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    • Michigan Basketball’s Dusty May is confident, he doesn’t care that it’s Year 1
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    Michigan Basketball’s Dusty May is confident, he doesn’t care that it’s Year 1

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

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    First-year coaches don’t often talk like Dusty May did on Friday afternoon.

    Unless they know something. At least they have a strong suspicion that this is the case.

    Michigan Basketball’s new head coach made no promises — even when a reporter pointed to a staffer who said that inside the building it was not just about a successful season, but also about getting to the Final Four in San Antonio. But even at the start of the 2024/25 season, his first in the maize and blue, he did not give in to his expectations.

    There is a whole new atmosphere surrounding the basketball program in Ann Arbor. A new head coach, 10 new staff members, six transfers and three newcomers; But instead of the predictable reservations of growing pains and tempered expectations, UM’s leader embraced the idea that his team could be relevant come spring.

    “We have the pieces that we could put together a really good basketball team,” May said. “Obviously we all know when you get to the tournament: the matchups, the breaks, the health, all of those things play a role, but we are a confident group. Most of these guys come from programs where they won a lot of games and won championships.

    “I don’t think they came here to take a step back. … but once again the talk is the talk, the piece is the piece.”

    Everything May and his staff have done since he was hired in March has been intentional. From hiring Matt Aldred as strength and conditioning coach to prepare his team for an up-tempo style, to hiring general manager Kyle Church to handle scheduling logistics.

    MUST READ: Strength coach Matt Aldred is putting muscle — and brains — into the rebirth of Michigan basketball

    These days, the more styles of play a team can see, the better, and that’s exactly why UM has built its schedule this way, leading up to a matchup against Oakland on Sunday. Not only does this keep the Wolverines in place, but May said that without this game, “we probably wouldn’t have any zone concepts (installed),” but that will force Michigan to try to mix and match personnel.

    In addition, he said, don’t be discouraged if the season doesn’t start with tons of wins.

    By some measures, Michigan has a strong schedule in the top five, with non-conference matchups against programs like Arkansas, now led by John Calipari at Madison Square Garden, a Wake Forest team picked to finish in the top three ACC, and TCU, led by Jamie Dixon, who, in May’s words, “finds a way to win at a high level every year.”

    May wanted his schedule to look like this for a reason.

    “To be honest, we have confidence in our guys,” he said. “We felt like it was an older group like this that wanted to play big games. We wanted to see Michigan back on national television and playing in historic settings like MSG.”

    “We changed our philosophy three or four years ago when we felt that the teams that competed aggressively early were really improving. They were challenged, they were exposed early, but it will be fun, challenging and test our resolve.”

    The Wolverines are just more than 48 hours away from their unofficial season opener Sunday night in Detroit, and May said that as things stand, the Wolverines have nine players in their full-time rotation that he considers interchangeable starters.

    Although he didn’t list them, here’s an educated guess as to who they are: Danny Wolf, LJ Cason, Tre Donaldson, Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr., Rubin Jones, Sam Walters, Will Tschetter and Vlad Goldin. Given the versatility of these players, May said the Wolverines are fairly confident in their ability to combine different looks with big or small lineups.

    A FUN: For Michigan basketball, the match against Oakland at LCA “made sense in every way”

    “I think we have a group where we might see a number of combinations,” May said. “I look at eight or nine guys as good starting players, there’s not much difference between 1 and 10. Maybe we’ll see these two guys play better together, and the best way to do that is from the bench, or we can rotate game by game depending on the matchup and the demands of those games.

    While May doesn’t want the offense to be in situations that involve playing dump-down basketball and only playing one-on-one, Gayle is the guy the Wolverines need right now when they need a bucket .

    Goldin, FAU’s 7-footer, is another solid option on the team should he score one-on-one, while Danny Wolf, the other 7-footer, can score at all three levels; But more than anything, UM will rely on matchups to determine who scores.

    May praised Donaldson, saying his ball instincts could “play in front of 111,000 fans on Saturday,” and called Will Tschetter the front-runner, the team alpha and the tone-setter. He considers Rubin Jones a winner and an “elite” perimeter defender and said he “can’t say enough good things” about the way Burnett has served as a leader and tone-setter for the new faces in the program.

    There’s also a lot to like about the shoot. May said he received a recent report and, aside from the desperate 3-point attempts late in the game, his team “took good shots,” many of which were uncontested 3-pointers.

    In those final moments, May has her eyes on the only rookie whose name was listed in the player rotation: Cason. He has shot nearly 50% on 3-pointers in more than 30 practices.

    “Winning state titles in high school and big games on the AAU circuit,” May said of Cason. “His previous performance suggests he will be ready to help us as a freshman.”

    FUTURE WOLVERINE: Michigan Basketball signs four-star forward Winters Grady in 2025

    The Wolverines aren’t a trendy pick to win the Big Ten, which recently expanded to 18 teams and spans both coasts. Michigan double-dips in Los Angeles against USC and UCLA in the first week of January, but faces Oregon and Washington at home before facing Michigan State twice in the final month of the year.

    May said his team may not have fully found its identity by this point in the new year, but even now he likes what he sees. There was a vision that began 209 days ago when May was officially hired. This included coaches and players, the approval of the fans and the trust of the superiors.

    Even though it’s still early, May says the early returns have been fantastic. If UM continues to stack days and have anything like the season May thinks is possible, more people will soon notice.

    “(At FAU) we had the philosophy of building a program fan by fan, brick by brick,” May said. “Here it can be walls of ash, one wall at a time. There’s so much tradition and history here, if we put a good product on the pitch, we play the right way, we think we’ll be able to bring the fans back in droves.

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    Caradoc Wyn
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