Everything Michigan HC Dusty May said during his offseason media availability

Opening Statement

We’re pleased with how the roster is shaping up, and the guys we have in our program going forward, and the post-spring happened, so we like where we are as of today

On having a larger recruiting class than normal

Yeah, the biggest component was the expansion of rosters. We have 15 spots now, and we thought this is a great opportunity to maybe take a flyer on a guy or two that we feel like will be really, really good in a couple of years, and develop them, pour into them, and help them, and give them all of everything that Michigan has to offer.

On whether he has a preference of portal to recruiting numbers

Just varies from year to year. It varies month to month, year to year, and sometimes you do it, and you think, wow, I’m so glad we did that. Other times, you think wow, we still have a gaping hole. I wish we had another spot open or whatever the case. Typically, freshmen, one of them will surprise us with how good he is. One will surprise us with he’s not quite as advanced as we thought, and the rest of them are gonna be probably exactly what we thought. That’s typically the rule of thumb the heuristics when it comes to recruiting freshmen, but we like our roster. We think, also, I think freshmen will be a little bit more forgiving if they’re playing a rotation off the bench or if they’re playing spot-up minutes because they have a long road ahead of them, versus you if you bring in a senior out of the portal and he plays 12 minutes. He’s probably gonna be a little more disgruntled unless those were the terms that were laid out prior to signing

On recruiting around NBA Draft decisions like Morez Johnson

We don’t recruit against it. I mean, what are we gonna tell Morez? I think he knows. Yesterday’s probably the first day that I haven’t talked to Morez in a couple weeks. I talked to him every day, but it’s more just supporting him, checking on him, just having a conversation about his well-being and whatnot. But when guys declare for the draft, we don’t ever recruit them back. This is our vision. We present our vision, our plan, what we think it will look like, and then they decide what’s best for them.

On the status of Morez Johnson, Adai Mara and Elliot Cadeau’s NBA Draft decisions

I could tell you they’re all training with their agencies. I think Elliot’s been the most clear, saying that he wanted to use this to get feedback, to have a positive experience. I think Morez and Adai are gauging the interest of the NBA. I mean, I think with the way they play, they’ve positioned themselves and are having a very, very difficult decision. But you know, we get feedback from the NBA daily. We get to talk to their agents. We talk to them, and so I’d rather not comment on those guys. Let them comment on whatever their futures hold.

On his opinion of Cadeau getting feedback from the draft process

I don’t really feel anything. I mean, if he wants to go see what a workout is like to prepare himself for next year, to get to hear what the people who are future employers are gonna say about us, then I’m fully supportive of them. I don’t feel bad. We support our players with whatever their personal ambition is outside of the season. I mean, if an NBA team said we’re gonna draft you in the top 10, I’d probably tell Elliot to go to the NBA, and we’d figure this out.

On Brandon McCoy and Joseph Hartman being early contributors

Yeah, I think they’re both gonna gonna be in contention to play. I think, and I don’t want to single those two out, it’s competition-based. I mean, I’ve been very adamant that USA basketball, that experience, the play at the highest level of high school hoops, it prepares players to not be the — I think traditionally, if you had a guy that was the best player in his town, county, state and he’s shooting 30 shots a game and then he comes to college, there’s an adjustment. Because every play is not gonna be run for him and things of that nature. And so with McCoy, he’s played at a very high level. He’s physically mature, he’s a specimen athletically, and you know, we expect him to make major contributions, and Hartman is a very well-rounded basketball player. He can check a lot of boxes. He’s played a lot of positions. So anytime you have positional versatility, you come from the stock that Joseph comes from, as far as his dad being a coach, it gives him a leg up over the typical freshman, but you know, we have stuff penciled in, but as far as knowing who’s gonna do what? The guys will determine that in the summer and the fall, and then we’ll see where we are.

On Marcus Moller’s health status

Yeah, he has one more procedure before he’s out of the weeds. Yeah, he’s doing well. He actually went back to his club in Spain to clean out his apartment and get personal things, and was able to do some workouts back there. So he’s doing well, all things considered. He’s doing well.

