty well.