Dusty May wants Michigan freshmen to 'bring their secret sauce' to games, 'earn' playing time right away

Michigan Wolverines basketball‘s 2025 signing class stands No. 23 in the nation and No. 3 in the Big Ten, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, currently with three members — Orchard Lake (Mich.) St. Mary’s guard four-star Trey McKenney, Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep four-star guard Winters Grady and Fort Lauderdale (Mich.) Sagemont Prep small forward Patrick Liburd.

Four-star power forward Oscar Goodman was originally part of the class but enrolled early for the second semester last year. The Wolverines could add to the group as the summer unfolds.

June 16 is arrival day for the Michigan newcomers who don’t get to campus early, and the Wolverines have high hopes for what the three incoming freshmen can do right away. It starts with competing this summer and can lead to playing time this coming season, on a star-studded Michigan roster with national championship aspirations.

“First and foremost, those guys should have the expectation to come in and compete and earn playing time and challenge the older guys in a healthy way, because that makes them better and it makes our team better,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said on the ‘Defend The Block’ podcast. “And, with injuries and everything that comes with it, you could go from playing 6 minutes one game to 20 minutes the next, based on something that’s out of your control.

“All of them, the best thing that they can do is come in as sponges where they’re trying to learn, grow, work with a chip on their shoulder every day.”

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Come game time, they could impact. McKenney expects to play right away, after winning Mr. Basketball honors in the state of Michigan. Grady, too, is a high-level shooter.

“When it comes time to playing in the games, simply bring their secret sauce to the games,” May noted. “They all have something really, really unique about them, whether it’s shooting or offensive rebounding.”

May doesn’t recruit high school players as much as he did in the past, with the landscape of college basketball shifting toward prioritizing transfer portal talent more than ever before. But when he does recruit from the prep ranks, he’s looking for physically mature players who could see time right away.

Michigan’s freshmen have to balance improving personally and also preparing to play specific roles on this year’s team.

“When you can come in and add to a championship-caliber team as a freshman, then you’re way ahead of the curve,” the Michigan coach said. “I’ve told numerous people, when you look at the Final Four, outside of the Duke players who are gonna be top-five, top-10 picks and [guard Tahaad] Pettiford from Auburn, I don’t know if a freshman checked in any of the games or played a significant role.

“You factor in that there are a lot less COVID players this year than there were last, but for the most part these guys are gonna have to learn how to — as [former Michigan head] Coach [John] Beilein would say — fit in before they stand out. There’s nothing wrong with that, because success is never linear. We’re all on different journeys.

“These guys all have to come in with the mindset that they’re gonna do whatever they can to help this team be the absolute best it can be, and then when you have that mindset and you work incredibly hard and you’re intelligent like they are, usually success finds you.”

How Michigan landed Patrick Liburd

Liburd — a 6-foot-6 small forward who made 49 percent of his three-point shots as a senior on a state championship team — is the latest addition to Michigan’s freshman class. Originally signed with Coastal Carolina, Liburd opened his recruitment back up last month and chose the Wolverines over Florida State.

Michigan has deep connections in the state of Florida, and assistant Kyle Church — who worked under May at Florida Atlantic — took the lead on the recruitment.

“We’re familiar with South Florida basketball,” May said, noting that his staff didn’t pursue Liburd when they were at Florida Atlantic. “He’s a late bloomer, and we don’t spend nearly as much time recruiting high school players as we once did.

“This was a situation where he developed — he was, I don’t want to say a late developer. But he was late on the scene as he was mostly recruited by Ivy League [schools] and good mid-majors in the early signing period. We had heard rumors that he was getting out of his letter and there were a couple other high-major schools that were gonna go in and see him. One of the assistant coaches was in Florida making the rounds and went by and watched open gym. He obviously stood out. He was intrigued by him. 

“It happened quickly. We were probably later than the other high-majors to his situation, but academically, the Zooms went really, really well with him saying the right things and believing and wanting more than just instant gratification toward this process. That’s the toughest part now with the young guys. It’s very difficult to not have that instant success, instant whatever it is that happened before the game got older and before players decided not to go to the NBA earlier, not play in the G League early because they could profit financially in college.”

May is excited about Liburd’s skill set and how he can develop long term.

“We’ve had trouble getting the long, rangy wings, the three-and-D type wings,” the coach said. “There aren’t a lot of them out there. That’s why the NBA is constantly looking for them, as well. He has skill, he has shooting ability, he’s a hard worker. So from an intangible standpoint, he’s just someone that we felt like could really develop, especially if he’s patient this year and learning from these older guys who play the game at a high level.”