On Jaden Reed’s recovery and the reason for adding him as a transfer

Right now, obviously, all the risk with the give-and-take with everyone that you sign. With Jalen, we felt like if he can get back to full strength and healthy, he’s a really good basketball player. We’re also gonna be very patient with him and his timetable to make sure he’s back ready to go. We have also have a lot of faith in our sports science department and Matt and Chris to invest the time and the professional expertise that they have to get him back to playing at the level he’s playing at, we thought he was a very, very good take. He could certainly outperform his expectations if he’s healthy, and if he’s not as healthy as early as we’d hoped, and we’ll have the depth to overcome that, but he’s a talented young man and a great human being.

On whether he’s seen comparisons to previous big men he’s coached with Moustapha Thiam

Yeah, he’s a lot different. Obviously, he’s a center, and he’s big, and he’s talented, he’s skilled, but his game isn’t like theirs, and so it’s exciting to have another player with the talent he has that we can tweak our system to and play through a little bit. He’s got a lot of weapons in this toolbox. He’s gonna be fun to coach. But yeah, we’re excited for him. Obviously, the rim protection and things like that, if you’re gonna have the type of defense we had this year, you need to build and clean some stuff up at the rim, and we think he’s able to do that on the defensive end. He runs, he makes threes. I mean, as you saw here in the exhibition game, we had no answer, and that was before Morez and Adai, but we had no answers for him down low. So he’s a guy that we think that he will be able to identify some matchup advantages for us and attack him on the perimeter and the low post and transition, whatever the case. But yeah, he’s another one that we’re incredibly excited to coach because he’s proved he can do it at a high level and in the Big 12.

On how he views the wing position and who could fill the role

I mean, we look at us like — even Trey McKenney, for example, to me, he was a starter. I think when you look at the box scores of his games played, 40 and it says starts zero, I use top four or five in minutes played. What we thought going into the year was, number one, Nimari fits in, really, I think just fits him probably better with his skillset and what he does better with this starting group. I think Trey probably fits in better with Roddy and Will and the first wave off the bench and without all three of the bigs in together. I’d rather talk about finishing lineups than starting lineups because sometimes, hey, we started Mike Forrest at FAU, a fifth-year senior that was as valuable to any team in the country as he was. For us, we just felt like he played really, really well with Giancarlo Rosado, and he didn’t play that well with Vlad. So we decided to start one, and the other one came in two minutes into the game or three minutes in the game. So no, we haven’t decided on a starting lineup, yet. We have plenty of time though.

On players who can play the three

I think Ricky’s gonna play. I think Oscar’s gonna play. I think Brandon’s gonna play. I mean, is Brandon McCoy gonna be a 3-2-1? Does Trey McKenney gonna play the two or the one? Three? I don’t know yet. Maybe when we have our team here, and we look at them and see them play together and see who’s healthy and who’s not, I could give you a better idea of who’s gonna play what positions and what roles, but right now, just no, I don’t know. I could check the message boards, tell you, yeah.

On how the 5 in 5 impacts the program

Obviously, that changes the dynamics. You know, do you use them in February? You just have to make sure they’re ready to go, and then is the five gonna be a hard line five? I think that over the course of time, history has proven that when you bring in a good attorney, everything’s flexible. Does a five and six happen if a guy has a couple of injuries? I mean, I don’t know, with the whole five and five thing. We’ve just chosen to cross that bridge when we get there. We didn’t think it was ever going to happen because football’s already passed, but if it does, and you know, I think we’re pretty much close to having our roster completed, but I think anything that’s that subjective, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it yet. I’ll make those decisions. There’s too many decisions to be made today to worry about decisions that have to be made ten months from now or whatever the case may be, so that’s kind of how I look at it.

On what kind of conversations he’s having with players about getting paid

We’re very open and honest that everyone’s not gonna get paid the same and the market dictates guys. Look, a five-man is gonna make more than a typical two or three, and no, we don’t have that. I don’t bring you in and tell you what each guy is going to be making or whatever the case, and a lot of times, what they make changes based on how marketable — you look at what our guys are making now post-national championship, it’s significantly more per appearance than it was one year ago today. Our guys, they knew Yax was our highest paid player and they knew there’s another group that was below that and then there’s another group that was paid more of developmental guys, they have an opportunity to earn a lot more as they make their way into the rotation. As far as specifics, if you quiz me on what each of our guys makes, I don’t think I would know the exact amount. I know the range or ballpark on all of them, but no.

