Michigan basketball: Roddy Gayle Jr., Wolverines fire back at 'soft' narrative

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Michigan Wolverines moved onto the championship game in the Fort Myers Tip-Off event on Monday night with a 75-63 win over Virginia Tech, which moved them to 5-1 on the season. It was a game that showed the team could hang in a fistfight and pull itself out of a rut by playing good defense.

Michigan did not have its fastball on offense in the win, shooting 40.3% from the floor and 10-for-34 from three-point range. It also trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half but scratched and clawed its way back against a desperate and physical Hokie team that had come in losers of two straight, and now three.

“I feel like we answered a lot of questions and had a good time,” junior Roddy Gayle Jr., who had a season-high 20 points, said. “As far as Michigan basketball, I feel like the narrative was that we were soft. And I feel like we were able to answer that question and rise up to the challenge and show that we have some toughness.

“Even like some of these past games, being realistic and having criticism for ourselves, I feel like after that Wake Forest game and even games where we weren’t able to defensively going pretty well… I would say myself, like, we’re playing weak, so I feel like we were able to rise to that challenge against a very physical team”

Head coach Dusty May‘s style inherently lends itself to finesse labels given the pace the team plays with in addition to the shots it takes from three. But he saw Michigan answer the call when the shots were not falling and needed to play physically to claw back toward a win.

“We shoot a lot of threes. We play in space. We err on playing with freedom and confidence and sometimes with that, you want the game to loosen up in a certain way,” May said. “And when teams don’t allow it to be that way, you’ve got to meet the challenge with physicality, with aggression on the glass. And I thought our guys did that.

“Yes, there have been people who have implied that we’re not the toughest team. And one of our sayings in-house is the only difference in criticism and feedback is how it’s received. That’s how people feel. That doesn’t change how we feel, but we are aware that there are some things we have to get better at and adjust through. We’re so big, we shouldn’t get outrebounded by these teams. We all know that. But sometimes we’re in different positions than we’ve been.

“But overall, we have a group that wants to get better and they compete at a high level. So it’s not bad for us to have that in our locker room as a little bit of a care for motivation.”

“We just persevered through it,” junior guard Tre Donaldson said. “We’re a tough team. We’re a veteran team. I feel like that showed. … Everything is not going to go our way. We just stayed the course and played Michigan basketball. That’s why we ended up coming out with the win.”

Michigan has shown this year that it can play in and win different types of games, which could be a critical trait come March. The Fort Myers event simulates a tournament setting with two games in three days and a quick turnaround/scout of another opponent. The Wolverines are ready for Wednesday’s challenge, which features a matchup with the No. 22-ranked 6-0 Xavier Musketeers.

“We just have to pay attention to the little things,” Donaldson said. “I mean, we’re gonna watch the film, we’re gonna see who wins this game and just being ready, not getting too high, not getting too low, because we’re getting a lot in the game. [Coach] is just telling us to be neutral, not too high, not too low. If we can do that, I feel like we’re gonna be ready for Wednesday, no matter who it is.

Gayle chimed in: “I feel like this is a great opportunity for us to get that March Madness feel. You don’t really know who you’re going to play next when you get that win. So, it’ll be a great responsibility for us to be able to translate to the next game so quickly.”

Wednesday’s game from Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers will tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET with Fox Sports 1 on the broadcast.