TRANSCRIPT: Michigan HC Dusty May weekly press conference 2/2

Opening Statement

Well, we’re very proud the way we responded to a very challenging, tough week over the midway point. We just passed the midway point of the Big Ten season, so we have a lot of work to do, but we’re excited to get back after it and solve some puzzles that we have and get a little bit better.

On getting his first win against Michigan State

Yeah, that one just felt different, and obviously we were disappointed in the way we performed last year, and so we’re never really too high or too low when there’s something to be learned from each example, and we felt like we learned a lot from both of those games, the first being that we can’t make it more than 40 minutes of good basketball, and there has to be poise and composure and stamina and guys ready to go the distance and fight all the way until the end, and the other thing was our personnel last year, we didn’t have enough dog to win the league. We had some, and I love our guys last year, but we just didn’t have enough dog, and so we were able to solve that issue in recruiting. We were close, we just didn’t have enough, and sometimes it’s just being a year older and sometimes I think our staff did a great job of being intentional about fixing the things that needed to be fixed instead of just hoping that things change or go away, so but yeah, we learned from all of our tough experiences last year, but to be honest this year we expected to win.

We like our team a lot, we think there’s great substance, I know people outside of our tribe will call our guys these derogatory names, mercenaries and whatnot. We have a group of guys that love playing with each other, they appreciate Michigan, and when you see how connected they are, I don’t know how you would, I guess, classify them as guys playing just for money when they all sacrifice a great deal of money to do what they’re doing together, and so we have a long way to go, but very, very happy with being in a position to compete at the midway point, essentially.

On Elliot Cadeau’s evolution as a shooter and whether it has exceeded his expectations

You know, I don’t have expectations per se when it comes to percentages and things like that, we just felt like we believed in him as a shooter, we believed in him as a leader, as a, I guess, a brain center of our team, he’s brilliant on the basketball court. And so the shooting is kind of icing on the cake, because we’ve always erred on, let’s go recruit a 33% shooter who can guard and who’s tough and can rebound, versus a 38% guy that doesn’t do those other things, we’ve got to try to scheme or camouflage or whatever, all the things to hide that, and so if he is a 33% shooter, we think he’s good enough to help us win being a 33% shooter, and credit to him, he shot really well off the dribble early in the season, his catch and shoots have been on point all year, he shot really well the first third of the season on off the dribble, and then he hit a little bit of a funk off the dribble, and some of it was just too early in the clock or whatever, and he’s fixed that as well, he’s stopped shooting as many, but late clock or whatever the case, we need a basket, just like, we don’t hunt those off the dribble mid ranges or off the dribble threes early, but if our guys have to make them late in the clock, Trey McKinney made two huge late shot clock shots, and typically in a conference season you need to win some games on those late clock possessions, and I think they were a big part of us getting over the hump and getting the lead back.

On players like Roddy Gayle, Nimari Burnett and Trey McKenney bring on defense

On defense, yeah, we are very confident in all of those guys defensively, they each present something a little bit different, and they’re all incredibly valuable in everything that we do, and they’re all sacrificing a lot, and I met with one of them yesterday on that, that they’re in a tough spot, where if they play really well in that game, or things are going really well, then they’ll play 25, 26 minutes. If someone else is playing really well, or they don’t have their best stuff, they’re probably going to play 15, and so that’s their range, 15 to 26.

Is that ideal for any of them? No, it’s tough, because most players like to know, hey, I’m going to play 12 minutes in the first half, and 12 in the second half, and now I can just, when I’m on, when I’m taken out of the game, I can just decompress and get ready to go back in. Sometimes, when you’re in that situation, you’re wondering, when am I going to go in? Why am I not in now? Did I do something wrong? There’s just a lot, I mean, there’s, anyone that’s ever played sports in a competitive environment know, they know the crazy things that go on in your mind when you’re in the moment, and so we just challenge our guys to take a step back and look at it from a different perspective, the lens of someone else’s glasses, and usually that refocuses them, and we all chose to do this.

We knew we had a good team. We knew that, I mean, if one of our guys wanted to score twice as many points, he shouldn’t have came here, and that’s part of the deal, to be playing on the nationally televised games every night, to be in position to get a double bye in a Big Ten tournament, all those things that we were chasing, and chasing a championship, like, that’s the cost of doing that. I don’t think there’s, you know, Arizona’s a great example. I’ve watched them a few times. I have a lot of respect for their coach and their program, and those guys are all sacrificing a lot, and if they didn’t want to do that, then they should have went to somewhere else and been all about themselves, but they didn’t. They chose that, and now they’re playing the game the right way, and I feel like our guys are too, so to answer your question, we’re very confident in all of them.