On how much facing and preparing for players helps in the transfer portal

It helps, especially when you’ve scouted them and you’ve watched them more and you’ve competed against them. It certainly helps. As far as the the big picture, we’re not selecting them per se, it’s not a draft. So you have to just grab a guy based on what information you have at hand at times. There’s a calculated risk, and you try to do as much as you can in advance, but there’s only so much you can do in a matter of three to ten days. Which is kind of a sweet spot after the portal opens to guys committing to places, I mean, I don’t think a lot of guys even take visits anymore. They do a couple of Zooms, they negotiate, and then they decide, and then they take the visits. As much information as you can have, it certainly helps your decision.

On the strengths of the pick-and-roll with the portal additions

We feel like Elliott, first and foremost, is a cheat code in the pick-and-roll. He needs certain things for him to maximize his ability, so that factored into us targeting certain players. For example, I think JP’s ability to pick and pop to pick and roll, but also to be a physical screener. I think we learned from Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Tarris Reed. I think those are the two best screeners we faced all year, and we think we felt like those guys helped their teammates be even more successful than they would have otherwise because of their ability to screen. We saw how potent Elliot was with Adai and Morez being able to throw a lob so we felt like him having a lob threat, and then you factor in the shooting on the perimeter, I think Moustapha and JP are both capable of making threes. That certainly helps with the spacing and the cutting because I do think we have some good cutters as well. We talked about Brandon McCoy, I think he’s gonna have a lot of success all over the court, and him as a cutter is certainly valuable when you’re playing with Elliot, and if you have bigs who can shoot and space the floor. You have the Trey McKenney’s, who can shoot and space the floor. It makes them even more valuable in their roles.

On whether Roddy Gayle returning with the 5 in 5 rule is a possibility

I thought they came out and said they weren’t in the five-five, correct? Pardon, no, grandfathered. Yeah, I wasn’t positive about that. I just kind of skimmed the article. If they had put it in play, and if Roddy could have played, would he have played? I’m joking, that’s a lot of hypotheticals. Back to it, when you guys when you guys take a job, do they bring you in and tell you what everybody else makes? I was just curious on that. Time when you brought in today they go down the line I’ve only been in hoops.

On whether Malachi Brown is a diamond in the rough

Yeah, Malachi, we saw him and really liked him and felt like with maturity, and weight room, and all the things that go into what these guys go through to get better. But he played it at the Adidas All-American camp, and a couple of NBA coaches that were working the camp thought that he was a top whatever player in the country, and couldn’t believe that he was mostly unheralded, and no one even knew who he was. The biggest reason was because he would defend, he would rebound. He got deflections and he connected on offense, he just made simple plays. Even now more than ever, I think when you watch an NBA game, these guys that are connectors. Morez became a great connector for us last year, I think that’s really improved his value. But guys that catch the ball and know what they’re gonna do before they catch it, meaning if they don’t already have the shot, then they don’t take it. They simply try to find the next action. I think a lot of times guys will try to make a play, and if they can’t now it’s like okay, now I’ll try to find the next thing, where the guys that aren’t trying to score can, and that’s what we envision him being, a really, really good connector, cutter, Swiss army knife on offense, and then just cutting his teeth on the defensive end.

On this thoughts on the NCAA Tournament expanding to 76 teams

I mean it, if I were a czar of coaching. I probably wouldn’t have expanded it. But I could have been easily persuaded. Here’s the way I look at it. I’ve said this several times, I don’t have to tell you guys, when I was an assistant at Louisiana Tech, before there was the NET. There was the RPI, and we were top 30 or like 27th, 28th, 29th, whatever in RPI. That’s pretty good. We lose our conference tournament. We come back home, and we don’t even watch the show because it was hopeless. We weren’t going to dance. We felt like there was no chance. Well, after the show was over, they popped up the first four out, and our name was up there, and we said, holy cow, like we actually had a chance. We were that close, and so if you can have four more teams experience March Madness, and people can criticize the NCAA all they want, but they put on an event, they put on a championship. They put on an event like no other and so if more young players and coaching staffs can have an opportunity to experience March Madness then then I’m for it. The traditionalist in me says no, let’s keep it at just like I said when it was 64, but it’s slightly tilted towards keeping it as is. But like I said, I could be easily persuaded and I do see that and once again, whatever we decide, I’m gonna see the good in that versus bemoaning the other. That’s just how I choose to look at it, but yeah, I’ll be excited that you know next year, Tulsa, who this year, was one of the first out, Tulsa has a chance to experience the NCAA tournament, and Eric Conklin, those guys. That’s a pretty cool deal, and I’ll sign up for that

