Dusty May previews Wake Forest matchup, gives Michigan injury update

Michigan is sitting at 1-0 on the young season after a big win over Oakland last week. The Wolverines are back in action on Tuesday night against Wake Forest. But on Monday, head coach Dusty May spoke to the media and previewed the game against Wake, plus mentioned some important injury information.

What he sees from Wake Forest and how his team has responded in practice

I'll begin with the second part of the question. I feel like we're a much better basketball team than we were one week ago. We did some good things at home, especially shooting the basketball. After analyzing the film, we knew we had a lot to clean up on and build upon, so we were certainly better than we were.

Wake is going to be a very challenging matchup for us. They're physical like Cincinnati. They're going to push us off our spots, so obviously our ability to take care of the basketball is going to be pivotal. They also have smaller, versatile bigs, and as the first three games have shown us, that's been a little bit of a hole in our defense. We've got great size, and on the other end, we've been able to take advantage of that size around the rim, but on the defensive end, we've got to find a way to contain these small, versatile, athletic wing type of bigs, and so it's just another good test for us going forward.

On Trey McKenney and learning from the vets

I mean, for a five-star freshman to come in to a program like Michigan and have a lot more questions than answers is probably a little bit rare, but that's who he is as a person. I think his ability to fit in has been great. He's put him on the blue team in practice, the Maize team in practice, whatever lineup combination, and he's trying to figure out the best way for him to function in that group.

We're still trying to figure out, does he play better with these big guys? Do we need him to be in this group so it's more of a scoring punch? Do we need to have him in this group some as a floor spacer so they play better together? So we're still trying to answer all those questions, but when you have guys with his character and ability, usually those things kind of work themselves out.

LJ Cason's status and who the backup PG is

You know, ideally we play more of a positionalist basketball. You know, when you look throughout the world, it doesn't really matter who initiates offense. Obviously, Elliott's gonna have the ball in his hands because he's sharing it and getting it to wherever it needs to go at all times and quarterbacking things, but LJ can do that as well.

Trey McKenney's really improved in that area. It's more important, probably, against presses and late in games when it does slow down and we have to get more organized. But yeah, LJ, to answer your question, the first part, LJ, the last two days of practice looks like he did before his injuries, and he had a couple back-to-back injuries, which is tough, so I'm excited to see LJ play.

Yeah, he looked, I guess, more in rhythm the last two days. His conditioning has gotten back to where it was pre-injury, and when these guys go out with an arm injury or shoulder injury, they're staying on the bike, and our strength coach, Matt, does a great job with that, with those things, but there's nothing comparable to basketball shape, and so it looks like he's back in basketball shape and playing good ball. So yeah, I don't know if he's our backup point guard, if he's our combo with Elliott and a combo with Roddy and Trey, but without a doubt, I think he can initiate offense or, you know, go make plays for himself or his teammates.

On Aday Mara defending smaller bigs

I think I was pretty clear early presenting what I thought our challenges with Wake would be. I don't, you know, Aday is going to be, he's a really good player. He hasn't done that well enough yet for us to be at a championship level program. So he has to improve his ability to contest threes, to sit down and guard, and we've got to do a better job of supporting him as well because, obviously, there's matchups on both sidesof the ball.

On the other end, Wake is going to have to double team him most likely and what not, so that is an area of concern in November. But like most areas of concern, if you can get exposed this early, then you have more time and more intentionality to improve, and those guys have done that. Like I said, I think we're better in a lot of areas since last week. We're not where we need to be, but I do think we're inching in the right direction.

Is Yaxel 100% and where is Winters at health wise

Yes, Yax should be close to 100%. Winters Grady is back practicing now. You know, Winters loves ball so much that he was injured, and he kept re-injuring his foot in a minor way, and basically our medical staff just held him and said, it's not going to, you're not going to be able to play well, move well, as long as you're going at 50, 60, 70% or whatever the case, so he went, he set out longer than he wanted to.

I think it probably drove him crazy because he loves ball so much. Oakland would have been a great game for him to play because of their zone, and you know, I think with Winters, if you can get him a cleanlook, there's probably as good chance of the ball going in as anyone on our team, but yeah, he's still trying to figure out where he fits in with the numbers, and obviously when you're a freshman and you miss a couple weeks, it gets more difficult, but he's going to help this team.

Did Michigan have things to clean up mostly on the defensive end against Oakland?

Both sides of the ball, we can't count on making 19 threes on a given night, and obviously our size and passing ability will make us tough to zone, but yeah, we have a lot to clean up on defense. It begins with what our foundation is, is taking away layups and rhythm three-pointers, and right now, teams are getting too many of both of those, and we're not turning you over nearly enough for us to be at our best, so we've challenged some guys in some different areas, and without a doubt that we are better now than we were one week ago.

So Wake's gonna present some challenges. Their guards, they have good speed, they'vegot good size of the guard, they've got guys that get to the basketball, you know, Duke Harris has really impressed me, him and Spillers, just their activity and how quickly they get to the ball, and those guys can score 20 points each on a given night without having things ran for them, and so, you know, we're gonna seesome things we haven't seen yet out of Wake that they're gonna present some challenges.