They all bring something completely unique and different to the table, and at the end of the day, everyone doesn’t play great every game, and so basketball’s so fluid. It’s not like in football, where your quarterback doesn’t have it. You can’t really replace him because of all the things that go with it, or you can’t go with your backup because of a number of reasons, and baseball, you just pull your pitcher, and you pull your ace, and you throw him back out there five days later, and hopefully he has his best stuff that night, or the matchup’s better, or whatever the case, and that’s kind of how we’re built, and it’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

On the impact Adai Mara has had on games this season

He has an impact in a number of ways. First and foremost, he’s an incredible teammate who really deeply cares about people and wants to be a part of something special, and in a community that embraces who he is, and I think our guys really compliment him, and he compliments our guys well, and his passing, his rim protection, if he’s around the basket, he has to be accounted for. All those things just make, they allow us to play better outside of his production and rebounding and whatnot, but he’s a really, really good player that continues to grow, and he’s still, he’s learning a lot with the physicality in the league, and we don’t expect him to be the screener that Vlad was, because they’re different body types and different skillset, and so we’re just trying to really incorporate what are his strengths and secret sauces into our equation, or our meal, or whatever the case, and he’s done a good job, in a number of areas.

I could go on and on about Adai. He’s incredibly valuable, most importantly. We’ll do a substitution for whatever reason, and sometimes guys are disappointed. I mean, he’s excited as a 16-year-old playing for Real Madrid in the EuroLeague Finals. I mean, that’s just the type of guy he is, so as a coach, I really appreciate just how good of a guy he is, and how great of a teammate.

On whether Jeremy Fears tripping Yaxel Lendeborg should be looked at by the Big Ten

I think there are several plays that are very dangerous, and I am incredibly proud of our guys for the responses they had to some of those situations. Incredibly proud for their self-control, their restraint, and their impulse control. I’ll leave it at that.

On how the frontcourt has been able to buy in and play together

I think they all bought in because of the vision that our team played with last year, as far as the outside-the-box thinking. And Danny and Vlad did a lot, because they did something that, I mean, you don’t see it. Two seven-footers completely, I mean, they’re out there playing jazz together. And so, naturally, if you’re a big guy and all big guys want to shoot threes and dribble the ball, all guards want to-you know, I mean, it’s just the way it is. If any of us have ever played, I love posting up. And then, obviously, DNA took over, and then I couldn’t post up anymore.

And that’s just part of it. But they, as far as making it work, I think when you have really talented guys that can do a number of things well, there’s so many solutions now, and our game is incredibly complex. So you can find references to this working or not working, but I think it’s just-I don’t know. Once again, when one of them committed, and then the next one committed, they were both told by everyone that it couldn’t work. Why would you do that? You’re not going to play. It’s just part of it. Like, I’m not complaining at all. And then when we got all three of them, then it became overload, where everyone-it circled back, all the original schools recruiting them all circled back to that you can’t play together.

Why would you do that to yourself? All this stuff. And I think just they’re competitive guys. They don’t like being told what they can’t do. They’re not afraid of failure. They’re not afraid of competition. They’re not afraid of challenges. So I think their personality traits allowed them to do that. But also, they respect each other. And if you want to win big, you don’t go where there aren’t good players. If you really, really want to win, you’re not scared of competition. You know that’s going to make you better. And also, the NBA is so different now, where they’re looking for connectors. They’re looking for role guys. They’re looking for value. They’re looking for all these things. So you don’t have to go and put up huge numbers. You just have to go be efficient and win.

And coaches at every level, high school, junior high, AAU, college, pros, we’re all looking for guys that impact winning. So if you prove you can impact winning, and when you win, then there’s proof of concept that helps all these guys individually. And their individual careers after this, they’re incredibly important to us, too. We have one eye pointed towards their future and their developments. Even when we’re working extra on things they’re not doing now in games, it’s to help them down the line so they’re prepared for whatever situation they’re in next.

On Lendeborg acting like he’s unaware that he’s a star

I’ve never been around anyone like him. And I’m incredibly appreciative of how much he cares about his teammates as well. I’ll say it again. He doesn’t act like a mercenary every day. He acts like he’s completely engrossed and embedded in our program, our culture, and winning for others. He’s unique.

