Everything Michigan HC Dusty May said on the Defend the Block podcast
On the staff relationship being natural
I think that's one of the missing elements of great staffs in college basketball. We're in a sport where we're all very, very competitive. There's a lot of alphas that are coaching, a lot of D personalities. With this group, I knew coming into it that a big chunk of our guys were going to be great teammates because I had worked with them. We've worked and supported each other and then, obviously, adding Coach Boynton and Coach Joyner. Those guys, what it's taught me, when you hire people that are self-aware, they have a high IQ, care about people, they figure out ways to fit in. Just like good teammates do. They read the room and they figure out what's the best way to contribute and support each other and help each other. It's been refreshing because those guys have hit the ground running and they've seemed like a group that's been together for years and they complement each other as our own team that stays together many seasons as players come and go.
On Mike Boynton and Justin Joyner
Just how great teammates they are, that's the one thing you never know. Are they willing to take a step back and work with self-awareness and figure things out? Also, being around those guys, you see why they've been accustomed to winning. They've typically been part of winning programs and even teams that have overachieved. I think when you're around special teams and you know what it takes to win, your habits usually change and your personality shifts towards figuring out what that team needs to do to be successful. They're exactly what I thought. They're driven, intelligent, they're great teachers. I've already learned a lot from them just talking ball and sharing ideas. Right now, until we have our team together for a month or two, we're not going to know exactly how we're going to do things. We still have to evaluate and analyze our guys and get together as a group and figure out the best way for the team to play on offense, defense and everything in between. That's the exciting part of the summer, we can really get to know our guys on the court, off the court. We can't wait to get going on Monday.
On forming relationships in the portal
There are certainly cases of love at first sight. A lot of the guys we were able to bring in we fell in love with. Typically, if we're in a situation where we can't make our decisions in advance, I formulate my opinion or decision and I try to shoot holes in it and tear it down and red line it. With all of our guys, there weren't any significant red lines. As far as the true relationship piece, that's still a ways away before we earn their trust and they earn our trust. We're excited to see what makes these guys tick, what motivates them and help them through their struggles. We all have blind spots and that's our job as coaches to figure out a way to make sure we're complimenting and supporting them and their blind spots. As a head coach, I tell the team a lot, I make more mistakes than all of them so it's a very safe place to learn and grow. We're always trying to get better or protect ego. With our players, those are the things as they try to get to know us, we pride ourselves on adjusting and trying to cater to how they operate the best.
On the conversations he had learning about the returning scholarship players
First and foremost, every single player I met and spent time with on their way out, they were great people. I learned a lot about this place, about them and why they chose Michigan, what's kept them at Michigan and what's made them decide to leave Michigan because I'm curious and I want to do the best job for this place. They were all great guys. The three that stayed, I think the first question to all of them, one of the first couple of questions, would've been would you choose to attend Michigan if you didn't play ball? All of them said without any hesitation, 100%, absolutely. They all loved it here. When you have something that brings us together, something that's bigger than ourselves, that's the association with this Block M. I do think it makes our job a little bit easier to retain and also acquire quality people. It was comforting to me knowing those guys took a lot of pride in this place and wanted to leave here on a winning note and with a legacy. It was difficult at first because I couldn't tell them what their roles were going to be. I couldn't tell them what I projected as far as minutes or anything because everything was so different and so new and I needed to get to know them. I know this, I enjoyed spending time with them. Will, Nimari and Jace, they're all guys that you could leave at your house for a month and have no concern that they're throwing a Project X party at the house. They represent this place well and we're very, very gracious that they stayed. They're going to help us and hopefully hang a banner on the way out. I can't wait to learn how to fish from Will. He's been a great food source, all local restaurants. He's just a guy that you see in the office or in the gym in the morning you have a little pep in your step because there's something interesting that he's into and he's someone as a parent of three boys, you would want your sons to act and behave as be as curious and world as he is.
On Vlad Goldin
I don't think I've ever been around a guy no matter how it was going for him or the group, even if someone strayed from the group, that he wasn't welcoming them back with open arms and acting with empathy. One case I think would probably exemplify his character more than anything else, there was a game last year that I felt like a decision that I had made cost us the win. As a coach, you never know, you make a substitution, you draw up a play for this guy and it doesn't go in, there was a decision that was made that I felt like it cost us the game. It was a conscious decision of doing this or doing that and I chose that. In hindsight, I think we would've won if I went in the other direction. Walking back to do media, I said, Vlad, I cost us that game with my decision-making. Before I finished talking he put his arm around me and said, coach, we win together, we lose together. It just showed who he is as a person. We're all in this together. The good, the bad, the ugly. That's what a team is. We don't say we're family because we don't get to choose our family. Our family, we're born into. With a team, we all get to choose who our team is and who our teammates are. So the word teammate is very, very important in our locker room and our offices. If you just watch him every single day, he's caring, he's empathetic, he brings good spirit and an attitude every single day, I could go on and on. His parents did a heckuva job and he's going to be very, very successful with whatever he does next.
