On the chemistry between Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin

From an offensive standpoint, Danny and Vlad have really clicked. There's been days when they're still trying to stay out of each other's way and figure out the best way for them to both be effective and overall, I'd say 90% of the time they've been on the court together. They've found some good rhythm.

On what the advantages are of playing both together

Obviously, basketball is a game of size. When you look at the NBA, when you look at the highest level that the game's played at, there's positional size at every position typically, with the exception being the point guard. So it just allows us to be bigger. It allows us, you know, our court dimensions don't change as players get bigger. And so just to have that type of size that can play together and when you're bigger, you can offset a little bit of foot speed. And so I do think that those guys will be able to cover for each other. They'll be switchable and Danny's shown a real ability to guard on the perimeter, moving his feet.

On the work Wolf has done this offseason

Well, Danny's put in a lot of work with our strength staff. Coach Aldred and Danny spent a lot of time together. He's changed his body. He's moving better, his diet's better, and so he's taking it as a challenge to be able to guard these smaller, quicker players.

On getting all the new transfers meshing and involved into the program

It's kind of a new normal. And so what we try to do is identify players in the portal that come from winning programs, and they may not have been the star of the team, but one of the best players. And they had high assist turnover ratios, lower usage than some other guys. And we just felt like winning would be important to those guys and they'd represent Michigan the right way. And they cared about their teammates because that's the best way to predict future behaviors is past performance. So we're very intentional about the characteristics that the guys we brought in from the portal played with.

On anything that has stuck with him and he implements as a coach under Bob Knight

Yeah, as an assistant coach, I don't think I used a lot of what Coach Knight did and said. And immediately after becoming head coach, I caught myself saying a lot of his expressions and phrases and thinking about a lot of things that he talked about. But most importantly, his ability to take complex concepts and make them seem simple, make players understand in a quick, efficient manner, efficiency of language outside of the four-letter words, is something he was very adept at. But I learned so much. I mean, there's no question. I wouldn't be here today without the coaches I grew up playing for and just being around Coach Knight every day.

On where Vlad Goldin has improved the most this offseason

We continue to add more to his game each year, and that's selfishly for his own personal ambition to play hopefully at the highest level of professional basketball. But also just to be more of a match-up nightmare and have more positional versatility. He works incredibly hard. He's a great teammate. His bread-and-butter will still be his physicality, scoring around the rim. I think midpoint through the season last year before he got hurt in the Arizona game, he was shooting maybe 79% from the field halfway through the season. So it shows his ability to dominate, and that was playing several Power 5 schools. And so his bread-and-butter is always going to be dominating the paint, being able to finish around the rim. Rebounding and blocking shots, but he's added some range to his jump shot, and his passing and dribbling ability continues to improve.

On the NIL efforts at Michigan and his relationship with the collectives

We work hand-in-hand with those guys, and we went from a place where we weren't going to be to recruit to being competitive in our market. Do we still have room to go? Yeah, there's a lot of room for growth. We do feel like we got probably a little bit later start than most, but all the fundraising efforts have been I think beneficial for everyone. You know, we're selling a really unique thing where it's access to our program. And we have some guys that are marketable themselves, so it's going well. Is it as good as it needs to be? No, and I don't think it ever will be. We're always going to have to be chasing more.

On how much emphasis he will put on the transfer portal moving forward

I think it's situation by situation. We put a lot of time and effort in recruiting high school players, and we would like retention and continuity to be staples of Michigan basketball going forward, but there will always be times when we have to find immediate solutions in the transfer portal, and there will be good players that present themselves that we're going to have to go after. But we would like a majority of our roster to be freshmen coming in and growing together, learning, and having some institutional knowledge of Michigan.

On if he feels like he has a hidden gem in LJ Cason and whether it's possible he will play right away

I knew we signed a really good player. I don't think I realized how good of a player. He's adapted really well to this level. I think he's already surpassed all expectations. When you sign freshmen, and they're not in the McDonald's game or playing with USA basketball, you anticipate it to be a slower process. He's been pretty impactful from day one. Obviously, he has to do it on the biggest stage under the bright lights, but it doesn't seem like anything phases him. He's won a lot of big games in high school on the AAU circuit, and he's just a young guy that is unflappable.

