Michigan basketball: Vladislav Goldin lost 10 pounds while battling illness, Danny Wolf changes free throw routine

Michigan Wolverines basketball has been dealing with some illnesses. Graduate center Vladislav Goldin looked like a shell of himself and was limited to 17 minutes last Monday against Penn State. He played 25 minutes but wasn’t 100-percent healthy in a win at Rutgers Saturday, but he’s improving.

“Vlad looked like he had the flu,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said of the Rutgers game on the ‘Inside Michigan Basketball’ radio show. “His wind, his energy — he just looked out of it. We need him back full strength, because he lost 10 pounds in a few days.

“After we returned from Rutgers, I stopped and was watching the last 10 minutes of Arkansas-Kentucky out in the lobby, and I looked down in the weight room, and Vlad’s in there lifting. So he’s determined to get [the weight] back. He’s got a nice stretch run in him, I believe.”

Goldin was still a big piece in Michigan’s win, posting 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting with 6 rebounds. He’s averaging 15.6 points, 6 boards and 1.3 assists in 25.6 minutes per night.

Redshirt junior forward Will Tschetter, meanwhile, was also ill heading into the tilt at Rutgers, to the point that Michigan was unsure if he would make the trip (the team left around 5 p.m. ET the night before playing in Piscataway). However, he decided to travel, and he also made a difference, scoring 6 points and grabbing 2 rebounds.

“With Will, we were questioning taking him on the trip,” May noted. “And the day before, we had been in the locker room for film for 40 minutes and had been on the court for practice. So we were past the contagious part, so we didn’t think Will was going to make the trip.

“Literally at the last minute he texted and said, ‘Hey, I just talked to my parents and I’m gonna give it a go.’ I basically told him, ‘We’ll use you, and depending on how you feel, it may just be two minutes, it might be the normal rotation. Let’s not make any decisions yet. Let’s see how you are tomorrow.’

“He made a turn for the better that night, so I think he was really glad that he came.”

So is Michigan, with Tschetter’s left corner three among other plays proving to be big in the tight victory.

Danny Wolf’s revelation at the free throw line

Michigan junior forward/center Danny Wolf is shooting 36.1 percent on 61 three-point attempts. That’s impressive at 7-feet tall. However, he’s really struggled at the free throw line, making only 59.2 percent of his attempts after that figure was 71.4 percent at Yale a season ago.

Wolf experimented by changing his free throw routine starting Jan. 16 at Minnesota, and even (likely unintentionally) debuted a hitch in his shot during a 1-for-5 effort against Penn State Jan. 27.

But the Glencoe, Ill., native settled on a new, more confident routine in the win over Rutgers, and he knocked down some massive foul shots down the stretch, finishing 5-of-7 for the game.

May explained that Wolf’s change in his routine was a product of overthinking.

“I love Danny Wolf,” May said. “He cares. He’s always looking for a better way. He’s a thinker — and sometimes, thinkers overthink. I’m guilty of it at times. I’m always thinking, and I can’t ever just let things be. It’s like there always has to be a solution … the puzzle piece is there amongst the needle in the haystack, and we gotta find it. So I can emphasize with Danny.

“I told him, ‘Your shot is your fingerprint. You’re obviously a great shooter. You’re shooting high 30s from three as a seven-footer. You got a beautiful stroke. Why don’t you just shoot your shot, and live with the results?’

“And he laughed and said, ‘No question. This is my shot. I’m shooting it.’

“He was looking for a better way, and he sank 2 big ones [late in the Michigan win over Rutger].”

Wolf didn’t score much early in Michigan’s victory, but he took over late in the game, and he wound up with 16 points, 14 boards and 2 assists. His finishing at the rim was one of the differences.

“He told me after the game — we spoke briefly after media — and he essentially [said] … he didn’t say he stopped overthinking, but he made an adjustment at halftime that he was basically going to let the game come to him a little bit more,” May said. “I can’t remember his exact verbiage, but it was similar to letting the game come to him in the second half. I thought he played really, really well.

“When he’s open on a pick-and-pop and he can see the rim, he needs to let it go, and that will set up his shot fake and drives and other things.”

Continued the Michigan coach: “The thing that gets him in trouble is when he tries to make multiple moves and they put guards [on him]. He drives, he gets cut off, he spins again, he spins again. Just with the game of college basketball, with the spacing the way that it is, if you’re making two or three changes of direction in one possession, then it’s probably not going to end up well. Sometimes, he makes it happen because he’s so talented. But typically, if he gets cut off once or twice, you probably need to get the defense out of their shell.”