Everything Dusty May said after Michigan’s 72-49 win over Tarleton State

It’s nice to end our home run with a win in another game as I feel we’ve learned something about ourselves. It was a game we needed. Coach Gillespie, he makes his guys play extremely physical, they play with a lot of passion and energy and where we’ve been and what we’ve struggled with has allowed us to really focus on taking care of the basketball . meeting pass and other. Our ball security came a long way in the last few days. It was a weird game where we didn’t convert very well around the rim, we didn’t make our open rhythm shots, we missed several front ends, and for us to still have that margin with all that going on is a testament to our guys. They played hard, they competed, we got great guard play.

Well the one thing about us, we play very fast tempo offensively and that has been a theme for the last 10 to 15 years of my coaching career. Defensively we have a very slow tempo and a lot of times shifts do that where teams try to figure out different ways to attack the shift. Maybe your plans take them out of what they’re trying to do and then they have to go to plan B or plan C and so we felt like they were just trying to slow the game down, move the ball and we were just trying to find different ways to increase the pace.

I thought he played one of his better floor games. As far as not converting around the rim, it’s tough. Those are shots he usually converts, they don’t drop. I think it’s like everything else in sports. You hit the line drive and it’s right at the short stop in baseball. You do the right thing and it just doesn’t fall. I think he wishes he had a few of those possessions left, but we’re not going to spend a lot of time and energy worrying about those shots going in. We’re going to generate those kinds of shots over and over and over and this is a new environment for a lot of different guys. Would we love to have them back? Yes. Are we going to? No. We’re very confident that when the time comes, he’ll make a high percentage of those shots.

I need to watch the tape, but Sam Walters, sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in. We’re pushing, so we’re doing something that uses more energy, and we’re shortening our rotation a bit. There weren’t very many. I think we had 11 turnovers. If you would have told me we only had 11 turnovers and they had 24, I would have thought the margin would be a lot bigger. Like I said, basketball is a fun game. They had one or two late where they shot layups and they sputtered. They just didn’t go in. As a coach, you can sit here and scream, ‘Make a layup,’ but those guys are trying to make it. We’re going to continue to be creative, add fakes and add the guys we’re lifting right now. We will continue to stress play with more pop around the rim and more physicality. I think more of a mindset of embracing physicality.

Vlad is 7-foot-1. He is a good communicator. He is mobile. He’s a great rim protector at his best. He still has work to do from a defensive rebounding standpoint. He’s going to anchor a lot of what we do. These games are tough, especially in an environment like this. We didn’t do a good job in the first half. We had him too high up on the floor early in the game. We flattened him a bit more in the second half and we looked better. I don’t know if the percentages say we were better, but in our minds as coaches we played a lot better. If we could get this shot chart every single game of the year, we’d definitely take it.

I’ll have to ask him if that’s his thinking. I think he takes what the game gives him. I think sometimes these other teams play guys 35-40 minutes. Maybe they just don’t put back into their defense as quickly and he takes advantage of the crease. To be honest, as much as we’ve turned it around, we’ve talked to the staff and said we’re going to live with some Tre Donaldson over-aggressive turnovers because he puts so much pressure on the defense. When Danny played the 5 tonight, if it wasn’t for foul trouble, I thought he had really good minutes at the 5. He was the quarterback for us, and I think he and Tre are starting to read each other’s minds and develop some chemistry offensively in transition. There were definitely some bright moments and some things we learned.

Yes, they will get a refund boost. We are leaving tomorrow. We leave on Saturday to get some vitamin D. It’s either that or wake them up early because the hotel weight room and stuff will be conducive. We’re locked in for the long haul to really continue to work throughout this stretch so we’re strong for Big Ten play.

If there are some resounding halftime speeches, then we should probably start using them before the game as well. Our guys, they talk about what to do. The staff meets, we usually look at one or two themes that we look into to see what it is. To be honest, early in games, Tarleton averages four threes a game, and they’ve made four early in this game. One of them was a step back three. I think our luck has not been great. In our minds, we want it to be much smoother, but that’s just unrealistic, and we think in the long run that these bumps and bruises and mishaps will pay off because it always turns around. Anyone who has been to Vegas knows that you can’t be on a streak like that for long.

If we’re healthy, I can’t imagine us playing 11 every night. But to be honest, you look at what Phat Phat did in the first half. He had a nice, quick shot with good production, a few nice passes, steals. You can’t really say…I don’t think Phat and (Justin Pippen) and those guys expect to play 15 or 20 minutes like you would if you’re a normal rotation player. Are there going to be guys out of the rotation that are going to bring something to a certain game? Absolutely. Will it be every game? Who knows? If we’re not in foul trouble and guys are clicking, then our rotation will probably be shorter. If we’re struggling with this or that or foul trouble, then we play more than the nine-man rotation, which is probably as extended as we’d like it to be.

I don’t want any secondary offences, but I am extremely excited to see football next year in the big house. I’m excited to see the clips on Twitter and social media. This is a big day for the University of Michigan. There are many people who have contributed to making this happen. I think we are all grateful for that. We will all benefit from acquiring talent like that, the highest level of talent in any sport. We will all benefit from it.

Yes, winning it will be very important. Obviously, the NCAA tournament, I don’t think there are any weighted games between November and December. They are all very important for the long term, for seeding, for getting into tournaments and what not. These quick turnarounds are also good for gauging what preparation you have up to this point, how quickly your guys can change a game plan and adjust on the fly. We get some quick turns and then of course you get into tournament format. It’s not like it used to be where you’ve seen all these teams at least twice. There may be teams we haven’t seen in months that we play. For all those reasons, I think we’re all excited to see what else we can learn about our team because the opposition tells you a lot more than we can in practice about ourselves.

Yeah, I think it will be great for guys from that area to see their families. I love road trips. The one thing about this tier is that road trips are much more condensed for obvious reasons. You don’t get a chance to spend that much time with your guys out of their element and comfort zone. I love it for team building. You see different guys rooming with each other. You are around the hotel. There are many advantages to going on such a trip. We’re excited on a number of levels, but more importantly, we think we’re a much better team than we were three or four weeks ago. It makes us excited to continue to improve and try to push the right buttons with our guys.

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