With both teams having so many new guys, does last year's game mean that much as far as scouting

Well, it matters because it puts you in a terrible mood once you re-watch it, but no, you know, just to see where we were in November, and that game taught us a lot about ourselves. I think we discovered a few things after that game, or during that game, and throughout the study of the game, but yeah, as programs, we all have certain things that we can write down that when we play Team X, they're gonna be really good at this year-in, year-out. They're gonna do this year-in, year-out, and Wake is one of those teams.

How much Morez's offensive game improved

It's developed at a pretty rapid pace. I mean, that's, you know, from your freshman to sophomore year of college is typically when you make your biggest jump in a sophomore or junior year, you typically make a jump. He's in the gym, he's working on his game. I hate that he missed six weeks because he was improving rapidly, but it's never going -- his game is always gonna be about winning the margins.

He's a junkyard dog, it's the loose basketballs, it's the intensity and physicality that he brings to the game, and then him being able to develop as a passer, as a driver, as a catch-and-shoot guy, are all things he works on daily. I do think this week, speaking of practice, I feel like he's probably improved the most in the last week.

Does that translate to immediate success in the games and the things he's working on? No, but he's definitely adding more and more where he's becoming a weapon, and there's going to be nights whenever we get it to him, and they fan out on our three-point shooters, and he's got to go create an advantage, and he's improving at doing that.

How comfortable is he with Morez shooting 3s

With all of our bigs, look, all big guys want to shoot threes, and to be honest, I don't mind it at all, as long as they're putting in the work. They've showed their ability to make them in practice, and their paint touch threes, their in-out threes. That shot in a vacuum, I didn't have a problem with, except the fact that I think we're 11 for 11 from two at that point, and so wer eally wanted to keep putting pressure on that rim, and then by putting the pressure on the rim, you're definitely going to get the paint touch threes, which we all talk about it, but a lot of shooting comes down to your miss because of the turns, and the defense, and the decisions, where if you're already facing the basket, the decision's simple, you catch and shoot.

You've read that so many times, and so yeah, that's something that we anticipate all of our bigs are going to do in time. The thing about Rez, though, is when it's winning time, he knows what it takes to go win a basketball game.

On if Michigan's 3-point pace can continue

Other than yesterday, I think we've shot it well every day of the week. I think one day we had a 20 for 44 day from three, and this is all just off just scanning the stats after practice, but yeah, I think if we take the right ones, we're gonna have some big shooting nights. Will Tschetter and Namari Burnett, those guys could shoot the ball.

I mean, Yaxel, mid-30s on low volume, and we're encouraging him to shoot more, and he works on it every single day after practice. So we think, we thought that that was probably a little bit overblown in the offseason, as far as us being a poor shooting team. Now, we never thought we were built to be an elite shooting team, but Trey McKenney was brought in here as a high-level shooter.

The USA basketball coaches told me last year they felt like he was probably the best shooter in their camp, and this is before we had him in the fold. Winters Grady, obviously, that's what he does. LJ Cason makes shots in practice, so now I'm probably missing a couple guys. Elliott shot it better than we anticipated. When he takes on-balance threes, he's shot at it well when he shoots off-balance threes, and even the play before half, when he made the three against St. John's, that is what we need him to be able to do at the end of late shot clocks. Was it St. John's game when he hit the three right before half?

Yeah. That's what we need him to be able to do, and he's added some creative ways to create space to get those shots off in those special situations, but we were probably more concerned with some other things than shooting threes. As long as we take the right ones, then I think we'll be a pretty good shooting team, and that's what we did against Oakland. We had really good in-rhythm threes, mostly good ball movement.

On message to Oscar Goodman who is down on the depth chart

Message to Oscar, just like those guys, stay the course when you're on a really good team, and there's some older guys who've done it at a high level in front of you. Just find your way on the team. Find your way to contribute. We all want to be a part of a group and feel like we have a meaningful part of it, and so he does that. Oscar's a talented player. He shows glimpses of being a high-level guy.

The consistency's not there today, but also he's one sprained ankle away from playing significant minutes on a potential...I think we have a team that could compete in any conference, and so I guess the alternative for young guys in his situation is go to a place where the guy in front of you stinks. He'll definitely play and probably won't get better in practice.

I mean, that's really what we're talking about here. I think we have a locker room full of guys that winning is the priority, and he's one of those guys. He's a great teammate, and a lot of times, I'm not gonna goon tangent, a lot of times when a bunch of sophomores or guys your age are playing in front of you and you're not playing at all, it's a lot more difficult than having some seniors in front of you and older guys, and thenthere's at least light at the end of the tunnel where you can see yourself developing, growing, and not being too far off. It is tough, though, when you're a freshman and you see sophomores who are all-league guys who maybe aren't NBA caliber prospects because of the dimensions or whatever playing in front of you, then sometimes you just need to go where you can play minutes on another good team, so it's all situational.