He’s special. And for a guy to go, I mean, we ran probably two plays for him, one play for him, and he gets 26 and 12. There aren’t a lot of guys like that that you can just, that can go get 25 or 30 in the flow of a game. And he can. His offensive rebounding these last couple games have been, that’s been the difference. And he continues to add different things. His shot looks great. They haven’t been dropping lately. They’re going to.

But it’s the other things. His ability to track the ball, get loose basketball, his offensive rebound, they’re impressive. So we wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for his unselfishness and his humility as a guy that was ranked as the number one guy in the portal.

On the top tier of the conference and how the team can survive the tough schedule

Staying healthy, staying together, just playing well at the right times, timely shooting. Those teams are really, really good. And I heard a coach say it the other day that it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them.

And the ebbs and flows of the season, where you catch them in their schedule and your schedule, those things all matter. But we’ve got a Penn State team that gave us everything and then some on this Thursday. We’re focused on that game, and I’m not even sure who we play. I think we go on the road the game after that. I think Ohio State maybe. So we’re not looking too far down the line. We could be a different team by then. Those teams could be a different team. We obviously know how good both of those teams are.

I mean, Illinois, I’ve caught their last couple games, at least parts of them. And they’re playing at a high, high level. You lose Bam, and you put another guy in who stayed ready, and they just keep functioning the way they did before. And obviously, Wagler’s playing as well as anyone in all of college basketball lately. And then they’re like us. They’re big, and they’re skilled. And so they’re going to present a number of challenges. And in Purdue, you have two first-team All-Americans. So I don’t even know when we play either one of those teams, but I’ve seen both of them enough to know that if I start thinking about them now, then I’m probably going to have an anxiety fit. And we won’t do what we need to do as far as focus on Penn State.

On the impact the bench players make on the game

Yeah, obviously, it’s well stated what Will does for our program and our culture and how well he’s done recruiting and making players feel at home and helping them and organizing team functions and all the stuff that great leaders do and great people do. On the court, because of the playing time situation, he hasn’t scored or shot nearly as well as he’s capable of. He sacrificed as much or more than anyone in our program, and we’re grateful for that.

And hopefully, we can hang a banner because of that sacrifice, because it’s never guaranteed. It’s blind faith. But Trey McKenney, for a freshman to come in and his defense be on par with his offense, is incredibly rare when you’re an All-American offensively.

Ultimately, at high school, they’re not choosing you based on your defense, so you never really know. And he’s been unbelievable on the defensive side of the ball as far as his desire to improve, his basketball IQ. He is bright. He’s tough. He has great self-awareness. He respects the guys on his team, so even when he’s not getting all that he desires, then he realizes why at that moment, and he doesn’t get down about it. But he’s getting better and better, and his role is growing, and it’s not because… How many threes did he make last game? One three? It’s not because of that three. It’s because of the way we’re functioning when he’s in the game and because he’s so reliable and dependable.

On the difficulty of the schedule helping his team not look too far ahead

You know, we just try to… Let’s just get ready for that next possession, and let’s just play the next one, and then play the next one, and play the next one, and know that we have each other’s backs. And I don’t have to be great, but I’ve gotta be very intentional with being here where our feet are, playing and competing at this moment, and just, like I said, the trust and faith that that will be enough. The scoreboard’s gonna say what we need it to say at the end if we take our day-to-day and our process is the right way.

On dissecting Adai Mara and Morez Johnson’s paint touches

Yeah, we’re still figuring that out against the different coverages and the different levels of physicality. Obviously, Merez had some amazing finishes late, and he makes them look easy. He’d slow them down and do, like, how the hell did he finish that? Or, man, he made that look easy. So those were obviously important. And just, it’s the spacing.

It’s figuring out where to put each of them when this is working or when the match-up’s this or that. So we’re, I mean, I hate to say it, but we’re still, how many games did we play? 20? 21? We played 21 games, two high-level exhibitions, 23 games, and we’re still tinkering with spacing with those guys and with the different lineups and trying to figure out. Because that’s the thing about the Big Ten coaches. They’re gonna challenge everything you do and what you get good at. Then they’re gonna eliminate that. And so you better have some contingencies.

You better have different solutions because in this league with the personnel and the staffs and the experience now with everyone being old, it’s tough to just do what you do and that be enough. And so you’re always trying to think ahead of what are gonna be the problems and what could be the solutions with what we have.

