The press conference Monday morning inside the Crisler Center media room was almost finished when Dusty May pushed a question.
While a journalist began his investigation, he returned to the end of last March when May was presented inside the Junge Family Champions Center and he promised a vision of this Michigan basketball would look like, playing both fast and physical. The journalist offered his own opinion that “by any measure”, the Wolverines did it for 21 games of the 2024-25 season, but before he could finish the issue, said May.
“We are not playing quickly enough,” laughs May. “We are not playing hard enough, from my point of view.”
Even again, the Wolverines (16-5, 8-2 Big Ten) returned to the ranking at n ° 22 Monday after the consecutive victories of the League who have a match behind Rival Michigan State at the top of the ranking, with the two games remaining head-to-head.
Halfway through the league game, May admitted that if someone had told her of pre-season that even with six games on the road, his team would be 8-2 in the conference, he would probably have been a bit Surprised “but that does not do it means that the team can stop working on improvements.
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The blatant weakness
Not a person who looked at the Wolverines does not know what the main calf of his armor is now.
After 17 gifts almost cost his team a victory over Rutgers on Saturday, May was so discouraged after the match that he had almost seemed to be resigned, and deplored the team that “can not spend time” in practice . On Monday, he was ready to attack them again.
“Return, turnover, turnover,” said May. “We are going to watch them today. We will reproduce these situations.
“And I will continue to try to understand what we are doing better to eliminate some of these things. It is a partnership between us all.”
UM literally gives the ball on 19.9% ​​of its goods in the league game according to Kenpom, which ranks 18th in 18 teams. Many other metrics are solid in the league game, including assistance rate n ° 2 (67.4%), n ° 2 in 2 points (57.1%), n ° 4 in the ‘FG efficiency (55.2%) and n ° 5 in 3- pointers (35.3%). But it is undeniable that giving one in five possessions has limited the advantages of the team.
But considering that the UM also verifies very defensively to n ° 3 in defense in 3 points (31.3%), n ° 3 in effective defense in the field (48.2%) n ° 4 in defense in 2 points ( 49.0%) and n ° 5 in the block rate (11.2%), there are reasons which can always see the glass half full.
“A large part is just the flow of eliminating half of these goods 17-18 and you turn it over, now your defense is much better,” he said. “Guys have more touches, there are more flows in all parts of the game.
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“We will work better if we just eliminate this thing. We fight it tooth and nails every day. »»
Improve the wing
Another aspect of the May team was a little more at the front than normal, its wing position.
It was sometimes a fight some newcomers to the two and three, Roddy Gayle and Rubin Jones. Gayle, which is still on average 11.3 points per game on what is actually a better shot of 46.7%, has a hard time with its shot. The transfer of Ohio State is an icy 1 in 15 (6.7%) in the long term in the last seven games and only 2 for 28 in its last 10 against major competition.
Rubin Jones, on the other hand, was even quieter this year. The transfer of Northern Texas graduate is on average 3.4 points per match per career, with career brands on the ground (34.2%) and long -range (26.7%) on limited attempts.
“This allows us to take a big team in team,” said May about what’s going on if gayle and Jones are starting to play as they have done in the past. “It is not a secret that they do not work according to their standards.
“For a certain number of reasons and we all contribute to it. It makes them do the ball in the right positions at the right time and things like that. But we believe in them. If we are going to maximize in a group, they will be A great reason why.
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The same goes for Nimari Burnett, who has five consecutive matches pulling 40% or worse from the soil after he became the most effective shooter in the country. Wolverines will not click on all cylinders all year round and staff get this.
However, UM is well at hand at mid-term with the knowledge it controls what is happening in the future.
“Do we love where we are?” No, “said May.” We do not play as well that we are capable of it. So, until we do this, we will never be satisfied.
“But we are in the fight. We are in the mixture. This is where you want to be.”
Tony Garcia Does Michigan Wolverines Beat Writer from the Free Press Strait. Send him an email to apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on x @Realtonygarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball knows what to bed fixed for Big Ten Stretch Run
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