On Roddy Gayle Jr.
At FAU, we weren't in the same recruiting circles as most of the Big Ten teams but I had seen Roddy play and I was familiar with his people around him. I had seen him play two or three times flipping through the channels and seeing Ohio State play. He was a guy that really stood out with the way he played and his eyes and his athleticism, the way he moved. His parents had a prior relationship with Coach Boynton and so the trust factor was, I guess, developed quicker than most because they already trusted him. He vouched for me and it's like that you need someone who can really say that the coach is going to do what he says he's going to do. If you, Roddy and I were in a room for 30 minutes and we're going to talk about Roddy for 30 minutes, you and I are going to be talking for 30 because Roddy is a quiet guy. As a player, as a person, just watching him and observing, he's a pleaser, he wants to be part of something bigger than himself and I think he's really going to flourish with the guys around him, with his teammates. I talked about the tangible skills but just the fact that he's a really, really good teammate as well. Has a big upside and cares about fitting into the group.
On the final scholarship spot
Even with the admissions, there's different time periods where we can get guys admitted. High school players are different than graduate students. There's different deadlines and whatnot. We're being aggressive this week to try to cast — we've been casting a big net for the last couple weeks, but we've also been extremely selective. And there's probably a few guys that we would've went on earlier in the process before we filled out our roster. It's either going to be someone that really, really impacts today, winning immediately, and also fits into the group as far as skill set and what the holes in our roster might be. But we also might look at a young, developmental player. Somebody that can help us down the line and learn and bang against these guys day in, day out, so we're looking at it from several different angles. So, we are working with a sense of urgency, but we don't feel like there's any panic to add someone just to be adding. We might hold tight and carry the scholarship over for next year. So, we are working with a sense of urgency, but we don't feel like there's any panic to add someone just to be adding. In our profession, too, there's times where you kind of sit and wait and you have a potential big-time player that can kind of fall to you because of the situation.
On what he's hoping to accomplish during summer practices
We certainly want to establish identity with the way we play as far as tempo, pace, expectations as far as passing and cutting and teaching principles. The nuts and bolts and Xs and Os will come down the line. Right now, it's going to be these are going to be the expectations as far as work, as far as how we respond to adversity. Things like that. How we compete. Those are the things that we'll be working on this summer and as we build our offense and defense from a foundational standpoint. We'll also be learning and studying our guys because if they're really, really good or exceptional in an area than we're simply going to incorporate that into our style of play in some way, shape or form. For example, if a guy proves to be a great shot blocker then that tells us we might be able to get out and get a little more aggressive in full court. There's a lot of things that we're going to look at because we try to really take a step back, look at our best players, what do they do well, what are the strengths of our group and try to attack in those areas.
On the importance of team bonding during the summer
A great example, yesterday, Rubin came in this weekend and Rubin is not enrolled in classes yet and so he's getting here earlier than he has to. We walk out over the practice court and him and Vlad, they're not shooting, they're not working out, they just crossed paths and they were talking for 15 or 20 minutes. As we're talking to Rubin's family up top, that's the most important part of this summer. Those guys getting to know each other as people, spending time with each other and then once it comes time to compete, it's a lot easier if you know you're competing with a guy that really has your back and you know them as a person first. Also, we'll have the guys over and we'll watch the NBA Playoffs together and we'll break bread and things like that. They also all have to be very, very intentional, led by us, to spend time and actually get to know each other. We'll do some games where we get to know each others family and so some trivia and things like that. More than anything else, it's just like any other relationship, it just takes time but we do want our guys to work on it with intentionality.
On Kyle Church and the non-conference schedule
I lean on Kyle for a lot of things. His organizational skills, his communications skills and scheduling is a little bit like recruiting where we're recruiting each other. We're trying to hold off this game because we want this game, we'd like to get into this tournament but maybe the dates don't work. He does a great job and we've hired a third-party analytic company that works with us in scheduling and the portal recruiting and opponent scouting. We're working with them as well to try and choose the teams that will help us as far as seeding in the NCAA Tournament but also teams that play a certain style. We're getting very, very close. The easiest games to schedule are the only ones we have remaining at this point.
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