Emptying the notebook from Denver: Inside the Michigan locker room pre-UC San Diego

DENVER, Colo. — No. 5 seed Michigan Wolverines basketball is finishing up its preparation for No. 12 seed UC San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, with the two teams set to square off Thursday night around 10 p.m. ET at Ball Arena.

Here are our notes from meeting with Michigan players in the locker room.

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Killing their will

Michigan hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2022, but the Wolverines have a lot of experience in the Big Dance from their individual players and coaches, given that it’s a new staff with six transfers.

The perspectives are unique. Think of this: Junior guard Tre Donaldson and his Auburn Tigers were upset by junior forward/center Danny Wolf in the first round last season. Graduate guard Rubin Jones was part of the North Texas team that upset Purdue in 2021. Graduate center Vladislav Goldin, head coach Dusty May and other staff members made a magical run to the Final Four in 2023.

Michigan is the favorite, though only by 2.5 points, in this one, carrying a chip on the shoulder by being under-seeded but also understanding that UC San Diego has a similar mentality. Talk about a chip on the shoulder: The Tritons’ roster is full of Division-II transfers, and the program itself was competing at that level just five seasons ago. This is the first year it’s eligible for the Big Dance, and they went 30-4 overall and haven’t lost a game since Jan. 18. This is a remarkable story, but Michigan has to eliminate any belief from their sideline early on.

“When you’re the underdog, you come in with so much energy,” Jones said. “We were talking about it earlier, it’s a home game for the underdog. In this position, you gotta take their energy away.

“We played Purdue my freshman year; we beat them, but it was in Indianapolis, so they had a lot of fans there. But we were in control of that whole game, it felt like. They had a couple runs where it got loud in there.

“You can control the game if you do what you’re supposed to do, if we take care of business, don’t turn the ball over, give them leak outs, give them wide open threes everywhere.”

The Big Ten Tournament is done

The Big Ten Tournament was extremely important for Michigan. The Wolverines looked like they were limping into the postseason, but they went to work in the days before playing in Indy and found a new (but old) groove by winning three games in three days. They have to keep that going but also understanding that the championship means nothing for what’s to come. It’s an interesting balance. Each season, we see “hot” teams get bounced and squads that struggled down the stretch get hot.

“I feel like we can’t carry it into this week,” Donaldson said. “We can carry the momentum, but the Big Ten Tournament is done. It’s time for March Madness. Just not getting too high, and staying neutral. Being ready for whatever is thrown at us. I feel like the Big Ten has prepared us for anything that comes in this tournament. Just finding ways to win is going to be the biggest key for us.”

“We feel the momentum of playing good basketball coming into here, but knowing that we won the Big Ten Tournament championship, and that’s that,” Michigan graduate guard Nimari Burnett said. “Now, it’s about winning each game and playing for a chance to win it all. Looking forward to doing that.”

UC San Diego’s unique defense

Basketball is a game of opposites, May said Wednesday. UC San Diego will try to speed Michigan up and force ball-handlers to the baseline, where help is coming. What will the Wolverines do, he asked? Try not to be forced baseline and make sure they stay calm and don’t get sped up. Donaldson also mentioned Michigan wanting to dictate the terms and not end up playing into the Tritons’ hands.

At the same time, this is a unique challenge. The Tritons rank second nationally in defensive turnover rate (23.3 percent) and will double and triple team the ball, then scramble out of those in rotations.

Michigan has a reference point, freshman guard L.J. Cason told us. The defensive style is a combination of Purdue and Wisconsin, along with other Big Ten teams.

Michigan has to take open shots when they’re there, not over-dribble but also strike the balance of making sure they attack and reverse the ball to the second side, where open shots should come.

“It’s very important to stay ready in those moments with the five guys being out there, and to be calm and take what the game gives,” Burnett said. “It’s gonna be a lot of times when they send two, three guys at you, just because of their rotations and their unique defense. You have to make the right decision and right ready every single play. From that, the game will open up as we see fit. We’ll have a lot of opportunities individually to make shots and drive.

“The uniqueness of it is that they play so hard and they take away so much. You might think a pass is there, and it’s not just because they’re flying around. They’re very active in the gaps with their hands, reading the ball. It just calls for us to cut, move the ball from one side to the other and taking a shot when it is there.”

Michigan is prepared thanks to elite coaching staff

Michigan’s coaching staff has a lot of tournament experience, led by May and those who were with him at Florida Atlantic. The Wolverines felt ready to go for each game in Indy, even on short preps, but they had already played all of those teams. This is a different challenge, but Michigan players have full faith in the coaching staff, and this is a veteran group as is.

“Big Ten, we were familiar with them, but this staff, their focus and their determination to break the teams and the players down and what they do, it’s incredible,” Donaldson noted. “They’ve done a great job all year of getting us prepared for games and what’s gonna be thrown at us top to bottom — trick plays, plays they ran one time for certain situations, just in case we get that situation.

“This staff is full of great basketball minds that are gonna give us the best chance to win through the scout and getting us prepared.”