On where he's playing right now

Right now, he's a scoring combo guard. He has to refine some skills to be a guard who's just as good at distributing and playmaking as he is scoring and creating shots. But he's made a jump, but he has ability to get to where he needs to get to at the ball, and he shot it incredibly well. I think his percentages might be the highest on our team off catch-and-shoot threes and off the bounce from the fall. I'm sorry, from the summer and the early fall. So hopefully this can continue. It's tough to be a freshman in this league, but he's changed his body, and he's a competitor.

On finding the continuity and chemistry with the team

It's been tough because we've had a few guys out almost every single day, and it's been minor issues. It's a cold here, an illness there. But it's been good because we've got the freshmen a lot of reps, a lot of live reps in practice. The growth of Phat Phat Brooks, Darrell Brooks, in the last couple weeks has been exponential. He went from a guy that was, you know, maybe even a redshirt candidate to impacting practice every single day and looking more and more like a guy that could have a role this year. Obviously, there's a lot of time left, but we're still trying to put together the right combinations, and until we have the group playing together and the nuances, it's gonna be hard for us to tell. So we might be a little bit fluid and liquid for a while.

On the staff role responsibilities

Everyone's kind of settled into their own, running their own departments. Coach Boynton is running our defense, and he works directly with Coach Joyner and Coach Church, and they'll head up most of the scouting as far as the the opponent's patterns and sets and plays and whatnot. Coach Akeem is working with me primarily on offense, and Andrew Williamson's also assistant offense, but running our player development program. So as far as the big picture plan and the day-to-day, he's managing, making sure our guys are getting an extra work. Now that we have more than four hours a week, we can spend more time with our guys individually, and that's the biggest benefit of adding staff members. We can give our guys more personalized attention outside of practice every day.

On having big and physical perimeter defenders

Well, the last couple years, we've taken a lot of pride in giving up unassisted baskets, making teams beat us by playing one-on-one and shooting tough twos, and we've been very successful doing it. I think that's the same thing that that positional versatility allows you to do, to be more switchable, to keep the ball in front, to stay on a rotation, stay on balance, and if you can do that, then you're a good rebounding team. And if you put those guys on the court together, and you end up being a great rebounding team, then that bodes well for our transition offense. This week, actually, we put our biggest group together on one team, and our smallest group on another, just to see if the small group could hold their own on the defensive glass and whatnot. And those guys, the group you're talking about, the wings with size all played together one day, and they looked very good. They were able to disrupt the offense of the bigger team, and so it just gives us another way to play. Coaches have termed the team bulletproof, or just, in essence, being able to win no matter what the style of the game, fast, slow, big, small, being able to adjust to your opponent and find a way to win on that given night, and that's what positional versatility gives you.

On being more wing-heavy has changed the way he goes about operating the team

Very little, and the reason is, Danny Wolfe's as much of a guard as any of those guys we had at FAU. Now, he's still learning the nuances as far as if you have a smaller, quicker athletic guy underneath you, you can't play the same way as if you have a bigger guy guarding you on the perimeter, so he's still adjusting and learning those tricks now. But it's going to be the same thing. We're going to be hunting the same shots. We'll probably get there a little bit differently. We shot a lot of threes off the bounce at FAU. I think this year, because of our size, you're 6'10 versus 5'10, the shots aren't as contested, so I think we're going to get more catch-and-shoot threes and less off the bounce. But I think all those things will be answered by how we're being defended and how we can adjust, because there's still going to be some growth process.

On how being 'bulletproof' is important in a tournament setting

Incredibly important. There have been years whenever I was an assistant coach and we'd miss out on the NCAA tournament because we had one player get in foul trouble and we couldn't adjust to that one, I guess, bad fortune. And so you have to be able to avoid those. Hopefully you don't. Hopefully you're healthy and you're never in foul trouble. But if a team goes small and you can match and you can switch and you can counter that, it just mitigates risk, and that's all we're trying to do anyway. Every game is so different.

