What Dusty May said about each scholarship player at Big Ten Media Days

The Michigan Wolverines took the stage at Big Ten Basketball Media Days last week, headlined by head coach Dusty May’s session with the media that covered almost the entire roster.

There are plenty of new faces on the roster, along with a few familiar names to the Michigan fanbase. Here is what May shared last week on every scholarship player in the program from the conference meetup in Rosemont, Illinois.

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Graduate center Vlad Goldin

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 continue to improve.

Graduate guard Nimari Burnett

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. 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.

Graduate guard Rubin 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.

Junior center Danny Wolf

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.

…

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.

Junior forward Will Tschetter

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.

Junior guard Roddy Gayle Jr.

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.

Junior guard Tre Donaldson

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, TreyDonaldson. 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.

Sophomore forward Sam Walters

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 of 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.

Freshman guard LJ Cason

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.

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.

Freshman guard Durral ‘Phat Phat’ Brooks

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.

Two Michigan players without mentions

Michigan graduate Jace Howard and freshman Justin Pippen did not get lengthy mentions at the event. May briefly invoked Howard’s name when talking about the three players who returned from last year (Tschetter, Burnett, Howard). Pippen’s name did not come up in the head coach’s session, though Wolf and Goldin had mentioned he was working through something during the player sessions.