Michigan basketball is just over one month away from its public debut at Little Caesars Arena against Oakland University. With 11 incoming players and an entirely new coaching staff, Oct. 20 will be the first opportunity fans will get at the new-look Wolverines.
Ever since new head coach Dusty May was hired, all the talk has been that Michigan will play a fast, up-tempo style of basketball that will result in a lot of offensive possessions and points.
For fourth-year graduate student Will Tschetter, the fast style of play is a new approach — one that the Wolverines rarely adopted over Tschetter's first three seasons. Tschetter officially dropped 15 pounds over the offseason, according to the 2024-25 roster. However, the 6-foot-8 forward says he was playing closer to 250 pounds near the end of last season, as opposed to the 245 pounds the 2023-24 roster had him listed at, so he claims it was more of a 20-pound cut.
On Tuesday's episode of the 'Defend the Block' podcast, Tschetter recalled one of his first talks with May back in the spring.
"It was one of the first conversations when I had told him [May], 'I'm all in. I'm coming back.' He was like, 'What's something you think you can work on?' And the first thing I said was, 'Being able to guard the perimeter better, being able to move my feet and be more laterally quick.' And he said, 'What do you think you can do to do that?' I said, 'Lose weight.' And he was like, 'I was about to say the same thing.'"
"And so, I don't think necessarily the 20 pounds I lost was fat, but I think it was just really losing myself into the change your diet, really lock in," Tschetter said.
In practice, Tschetter has had the opportunity to go up against 7-foot, 250-pound center Danny Wolf, and the experienced Wolverine doesn't believe he's lost any of his strength from last season.
"I think that just because obviously I lost my 20 pounds from last year doesn't necessarily mean that I've lost my strength by any means. ... Having to go [against] Danny [Wolf] is definitely not an easy feat, whether it's he's backing you down in the post or he's taking you off the dribble from the perimeter."
Tschetter's new frame will allow him to be a threat in May's fast-paced style of basketball that will create advantages for the Wolverines.
"Our brand of basketball is going to be really fun to watch. ... It's going to be free flowing. It's going to be unselfish. It's just going to be really, really fun to watch," Tschetter said. "We really emphasize sharing the basketball on any given night. Probably any dude in the rotation could probably score 20. So it's going to be really fun for the players, really fun for the fans and overall it should be a really fun year."
"We don't have a designated guy to bring up the ball. It's not, 'Oh, we need to get the ball to Nimari [Burnett], alright. Oh, we don't need to get the ball to Tre [Donaldson].' It's, 'Oh, find the nearest guy that's sprinting up the floor, hit him, get out into a break.' We talk a lot about creating advantages, and I think that's really one of our main focuses as a team, and it's going to be why we play so fast, is we're looking to create advantages."
Michigan will kick off its regular season at home against Cleveland State on Nov. 4.
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