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Michigan basketball doesn’t just look fun again. It could be good too

Michigan basketball doesn’t just look fun again. It could be good too

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Anyone unfamiliar with Michigan basketball’s new style of play under Dusty May could have figured it out within the first few minutes of a five-on-five scrimmage Friday at the team’s practice facility.

The pace was brisk. The distance was clear. There was constant movement and quick ball movement. Passes were whipped from one player to the next before shot after shot was fired without hesitation from outside the arc.

When an occasional push toward the basket was made, it was quick and decisive. These new-look Wolverines went back and forth, up and down the floor, competing furiously. It was breathless, exciting, riveting and refreshing – a sight for sore eyes that were increasingly strained during the ugly final days of Juwan Howard’s doomed regime in the spring.

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“It was fun,” said fifth-year guard Nimari Burnett, one of three holdovers from Howard’s torpedoed program that finished near the bottom of the Big Ten last season with an 8-24 record, the worst in program history .

“It’s different,” added forward Will Tschetter, who is entering his fourth year at Michigan.

So much has changed since the Wolverines’ last game on March 13th.

Howard was released in the following days. Later that month, May was hired as his successor after a whirlwind recruitment. Soon after, the squad underwent a major overhaul, which began with a mass exodus of Tschetter’s former teammates. The wave of departures gave May the opportunity to build a team capable of playing in his preferred way from the start. He acted quickly, bringing in six transfers who could implement a system based on increasing the number of possessions and then maximizing them through a large number of three-pointers and layups.

There was already a substantial proof of concept for this analysis-based approach. Over the last two seasons, May led Florida Atlantic to a 60-13 record and shocked the sport in 2023 when he led the Owls to the Final Four.

Elsewhere, Alabama used the same high-efficiency philosophy to become an SEC power and Final Four contender.

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That’s why May and his players appear to be taking advantage of their opportunities this season, despite being on the ground floor of this new venture.

“We have the pieces that could make us a really good basketball team,” May crowed.

Hours later, Burnett went a step further, telling the Free Press that if everything goes according to plan, “we’ll have a national championship group.”

At first glance it seemed like an exaggeration. But when you watch the Wolverines in action, it becomes easier to understand why there is such unbridled optimism within their ranks. The two 7-foot transfers Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf complement each other well. The Yale native Wolf stretches the floor with a silky outside shot. Goldin, who followed May from FAU, provides a physical presence deep and displays cat-like reflexes that allow him to snag rebounds and tip-in misses.

On the perimeter, Tre Donaldson, an import from Auburn, runs the point as a pass-first facilitator who can score. He’s surrounded by athletic guards like former Buckeye Roddy Gayle Jr. and true freshman Durrell “Phat Phat” Brooks who can create shots off the dribble and bury jumpers from deep. There is also Sam Walters, a 1.90 meter tall winger from Alabama who expands the offensive dimensions as a powerful 3-point specialist.

Aside from the fact that they are all new to Michigan, what these players have in common is their versatility and high basketball IQ. In a rotation that could include up to nine men, May could employ multiple permutations of lineups to exploit individual matchups and outmaneuver opponents. The team’s reversible training jerseys have come in handy during this ramp-up period as he has tried different combinations with a squad built to give him flexibility.

“We can have a lot of people plug in and play,” Wolf said. “Our coaches try to challenge us with different styles and ideas.”

That’s not surprising, considering May has earned a reputation as a basketball expert with a flair for solutions.

“He’s ten steps ahead of everything,” Tschetter said. “Extremely cerebral. Very conscious of what he does.”

It certainly seems that way.

After losing Michigan playing in Howard’s stagnant and muddled system, the man who replaced him has a clear sense of purpose again.

The Wolverines will pick up the pace. They will share the basketball. You will avoid taking mid-range jump shots between the foul line and the arc. They will not host singles matches.

“Our coaches,” Wolf explained, “don’t like iso basketball.”

This means there are no ball eaters that could disrupt the flow. May’s style is fundamentally democratic and uninhibited.

“We didn’t sign anyone who scored 25 points per game at the lower level because we value team play,” he said. “And we enjoy coaching it when everyone does it together and everyone is involved.”

As May looked through his glasses from the sideline, he must have been pleased with what he saw on Friday.

The Wolverines flew up and down the field, a blur of maize and blue. At each end, the ball was flipped from one player to the next before anyone saw clearly enough to shoot a three-pointer. It didn’t matter who fired the shot. At any moment it could have been Wolf, Gayle, Brooks, Donaldson, Burnett, Walters and even Goldin. The point was that everyone was working in sync and accomplishing the same mission.

“I think if you were to watch practice today,” Wolf said, “you could get a sense of what we’re trying to do.”

It was all so obvious.

It was also incredibly fascinating.

“I think our ceiling is exactly what we want,” Tschetter said afterwards.

The roster May has built and the free-flowing system he has installed have given hope to a program that believes it is on the cusp of a rebirth. No matter how this turns out, it should at least be fun to watch.

Contact Rainer Sabin at [email protected]. Follow him @RainerSabin.