On Ruben Jones

He shot the ball really well, and his percentage has always been good on low volume. His defensive instincts are a lot like Phat. His hands, his anticipation are elite. I think in former lives they were probably football secondary, you know, DBs, the way they have instincts about playing the basketball. But Ruben, he's steady, he's consistent, and those are the things at this level that you'll win with. Guys who are there every day with the same approach, because that's the reason that our freshmen have gotten a lot better, because they've just been real steady with their approach and their work hasn't deviated based on their motion. So they've made jumps, and we're going to need all of them this year. Like I said earlier, this is a team where there could be eight straight games potentially with a different leading scorer.

On where he'd like Jones to play

Well, when he's played with Trey, we've had him off the ball. When he's been with LJ, we've moved him onto the ball a little bit more so he could set the table. And then when he's been with Danny, he's been a little bit more of a secondary spot-up guy coming off dribble handoffs. So those are the things that as we get healthy as a group that we will learn to play with each other. We'll evaluate our lineups and our combinations and hopefully try to mirror each other's minutes based on who they play well with and what combinations work.

On being balanced

Well, I think first and foremost we wanted to recruit winning players, guys that have been in winning situations. And if you look at the Final Four the last several years, how many of those were carried by one player or a superstar putting a bunch of role guys? They had great balance. I asked our players in one huddle who was UConn's best player last year, and one of them said I think the sixth man might have been their best player in his opinion. So they had five or six guys that on any given night could be our best player. And if you want to win over a 31-plus game season, it's going to be difficult if you're relying on one or two guys to carry you. And we feel like we have a team that on any given night, and it doesn't put too much pressure on each individual where they feel like they have to carry the load. They're all capable. I mean, Nimari Burnett's going to lead us in scoring some games. Will Tschetter's going to lead us in scoring, Trey Donaldson. Roddy Gayle is going to lead us in several games as far as scoring. So I think going down the line, that will make us more dangerous than just relying on one or two superstars.

On what the returning players bring

Well, Namari played for two very successful programs before last year. And let's not act like Michigan wasn't winning at a high level in recent memory. You know, a couple bad years, a couple down years. And a lot goes into winning, and a lot goes into losing as well. Some ill fortunes, some bad pieces, some guys leaving too early for the NBA, whatever the case. But Namari's won at a high level, and he's a good player. Will Tschetter brings as much to the team from an intangible standpoint as anyone on our roster. To me, he's the definition of a winner. Even though the team won eight games last year, he brings a lot of winning traits to the team. And I think when you have a group that's done it, that gives the guys that haven't done it yet that are capable of doing it. It was the same process for us at FAU. Before we had one big, we had guys that were knocking at the door, and then because they'd been in those situations, they believed they could get over the hump. And I think that's the case with Will and Namari and even Chase.

On recruiting nationally

Absolutely. We're obviously going to focus on the state of Michigan first. But we'll recruit the entire Midwest. We'll dip our toes. I mean, that's the beauty of Michigan with the national brand and the expansion of the league. We can be competitive recruiting California or Washington State or Texas for that matter. So we're going to try to find the best players to represent Michigan, but we're always going to start in our state first and build from there. And then, obviously, we're looking for guys with positional size and shooting ability and toughness and basketball IQs. And Indiana is one of those states that produces a lot of that, like North Carolina, like Texas. So we're going to recruit all those states. But, yeah, we'll definitely, because of driving distance, dip into Indiana and everywhere around the Midwest.

On the returning players helping recruit the transfer portal players

It was a testament to their character where you have guys, you have big guys who were bringing in other big guys, and they're hosting them, they're going to dinner with them, they're selling Michigan and winning and the culture and what we're building together because they didn't make it about themselves. And I think everyone on our team, they want to leave a legacy at Michigan. And so those guys were invaluable. We've been bumping into each other. We knew where to eat. We knew what to do on visits. We knew what to sell, what to stay away from. We even knew the academic piece, what works and what doesn't. And so they helped us accelerate the process.

