On learning from the loss to Wake Forest

We knew it was going to be a challenging game, especially this early. We don't know our team well enough, our team doesn't know us well enough, when I say well enough, to compete at a championship level right now. It's November, so our job as coaches is to figure out solutions for our problems. And some things we know, you just don't know the extent of it. You don't know how much you can be exposed in certain areas. We are disappointed that we weren't able to go get what we think would be a quad one win at the end of the year, just because of the respect we have for their staff and roster and program as a whole. They've been teetering on that tournament, NIT, for the last couple of years, and they should be in a position to break through. That's the reason we played the game. It's good for the brand, it's good for us to be exposed in some areas, as long as we respond the right way. That doesn't hurt our confidence, but I think we have a group that's confident by nature. As long as we take the lessons the right way, and we're not worried about protecting ego, then we'll be fine.

On cleaning up the turnovers

There's a few layers to that. First and foremost, we've got to get back to our identity, which is trying to create offense for each other. To do it as a group, as a unit, and trust that if it doesn't happen for me right now because of our unselfishness, because of our ability and skill level, then it'll happen for me. But right now we tried to do it, last night I should say, we probably tried to do it a little bit too much individually. The most disappointing part was just the play after the play. We spent so much time on our concepts, and it seemed like under those adverse conditions, we didn't do the things that we've practiced a lot, and that's on us as coaches. It wasn't hammered home to an extent where we can do it in the most stressful situations.

On the balance of defensive rebounding and getting the push on offense

No, those are two different. We would sacrifice transition offense every day, twice on Sunday to defensive rebound. That's been something that with our size we didn't think that this would be an issue. We didn't think we'd be a dominant defensive rebounding team for a number of reasons early in the year, but we didn't think that we would be giving up the amount of second shots that we have, especially on the possessions where our defense wasn't really broken down. When you're broken down and guards are in the paint, it usually puts a bid against a guard and a rotational block out. You can expect to give up some of those, but the others where we're just on balance, we're in position, and we just don't come up with them, those are the ones we have to get, especially the variances. These are one possession games and they're going to be one possession games a lot this year, so you can't give them three or four opportunities in the last two minutes of a game.

On whether rebounding is a slight concern or something that can be cleaned up

Everything's a slight concern, at least. We've got to fix it, but once again, we're fortunate that we're being exposed in these areas now because we have an opportunity to fix it. Obviously, in basketball, we play so many games and in football now, it's not catastrophic to lose a game, but if we choose to respond the right way, then it would be worth it if we continued on the same path and we'll learn the hard way.

On getting Vlad Goldin going

It's a combination of us being more intentional, the staff being more intentional to get him some touches, keep him in the flow, our players looking more for him when he's done the work. Some of it's been schemes. We try to attack in different ways, and once we've lost our flow, then that hurts him the most because they're not broken down. And then the other thing is when he has position, he's got to demand the basketball, so it's a combination. I'd put it at 33% on all three of us, and we all have to do a better job. Perimeter guys have to be more aware when he has a match-up and look for him, and even if you can't get it to him, it's usually because the defense had to over-help or over-compensate so then you play to the next thing. He's an unselfish guy, but yes, we all of us together have to do a better job of getting him some touches.

On contributing the turnovers to new faces in the program

Our first couple years at Boca, we struggled turning the ball over, and so we kind of broke down turnovers and is the system not right for our guys? Is it poor decision-making or is it poor skill? And we're still trying to figure out. Right now, it's over. It's trying to do too much against a set defense. We knew Wake was going to be in the gaps aggressive, and we were we thought we prepared well for what we were going to see with off-ball movement and cutting and not trying to attack as much on the first side, but sometimes whenever the defense gets underneath you and speeds you up and you're not used to that type of intensity, sometimes you just make poor decisions and give Wake credit. They were aggressive, but once again, that's a different type of defense than we see in practice. You can talk about it. You can try to simulate it, but if you don't do it, it's something new and I think those are more good learning lessons from this game.

