Everything Michigan basketball coach Dusty May said at Big Ten Media Days

Trent Knoop | Oct 3, 2024

U-M's new men's basketball head coach Dusty May shakes hands with students section Maize Rage members during an introductory press conference at Junge Family Champions Center in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Thursday marked Men's Big Ten Media Days in Illinois. From morning to afternoon, the Big Ten had three coaches up at the podium at the same time to preview their respective teams. First-year Michigan head coach Dusty May was at the podium with Illinois' Brad Underwood and Wisconin's Greg Gard to talk about the 2024-25 Michigan Wolverines.

Here is everything May had to say when he was up at the podium.

Opening statement

It's great to be here. When you look at our roster, we were able to get guys out of the portal that come from winning programs. They've been well-coached. Our freshmen have been a real pleasant surprise as well. We have a group that's fun to work with. We're big. We're skilled. We're a little bit different than all of our FAU teams. It's a great group.

On going to Indiana and learning under Bob Knight. Being back in the Big Ten

My earliest memories were watching Big Monday and Super Tuesday. Those were the only exceptions to my curfew where I could stay up late watching hoops. I've been at Florida for nine years, so I was curious how it would feel to be back in the Midwest. Immediately after landing in Ann Arbor it just felt like I was home again. So I'm excited to go against such great coaches and storied programs. We talked about before where every game is an event in the Big Ten.

Feeling of going back to Bloomington to play IU on Feb. 8

Once I saw the guys that Coach Woodson was able to get this year and the team they've put together, I've tried not to think about that game.

Coach May priortiezed the transfer portal. What kind of pieces was he looking for?

Very similar to these guys. We were looking for positional size. We brought in great skill and a lot of size. We're going to play Danny Wolf at the 4, who is 7'; we'll have Sam Walters playing on the perimeter who is a 6'10" shooter, and our guards are all big. We felt we needed a physical guard with good speed and positional size up front. We have great versatility. The line-ups are going to look a lot different game by game, but we're excited like Coach Underwood to put these pieces together.

On playing both Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf together

Well, we should be able to control the glass much better, and we should be able to find matchups. Any time you have that type of size, you can play over the top with your passing, and they're able to stretch the floor as well. We'll be able to put four shooters on the court at all times. Our guards can all make plays off the bounce and shoot it from deep. So we want to be a challenge to guard and also be able to protect the paint and take away the other team's threes.

A guy who people may not be talking about much right now and will surprise people

The guy Rubin Jones has been a pleasant surprise for us. Tre Donaldson out of Auburn. They've won a lot of basketball games and we're excited to see how they mesh together with the bigger guys up front. Like I said, everyone we brought in from the portal came from a winning program, so it's on us to put them together and utilize them.

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