On his son being on the team

Correct, yeah, my middle son, Charlie. It's great to see him every day. I think he's done a nice job of earning the trust of his teammates that when he's at the basketball facility, he's not my son. He's their teammate. And I treat him accordingly during practice. He's called me dad once in a facility on accident, and it was in the office, and I gave him the rock-raised eyebrow.

On Roddy Gayle helping players ease into Big Ten play

Yeah, full transparency, I take Roddy for granted because he's zero maintenance. He's the ultimate teammate. He cuts for his teammates. He passes to the open man. He competes every single day. He doesn't complain if he doesn't get the ball. He doesn't show bad body language if the play doesn't find him. And so guys like that, sometimes as a coach, you take them for granted, and I remind myself daily of how much I appreciate Roddy. And obviously being in the Big Ten is going to pay dividends, how tough it is to win at Minnesota and at Michigan State and at Wisconsin, how tough it is every single night. So I think Roddy being through the fires, he's going to be able to help the young guys explain how physical it's going to be, how we have to play through tough calls, tough environments, things like that. So he's brought a lot to the table already, and we anticipate his role going forward will grow as the season goes.

On how Sam Walters can impact the team

The biggest part Sam can impact the game is shooting the basketball. He's got unlimited range. When he walks in the gym, he's in range. He gets it off quick, and he is confident. If he can see the rim, he's letting it fly. And if he squeezed off 10 threes in a couple games this year, we would have a very, very happy coach, assuming they're the right types of threes. He just gives you a different dimension being 6'10", with the ability to space the floor. And when you have guys that space the floor like that, you get layups and dunks. If Vlad's playing with a normal player, those layups and dunks aren't layups and dunks. They're seven, eight-foot finishes, because teams are able to load the paint. With Sam, you almost have to play four versus four because he's that lethal and deadly when he's on. He's getting better defensively. We're expanding his game. We expect him to be a better offensive rebounder than he is today, but he continues to prove, and we're gradually expanding his role, and he'll be a big part of success this year.

On the biggest takeaways from what he learned from Bob Knight

Coach Knight's approach to every single day, it wasn't just the games. Everyone in the building was expected to perform at a high level on a practice, in a workout, a weight session. And that was the standard at that time. Coach Knight had the standard of everyone was chasing Indiana. Every time you played Indiana, it was a big game. It might have been the biggest game on the schedule for most teams. And so we're just trying to get to the point where when you're playing Michigan, it's a sellout, it's a t-shirt game, it's all those things, and those are our expectations. But I've said it ad nauseam, his ability to teach, to communicate is second to none.

*Inaudible question*

Not very excited at all, to be honest. You know, I've been back a few times. Being in Florida, I don't get home often. I was there nine years so I didn't get home often. It'll be distracting because there's so many people there that I love and care about. Other than that, we're trying to beat their butts. I mean, we're all competitors. That's competition. That place was a big, big part of my journey, and I wouldn't be sitting here today without it. But now our job is to compete against them for championships. But I think the first, you know, probably practice the day before, it's going to feel odd, and then it's on us, coaches and players, to block out all distracting information and focus on what's important.

On how he's trying to adjust to the Big Ten style of play

Well, fortunately for us, we had a snapshot where we played two Big Ten teams last year. I don't know how many Power Fives. We played several Power Fives, and the only two losses we had were against the two Big Ten teams because they were able to bog us down. But we were very physical ourselves. We simply tried to rebound the ball and get up the floor before those physical, tough defenses could get set. And if we do that, then we felt like our chances of scoring would be greater. Actually, the Illinois game, neither one of us could stop the other one. And in the Northwestern game, neither one of us could score on the other one. So I think that's going to be how the Big Ten is this year for us. There's going to be nights the game looks a lot different. How the game's officiated based on how experienced the crew is, there's a lot of factors in how the game's called. But we have to find a way to get the ball up the floor quickly enough before the defense gets set where we can generate a good shot and we're not having to get into a bunch of slugfests because I'm not sure we're built for those slugfests right now.

