Will Tschetter discusses Dusty May's vision for his role next season
The Michigan Wolverines are busy trying to fill the roster for next season under head coach Dusty May, but one of the key holdovers in forward Will Tschetter is sticking around for the overhaul. Weeks ago, he made it official that he would return to Ann Arbor as part of the re-designed program.
Tschetter had a career season off the bench for Michigan in 2023-24, averaging 6.8 points and 2.4 rebounds per game in 17.8 minutes a night on average. He upped his three-point shooting to 51.9%, hitting 28-of-54 of his attempts from beyond the arc and shooting 58.2% overall.
Tschetter told MGoBlue’s Brian Boesch that he plays on playing lighter next year and being more versatile.
“I think one of my main focal points right after the season ended was lose weight,” Tschetter said on the Defend the Block podcast. “I was at 250, playing at 250 this year was the heaviest I’ve ever been and I’m already down to 230. That was one of my conversations with Coach May, definitely not playing that big anymore, guarding Zach Edey. But being able to be more of a Swiss army knife and being able to move my feet.
“In the weight room already I’ve started incorporating a ton of agility and footwork stuff, being able to get my footspeed up, be able to guard those quicker guys, because when you’re heavy like that it’s tough to stay in front of those quicker guards, especially in this league.”
Tschetter said that he was always going to wait things out after Juwan Howard’s dismissal, and admitted he looked into some of the candidates to replace him. When Michigan landed on May, followed by a meeting between the two, the vision was not hard to get excited about.
“Hearing what he had to say… it was super promising,” Tschetter said. “He’s ridiculously detail-oriented and cerebral and thinks things through, so just definitely a lot of trust right off the bat with that. One of our first conversations that we had was about that fit. The first thing he emphasized was every year is different, so just always being flexible and kind of fitting into the strength of who are best player’s gonna be and what the strengths of those guys around him are, is how we’re gonna ultimately be more successful.
“Some of his core principles are rush that ball up the floor, like push it don’t let the defense get set. Share the game, if you’re not sharing the game you’re gonna have a great seat to watch the game, which is something I think is ridiculously important. And then shooting threes, which I love to do, so obviously, that was great to hear as well.”
There will be a few players on the roster from last year’s 8-24 team in Tschetter and sophomore guard George Washington III. A few others could return, but Tschetter is taking it on himself to put Michigan’s past behind it.
Whoever is on the roster has to be all-in on the main goal.
“I think that’s obviously something you can carry into our next season, making sure that those guys are absolutely all in, like you gotta live, eat and breathe Michigan basketball during the season,” Tschetter said. “And sometimes leading by example or just a few guys doing that isn’t enough, like if one guy’s not doing it, man you can really be screwed. Making sure that’s a point of emphasis in the future obviously is huge, and then I think just consistency.”
