WATCH: Dusty May on Michigan's Players Era title, potentially being No. 1 team, more

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines basketball head coach Dusty May met with the media Monday morning following his team’s Players Era championship and ahead of Saturday’s Big Ten opener against Rutgers. Watch video of his press conference in the player at the top of the screen.

Key quotes from Michigan coach Dusty May

• On Michigan’s response to the success in Las Vegas: “To this point, we’ve had two practices since we returned from Vegas, and yesterday, I thought, was our most spirited practice of the year, and probably our most productive, as well. That’s a good sign going forward. We’ve got to get lost in the fight and the process of improving, and so we’re off to a good start. We’re two for two. Hopefully, after today’s practice, we’ll be three for three.”

• On the goals within the nine days between games that Michigan wants to achieve: “Transition defense. I think it’s obvious when we get our defense set, our size, length and versatility are all key components. But, most importantly, I thought our guys really played well off of each other. The one thing about our team on both sides of the ball, we’re not rigid in what we do. And so we think the randomness, we think the connectivity are what make us unique. So, just the more we play together, the more situations we see, the more prepared we’ll be to deal with all the things that we’re going to see. We’ve got a firestorm ahead of us that we have to be prepared for.”

• On if Michigan found some ‘cheat codes’ during its three-game stretch in Las Vegas: “I think our cheat code is our unselfishness. That would be it right now. I think each game is going to present some different opportunities for us, based on who the other team is. But we do have some unique weapons, but right now our unselfishness is our cheat code.”

• On Michigan handling success: “Well, we have to get better. Whatever today is — December 1st — on December 1st, we’re good enough to compete with anyone and everyone in the country right now on any given night. On April 6, I think is that last Monday, are we going to be good enough to compete with anyone in the country on that night? If we get stagnant or static — whatever — we’re not going to be in position to do what we want to do, so we just have to get better. We have to put our earmuffs on and just get better every single day and continue appreciating each other and our unique talents and gifts. If we do that, then we’ll get even hungrier. That’s one thing success does: It makes you fat and happy, complacent, whatever you want to call it, or it lights a fire that you want more. And as long as our ‘more’ isn’t recognition or pats on the back, it’s giving more to your teammates and more in other areas, then we’ll be fine. It’s going to be a fight, but like I’ve told everyone — you get a lot of unsolicited advice in this position — I would much rather take this problem versus some of the other problems. We’re going to fight the fight.”

• On Michigan’s two-point offense and defense: “You recruit shooting, and you have shooting so you can get layups and dunks. The shooting thing — you recruit shooting so you can get threes — [but] if you recruit shooting and you have guys that can hit shots, it opens up everything else. So, if we’re taking and making a good percentage of our perimeter shots, then we’re going to shoot well from two. And we’re continuing to get better. We’ve got to add some things to our package that will allow us to beat some of the best defensive teams in the country, the way they’re going to defend us. I’m not going to divulge that, for obvious reasons, but we’re still trying to add some things to our arsenal that can make us tougher to deal with. But, like I said, we still have a lot of holes in what we do on both sides of the basketball. We’ve got to get better.”

• On what it means to May for Michigan to beat No. 1 in KenPom, the initial NET rankings and potentially No. 1 in the AP poll: “I mean, obviously cool for the attention of your program. We’re always recruiting, selling, messaging, so it’s great for all of those things. But internally, we’ve got to continue to — whatever analogy you want to use — build a fort around our locker room, built a moat around our fort. Whatever the case, we have to continue to just take it all in stride and understand that all glory is fleeting. This could be gone Saturday. We never get too high or too low, and when the world’s falling because we only good a good Big 12 team by ‘x’ number of points, the world’s not falling in our locker room, and we’re not screaming from the mountaintop now. Our temperature rarely changes. Our gym yesterday, before practice, the capacity of guys in there working with intentionality to get better. Those are the things that I care about.”