*Inaudible question about balance*

That's a beautiful team. We have such balance and parity. Roddy's been, I don't want to say surprised, because he scored almost 14 points a game in this league last year on a good basketball team that started off really well and kind of hit a tough patch. But I think we're going to be a team that just surprises everyone because of our ability to play different lineups and have a different best player each night.

On having John Beilein as a resource

I mean, I've talked to Coach Beilein at least once a week since I got the job, every other week, and just his desire to help us coaches be better coaches, knowing what to look for in advance, just pointing us to the right direction, the people that can help our players and program on campus has been amazing. He's a Hall of Fame basketball coach that is as good of a teacher as there is alive today. And so it would be, I guess, irresponsible for us to not try to learn from him and bring him into a place that he loves as much as he does.

On Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf representing the program at media days

You know, I think the storylines, I'm sure Vlad's history, being from a place where he hasn't been able to see his family for the amount of years he has, and then Danny with his family's connection to Michigan made a natural fit, and then obviously just two seven-footers playing together in such a unique style, I think it makes a good storyline. We could have brought seven or eight different guys here and they would have represented Michigan in the same fashion. Just those above me decided that these two would be right for this moment.

On the rivalry with Ohio State

I'm excited about it. Coach Deibler and I, we've known each other for a long time as assistant coaches in the SEC, Florida being a high academic school and Vanderbilt being a very prestigious academic institution. We cross paths a lot on the recruiting trails, and so we've known each other for a while, and then obviously being an assistant who's sliding into a really good opportunity at Ohio State for a team that I think is being underrated and undervalued right now, and he's doing it the right way. He has veteran guards. He's got versatility up front. We're excited to compete against them. In college athletics, rivalries are healthy, but rivalries are only rivalries if both teams are really good and competitive, and hopefully going forward, we're both competing for championships, and I'd love to see them be runners-up to us every year.

On Roddy Gayle and his history with Ohio State

Yeah, Roddy being from New York, we laughed and said he learned to hate Michigan at the time, and so now he's having to learn to hate Ohio State. Jokes aside, I mean, it's a different, you see NBA players and NFL players immediately after they battle it out tooth and nail for however long each contest is. They're congratulating each other and patting each other on the back for laying it on the line and competing the way they did, and that's kind of how college athletics have come to. I think for the guys on the field, it's not as life or death. It's let's compete and do the absolute best we can, and then after that, it's on to the next thing and preparation, but obviously the intensity, I'm not gonna sit here and say that's just a normal game. That's a big game for both programs.

On his journey to Michigan

Our season was going on, so luckily we all have representation to kind of sort through things behind the scenes so you don't get distracted on what's important. Obviously, with the success that our team had at FAU, that provided me and my family with some opportunities, and at the end of the day, you try to find a place that just fits you, and since I was at Eastern Michigan 18 years ago and felt the power of Michigan being five miles away, I always held this place to extremely high regard, and in today's climate, I felt like Michigan was a place that would be really hard for players, for young students to leave if they didn't play basketball, and so continuity, retention are all very important to our staff, so we just felt like Michigan was the best place for us to be able to do that, and Ohio State got a great coach. All the other jobs got a great coach, and it all works itself out.

On recruiting

The official visits, obviously, are awesome. Home football games with 110,000, 111,000 fans, to feel the electricity on our campus and the passion that our alumni, our students, our local community have for the University of Michigan is unparalleled, and so it's been a blast. Obviously, when we came in and we get a late start, we still have some things to sort through as you're building a roster, but we like where we are. We're involved in guys that we really believe in, and now it's finding the right pieces to complement what we already have.

On his relationship with Sherrone Moore and the football program

Coach Moore and his staff are guys that you want to root for because they're great guys, they're great coaches, and they pour into their players, and those are the guys that I like to be around. They've been great. We've taken every recruit through the facility. They come over and you'll see their staff shooting hoops or bringing recruits through. It's a true partnership at Michigan where we're all rooting for each other. Their success helps us. Our success will help them, but it's been fun to watch.

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