On whether he felt the game shouldn't have been close against Wake considering the big lead

We felt we were playing really good basketball midway through the first half and there was a stretch of maybe 10 possessions when we stayed on the first side and took tough, difficult shots on the first side and it's not that those shots in a vacuum are the reason it happens, but then the other guys aren't as involved. You've kind of broke your chain and so we've got to be more aware that everyone's got to be involved. Unless we're getting a great shot, we're getting to the rim, we're getting a rhythm three, then we've got to keep everyone in the flow of the game involved in the game and that's a cumulative responsibility by all of us.

On the Goldin-Wolf combination not being plausible

It's a really small sample size because they haven't been in, I think majority of both their minutes, more than 50% of both their minutes, and I'd have to check the exact because some of it's exhibition games and scrimmages and whatnot, but they haven't been together that much. They've done some really good things together and then they haven't been able to find the combination. I think early in the first half yesterday, we were in a really good offensive rhythm. We were flowing and Danny came off in a 4-5 ball screen, which we tried to get some in that game and he made the right decision. The pass was probably a little bit too fast for that moment. Vlad didn't catch it, but he catched that pass. Roddy's got a dunk and now you continue the momentum. That's how it is early in the season. Wake had the same thing. They had three or four possessions where they could have gotten easy baskets and they just overthrew the guy by an inch or two. It's part of this new era where guys have to get used to playing with each other. They've done some good things. Has it been seamless? Absolutely not, but it wouldn't be whether we were playing Cheddar at the 4 or Roddy Gilt at the 4. There's going to be some things that guys have to figure out together. That's the unique thing about this. Wake is an experienced team so they're able to change the coverages based on this. Golden in the game, they're going to switch 1-5. When he's out, it's 1-4. There's all these different scenarios that we've got to build and adapt on the fly in real time. That's why these games, I say it over and over, are extremely valuable. If you have great character, then usually the teams that schedule like this early in the year are much better basketball teams than picked in playing January, February. That's the hope at least. Dennis?

On the slick spots on the court

In warm-ups, our guys were talking about how the floor felt slick. I don't know. They had the same floor. Maybe it was just specific spots. I'm not really sure. It's definitely unfortunate because I thought both of those possessions, we had advantages to get in the paint and make good decisions in the flow of the game. Just chalk it up to bad fortune. I'm not sure.

On the quality of shots in the second half

It's strange because I thought Sam Walter's thing did a couple really tough ones. Then I thought he was surprised he was open on one or two and didn't knock them down. I do think there were opportunities when we had those separating plays, those run plays where we probably had better looks than the shots we had that got us to that point. Once again, that's basketball. Sometimes you're so open, you're surprised you're open. Sometimes you miss it by a centimeter. We've got to do a better job on the glass. We've got to do a better job of limiting possessions because we can't hang our hat on whether those shots are going to go in. We weren't disappointed in the quality of our shots. We were disappointed in the rhythm of the game.

On Will Tschetter getting more minutes

He played well. The ball moved. Once again, when you have I think we have nine starters in my mind. I thought Rubin, foul trouble, I thought he played well, probably deserved more minutes. He probably got dusty as well. I think Will deserved, to answer your question, Will deserved more minutes than he played last night.

On what the 'April Habits' mantra means

It just means in October, September, November whatever the case, you're practicing and are you doing it with intention that these habits are going to be carried at a championship level until the last weekend of basketball. For us to be playing as long as we possibly can and every team has a different ceiling, we have no idea what our ceiling is right now. You have to develop championship-level habits today. First-place habits today and first-place habits tomorrow because if you don't and you're trying to think about all these things, our working memory is just not big enough to process all the stuff that happens in this game. We've got to have some things ingrained into us that we don't even have to think about and we're just playing off instinct and hopefully we're moving in that direction right now.