On LJ Cason’s status and Lincoln Crosby redshirting this season

I think I’ll start with Lincoln because he was last. I think this will speed up his growth and development, and they do an amazing job at where he is now down in Florida, Montverde. But just being on a college campus, practicing working against college guys every day, like LJ, he’s coming off of an ACL injury. So we were gonna take it very, very slow with those guys who have major injuries. LJ has been great. Obviously, there’s been some tough days with his recovery and pain and things like that, but just to see his growth, and that’s the coolest part. I think that’s my favorite part of the Paramount Plus Made for March documentary is to see LJ when we are in another room, to see him leading because that’s ultimately why we won this year. The leadership in our locker room, the commitment to each other. You know, those things are really — because I didn’t see those things live. We’re trying to figure out what we’re gonna do next. So I thought that’s a really cool moment, and it showed how valuable LJ was to our team, especially after he got injured.

On whether he’s waiting on any other decisions and plans to add to the roster

Yeah, and obviously, the guys who are affecting those decisions. We’re in the information-gathering phase with a couple of guys.

On Quinn Cosetllo’s game

Quinn is another one who, because he has positional versatility, gives himself a much better chance as a freshman of getting on the court. Obviously, he’s good enough to play. His assent was probably as high as anyone, and where he didn’t get invited to the NBPA camp, Top 100 camp, and then got a last-minute add-on, flew down the day of, and performed really well there, but he’s a 6’10. He’s skilled. He’s athletic. You know, obviously, if you’re in an era where you’re not playing against a bunch of 22 and 23-year-olds, it gives you a chance to be even more successful, but he’s smart. He’s tough. He’s gonna work hard. He’s gonna put himself in a position. So, you know, like our other freshman, Quinn brings a lot to the table, and like our other guys. He’s a Michigan type of guy.

On the importance of finding out whether a player is a “good guy” through Zoom calls

You better be able to trust your relationships in your contacts. Moustapha, you look. We talked to all the coaches at Cincinnati. We talked to my son, who played at UCF. We know the coaches at UCF. We felt like we had great intel on him, and then he actually visited, and you spend a couple of days with him, and you realize, man, this is another great, great guy. JP is one that, after he committed, we went out and visited with him and sat down with him, and we met his family, same thing. You talk to their youth coaches, you talk to their agent, you talk to their high school coaches, you talk to the coaches of the program they’re leaving, you talk to anyone, just like the NBA does. The NBA had a couple of franchises yesterday talking to our video coordinators, talking to our analytics guys, talking to the trainers, talking to the academic advisors, just gathering as much intel as you can, and hopefully you choose the right guys, but that’s it. As soon as you feel like you’re close on a guy, you dive into the intel and try to see if it’s the right fit. You know, luckily, I think the right kind of guys have been attracted to us for the most part.

On the biggest acquisitions his program has made this offseason and whether Trey McKenney’s return is the biggest

Yeah, I don’t want to rank them as far as which ones were the biggest. But I think all of us in this room have watched our team play a lot and seen his growth and development. That one’s big, and I think he’s got another jump he can make. I know he’s got another jump he can make because he’s such a hard worker. He’s adding more to his game. He’s continuing to experiment with his body about his playing weight and where he can play the most athletic. He’s a guy that if he’s not an All Big-Ten guy next year, then I’ll be surprised or it means he battled injuries or whatever the case. He’s a really good player and for him to play as well as he did against Arizona and in the national championship game, make the back-breaking shot, they gave us enough separation to figure out a way to win. It’s his day-to-day, I mean, I’ve never been around a more consistent freshman than Trey McKenney was last year. The ups, the downs, the highs and lows, just maintains an even-keeled approach to everything, and each day’s about getting better, and so that usually bodes well for another big, big jump.

On whether the championship has sunk in yet

No, and it’s been a little bit annoying. To have the expectations that you have, you need to do this and you need to do that. It’s impossible. Obviously, your roster is the priority because if we don’t do the work necessary now and the last couple weeks leading into the next couple weeks, we don’t have a chance to compete again. So it’s been difficult, but no, it doesn’t feel like it. You’d have to ask the staff, but for me, no, it doesn’t feel any different at all. There have been a couple of times when I’m with my family, and I watched the last episode (of the documentary). I just looked at her and said, did that really happen? I think that’s the coolest part of the camera, that Made for March group following us around. It’s our own scrapbook. It’s our time capsule the boys will look back on, because I’m not very good at looking in the past. I know Brian, and I have been talking about some things, and he remembers a lot more about the season than I do. I just have such a forward-thinking approach, and if whatever we can learn from this past year, let’s do that, and everything else is just let’s just keep moving forward, but now it doesn’t feel any different at all.

On what his wife said when he asked if it happened

She just smiled and kind of laughed at me. I think we hugged each other and said, yeah, that happened. And how did it happen, and why did this happen to us? How’d we get here and those types of things, so it was a pretty cool moment just with her and I.

On the success of the program helping in recruiting

It’s helped in recruiting, and obviously, the NBA component is big. Coming into last year, we heard several other schools recruiting against us, saying they haven’t had NBA guys, and our response was, well, I mean, how many are you supposed to have at an FAU or a place like that? And we had a few, and Elijah Martin is still with the Raptors now, still playing. Obviously, Vlad’s with the Heat. Danny, drafted in the first round, helped us just check one of those boxes of what people could kill us with as they’re recruiting against us. Now it looks like we’re gonna have another very successful draft year, and so the success on the court, the improvement of our players individually, and then the post-Michigan success helps immensely, and so we’ve been welcomed much more easily this year than last, and hopefully much better next year than this year.

On how the success helped land a player like Thiam and what to expect from him as a player

I mean, I think there’s a proof of concept. It’s not as if we’re having to sell a vision. With Moustapha, this is how we played Adai and Morez, we’re not gonna use you exactly like that. We’re gonna accentuate your talents and put you in a position to be extremely successful, and let’s not forget that the team success is probably the thing that’s driven their value more than anything else. When you win at a high, high level, Florida is a great example, last year, our team this year. Everyone becomes exponentially more valuable because it’s proven that they know how to impact winning at the highest level.

On the status of his contract talks

I haven’t signed it. Warde and I agreed to the terms and the structure, and then after that, there’s still some I’s to dot and T’s to cross. I don’t think anyone who’s ever dealt with attorneys knows that it’s not as if you make it a redline change and it’s turned back, and the same thing with agents and attorneys on the other side. So yeah, Warde and I have agreed to terms just like last year. I think we ended up signing it in July. I don’t know when this will get signed. I think it’s whenever things get turned back. But yeah, we’ve agreed to the terms. There’s no second-guessing or second thoughts. My mind, the handshake. It was done on the handshake

On whether he had relationships with the portal previously adds and whether they’re working off a list of names

Estrella, obviously we played against them. Thiam, we played against him. Reed, no. Reed, Akeem had had been familiar with him because he recruited him at Georgia, so we had talked about him but didn’t really know his situation. It was last week, or whenever, we did a Zoom, and there was more familiarity with Michigan than we thought initially, and he wanted to come for all the right reasons, and so we did a deep dive, but the staff had seen him play a lot just over the years, but I’d never seen him in high school and hadn’t seen him pre-injury. So I went back and watched his games and clips pre-injury, and I was impressed with him. No, we weren’t really working, I mean, obviously, every big guy that went in the portal went on our list, literally, 100% of the big guys that were high major players went on our list because we didn’t know what the other guys were gonna do, and you have to put yourself in as many positions as you can to be successful. So yes and no, but it happens so fast. I don’t even really remember which ones you talk about first or identify first. It’s just there’s a tidal wave coming at you, and you’re trying to find the best fit for you, and there were a couple times when we thought there were other guys that we felt like we’re going to come, and just for whatever reason didn’t want to risk waiting on an NBA process or things like that. So each case is drastically different, and sometimes it’s based on who else wants them.