On why outside people calling his players mercenaries bothers him

Yes, of course. I mean, especially year two. I mean, how many… Look, I get it, man. I think everyone would rather us just come in and sign a bunch of freshmen and lose and try to grow it organically. But our job from day one was to win.

And so we brought in a balanced class. And even the transfer portal thing. I mean, I went in the portal. I went to a small Division II school and played ball and ran cross country, and then realized that that wasn’t gonna get me to where I wanted to be, which was a high school coach in Indiana. And I thought if I go be a student manager for Coach Knight, I could probably get a job in my mid-20s as a coach in probably the small school varsity job. And so it’s whatever prepares you best for what’s next. I watched a couple of our guys that left after last year’s team play this weekend. And man, I love watching those guys. We still talk to them.

They root for us. We root for them. We’re still in each other’s lives. I mean, we’re part of each other’s journeys. It just wasn’t… Our situation wasn’t what they wanted at that time. And we’re okay with it. We’re not mad at them. This is it. I mean, there’s… This is a change. This is… If we’re not fluid and flexible, we coaches don’t have the control that we had seven years ago. We don’t really have any control. And I’m okay with that.

This is… In our program, we want to prepare these guys for what’s next. And we want them to stay as long as they’re committed to doing it together and representing Michigan. But if they choose something different, then we’re not mad at them. We’re not… You know, we’re not making this about us. I mean, I remember our first big loss at FAU out of the portal. And the kid left because a high major put him in the portal. And then they ended up not taking him.

And we were down because we thought he was our first all-league guy. Man, we brought this kid in. No one knew about him. We developed him. And just before he’s an all-league guy, we lose him. And I just remember the staff in day two were still complaining about it. And I said, guys, we get paid to coach basketball. Let’s do it as well as we can. And let’s coach the guys that are here. And let’s try to find guys who are committed that want what we want and want to be here for this. And, you know, I ended up, you know, it ended up paying dividends later as we dealt with it better. And it’s just part of it. But this is… You know, we coach ball. And if a guy doesn’t like the way, you know, a player, this isn’t what fits them, I’m okay with them. It’s just, it’s not… It is what it is.

On Penn State having his attention after the first meeting

Yeah, they have some tough, tough match-ups. And obviously Mingo didn’t play in our game and he made a big-time game-winner yesterday against Minnesota. They’ve played a lot of the top teams close. They’ve been right there. And as we all know, Minnesota’s another great example. Man, they’ve been in…

If you look at their record, you say, oh, they’re having a good year, year one. I mean, Nico’s a great coach and they’re going to be at the top of the standing sooner than later. But man, I just look and I’m like, if they just could have finished a couple of those games a little bit differently or had a break go here or there, the complexion of their record in the season would look completely different. And it’s like that for everyone. I mean, if DeLeon hits that shot against us, our season may look a little bit different. You just keep getting to the next thing but understanding all 18 teams.

As Rutgers has showed, they’ve done an unbelievable job of continuing to improve, of fighting like crazy and every team in our league is really, really… Everyone has really good players. Period. So if you think you can take a night off in our league, then you’re going to be disappointed and probably be playing from behind the rest of the year.

On why he thinks the chemistry has worked with the transfer p;ayers

I always give credit to their families, their camps, the people that are around them. That’s as important as anything. I think the foundation that they have before they got here and I’ve said it a million times, our honesty and transparency in the recruiting process and even if we’re having issues during the season, I’ll ask the team and I’ll ask players, is anything that’s happening now not in the recruiting how we portrayed it in the recruiting process.

Did we lie in any way? Because sometimes you accidentally lie. We’ve told kids before, like, hey, we’re recruiting you to come in here and run our team from day one. That’s why you’re recruiting here and then you start practice and you’ve got an all-league guard on your team already that you didn’t know was that good and it just happens and so there are times when you unintentionally lie but we try to tell them exactly what the picture looks like and what the different ways it could go and because they remember everything we tell them in recruiting. Everything in the recruiting process. They may not remember anything we said on yesterday’s scout or what we said about the practice plan but everything we tell them in recruiting, they remember it and they hold us accountable and we haven’t told all these guys you’re coming in here to be the man, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that, you’re coming in to play good ball.

Your numbers probably aren’t going to be as great as they would be in other places, but we are going to play faster where there are more possessions, so there’s going to be opportunities, but you’re coming in to play this way and do it together and with the belief that we’re going to win championships.