Emptying the notebook from Atlanta: Inside the Michigan locker room pre-Auburn

ATLANTA, Ga. — No. 5 seed Michigan Wolverines basketball is preparing to face No. 1 seed Auburn in the South Regional semifinal of the NCAA Tournament, with the two teams set to square off Friday night around 9:39 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena.

Here are our notes from meeting with Michigan players in the locker room and head coach Dusty May at his press conference.

Chip on the shoulder

May said back in February that Michigan probably stressed winning the Big Ten regular-season title too much. The Wolverines looked tight and might’ve ran out of gas down the stretch in the regular season, but they’ve been rejuvenated in the postseason, winning the Big Ten Tournament and two NCAA Tournament games.

Michigan covered the Vegas point spread only twice in 15 games from Jan. 16 to March 9 — a staggering statistic, even if there were a few bad beats. The Wolverines have now covered in five in a row, every postseason game.

The Wolverines were under-seeded as a No. 5 and played one of the highest-ranked No. 12 seeds on Kenpom in recent history in UC San Diego. Michigan was a trendy upset pick, and that gave the Wolverines an edge. The Maize and Blue were then underdogs to Texas A&M and are 9.5-point dogs to Auburn. U-M seems to have done better with a chip on the shoulder this season, and May agrees.

“Probably,” he said. “When you look at where we all came from, none of us were in the McDonald’s game, none of us were in the up-and-coming coaches list. Yeah, probably, it’s probably just who we are. We have a chip on our shoulder.

“Maybe because of our positioning, where we were, maybe we lost that chip, I don’t know. It’s obviously resulting, but any time we don’t win a championship, I’m going to look back and think I should have done this different, different, different. Maybe made those same decisions along the way.

“Nonetheless, I think we have a group that embraces that chip on their shoulder and that underdog role.”

Get ready for a Vladislav Goldin

Graduate center Vladislav Goldin plays well and puts up big numbers pretty much every game. That’s what elite players do, and he’s in that category.

But this is especially a matchup where he might go off for a big game, even though Auburn does have strong post defenders in Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell. Auburn likely won’t double-team the post, instead choosing to stay home on shooters, and that could allow Goldin to feast.

“It definitely takes pressure off of me, because I don’t need to make fast decisions,” Goldin said. “I can take my time and dribble and get a little bit deeper. 

“But before the game starts, I don’t know how it’s gonna be. If I’m gonna find advantages in the post, we’re gonna use it. If we’re gonna find advantages somewhere else, we’ll do that. We’re not just going to premeditate it and try to get something purposely.”

There have been times when Michigan’s offense has gotten stagnant while Goldin is playing well in the post, so the Wolverines will have to avoid that. But him establishing himself down low and he, junior forward/center Danny Wolf and others attacking the offensive glass will be key, too.

Broome is a contender for National Player of the Year honors, and Cardwell is also a stellar big man. Those two going against Michigan’s Goldin-Wolf duo will make for an exciting matchup.

“I don’t think I’m going to try to prove myself or something else,” Goldin said of going up against Broome. “All of my focus is on winning, and we’re gonna do what it takes to win. If it takes me to guard him; if it takes playing team defense, we’re gonna play team defense.

“We don’t find personal matchups. We play team basketball.”

This could be an L.J. Cason game

A few minutes into Michigan’s game against Texas A&M on Saturday, May looked at his assistant coaches and told them he was “ready for some L.J. Cason.” The freshman guard has been a catalyst for the Wolverines this postseason, and he’s probably the team’s best playmaker. He can get into the paint, break the defense down and either create for himself or teammates.

“I’m extremely confident right now,” Cason said. “I feel like I can do anything, I can make an impact in any way on the court. The game’s gonna decide which category that impact is gonna be in. I’m just ready for the moment.”

Cason heard through the grapevine that May said that to his staff. It means a lot to the former FAU signee who followed May to Michigan.

“I feel like he believes in me a lot,” Cason noted. “I think it all started when he allowed me to come here from FAU. I feel like that belief in me right there is more than anything, so I think him believing in me gives me the purpose to go do what I do. 

“If he didn’t believe in me that way, I wouldn’t have done anything I’ve done, have an impact on any of these games.

“I just gotta keep doing what I do.”

What he does is drive the basketball exceptionally well. Same with junior guard Roddy Gayle Jr., whose first step is really quick even for someone who doesn’t get a ton of aggressive close-outs because his three-point numbers are so low (though he may garner more respect this weekend, given that he made 4 threes versus Texas A&M).

Auburn stays home on shooters, switches a lot and has a plethora of good individual perimeter defenders. But Cason and Gayle might be able to get there. The Michigan freshman believes driving lanes could be there.

“Yeah, most definitely,” Cason said. “Just getting to the hole and making rim decisions, I think that’s what I’ve been best at this tournament anyway. If they don’t help … just play natural. Whatever they give us or whatever they don’t give us, just figure out what it is.”

Taking care of the ball a focal point

Cason has really matured this season. Sometimes for freshmen, you can tell that process is happening by what they talk about, not just how they speak of things. We asked Cason if Michigan may need to beat the Tigers in a shootout, given that nobody has beaten Auburn this season without scoring at least 1.1 points per possession. He quickly pivoted to talking defense.

“Us taking care of the ball will definitely be a big point in this game,” Cason said. “But us playing defense, we gotta hang our hat on defense. Just get stops — stop after stop after stop. You never know if the ball’s gonna go in for us or not. I think we gotta really hang our hat on the defensive end and try to get as many stops as we can.”

Cason’s first sentence is important, too. Auburn doesn’t force many turnovers, but it will employ full-court pressure from time to time. The problem is Michigan hasn’t only turned the ball over against teams that force a lot — the Wolverines will give it away against anybody. Making the most of possessions against a team this talented will be paramount. Michigan can’t commit unforced errors that shrink the margin for itself when already facing a steep challenge.

We’ll leave you with…

We’ll leave you with a great quote from Goldin. It’s been a pleasure covering him this season, and sad that at the very least he’ll be off for his next venture in a week-and-a-half. It’s also been a pleasure transcribing his interviews.

This is a big one, but Goldin has been on this stage before. So has Michigan, looking to get back to yet another Elite Eight.

“Advance and survive game,” the Russian said, flip-flopping the two phrases.

“It’s a March Madness game. Just happy to be here.”