On whether he wants to explain more home-and-home games in the future

I think they're less common because I'm not going to say why it's less common. Every situation is different. For us, I don't really care what my wiki record is. I have no idea how many games we've won we've lost. I know that we lost our last game. These games are good for the game of basketball. They're good for our players. They're good for television. They're good for our universities. They bring attention and eyes. They're good for recruiting. Why wouldn't we play them? The NCAA tournament has proven that if you play as competitive a schedule as possible, they're going to give you the benefit of the doubt in a tie. All those things add up to it being wise for us to play as many games as we can like this. At the end of the year, I may be kicking myself, but right now, we think it's going to help us improve.

On weighing neutral site series vs. home-and-home series

There are some other factors that we won't discuss. Last night, yesterday, I keep saying last night. It felt like it was 7 p.m. Yesterday, it felt like an NCAA tournament game. You're in a big arena with a different backdrop. The lighting is different. You're playing a really good team. That was like a tournament game where you're at a venue where the other team brought a lot more fans than you. It just had a different feel, a different type of energy. It's on national television. All those things are great. Next year, they'll come to Detroit and we'll have a chance to play Little Caesars in Detroit in a different environment, different type of game. It just made sense on a lot of fronts. We want to play as many of these power level teams as we can because it's a different game. The size and physicality challenges you.

On building his roster with high school prospects

I'll just say it's very important. What's more important are the qualities and attributes of the guys that are playing in Michigan. If it's a great teammate who's unselfish and tough and skilled that's a fifth-year senior versus a freshman that is coming for his own personal ambition and things like that, then no, I'd rather have the fifth-year senior. The guys we're going to try to sign and identify, we would love to help them become the absolute best they can be, let them experience this university and take advantage of the network and the education they're going to receive here. Not just the degree, but the education, the day-to-day education that you can take advantage of at a place like Michigan.

On what his staff has been selling on the recruiting trail that has resonated

First of all, the staff does a great job of identifying what we feel like are the right guys. They're relationship builders. They're trying to find the best guys for us. That's another great quality of our staff. They're simply putting aside their own, you hear it all the time, I think we should go after that guy. It's not the point man who's recruiting him. It's the same thing. We're just trying to bring in guys we think we can win championships with and we'd love to be around every day and around families and represent this place. We don't have a real complex formula. Yes, we want some skill. We want size. We want toughness. We want great people. Part of it is just a connection. When you go out recruiting and you spend time, you develop a connection in this world where it's a lot more transactional than it used to be. Once again, that's on us to adjust and adapt. We're simply just trying to find the best guys for us and for this place.

On his philosophy of fouling up late

I don't have a philosophy. It's been different every year based on how good of a rebounding team you have. We've worked on it a lot in practice fouling up three. Right now it is our philosophy. As far as that situation, I don't really want to say what the plan was just because of future scouting, but they fouled us a little earlier in a different manner than we thought. Those are the things too where we didn't mind them fouling because we have two seven-footers. We've had a lot of success in that situation in the past where getting it up on the rim in a particular way and then tipping it in with an opportunity to go overtime. The foul or not the foul I think is probably a little bit of an overblown conversation. I think the stats are almost exactly 50-50 despite what commentators and what your opinion is. It changes based on your personnel and their personnel, but we felt like probably our best chance of winning versus shooting a tough 25-30 foot three would be to get fouled, make one, and have an opportunity to tip in the second one. The ball came off a little bit too fast and we did have a chance to get to it in the paint.

On whether there's a number he's comfortable with in the 2025 recruiting class

We're still recruiting in 2025.

---

Discuss this article with our community on our premium message boards

Not a subscriber to Maize & Blue Review? Sign up today to gain access to all the latest Michigan intel M&BR has to offer

Follow our staff on Twitter: @JoshHenschke, @Berry_Seth14, @TrevorMcCue, @DennisFithian, @BrockHeilig, @JimScarcelli, @Jerry_Diorio

Subscribe to our podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

Check out Maize & Blue Review's video content on YouTube

Follow Maize & Blue Review on social media: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram