It was no secret that Michigan
basketball was in a dark place at the end of the Juwan Howard tenure. Insert Dusty May; the Wolverines are already back at the top of the Big Ten. Look out for the rest of the Big Ten, Michigan basketball looks the part of a contender thus far. Not only have they been taking care of business at home, but they are a legitimate threat on the road. Sure rival Michigan State
sits at 14-2 and tied with the Wolverines at 5-0 in the Big Ten, but you can’t deny that Michigan has something to say even at 13-3.
Dusty May’s Michigan Wolverines Haven’t Reached Their Peak
If you haven’t heard what coach Dusty May had to say after the Wolverines’ 91-75 defeat of Washington, you might want to start paying attention. Sure there are still a lot of games to be played, but May made it seem like his team hasn’t even reached their full potential offensively. That’s crazy, to say the least. They are laying the hurt on their foes, and what they have already done offensively is far beyond what the previous staff could do.
According to Chris Breiler
from Michigan Wolverines on SI, May was pretty straightforward in his response to questions of whether they have reached their peak.
“No, not even close,” May said. “Not even close. Absolutely not. We’re improving our ball fakes, our eye fakes, our spacing, when to cut, when not to cut. It’s getting better. But no, we’re not functioning on an elite level offensively yet. And we’re not crashing with the aggression we need to be at a championship level. We have a long ways to go.”
Not to contradict Dusty May, but has he seen the foes his team has put down with ease? I mean they did go on the road to both USC and UCLA and handled both with ease. That same USC team just went to Illinois and won. UCLA looked like a contender at the start of Big Ten, but they have taken a nose dive.
He certainly oozes with confidence, and you can tell his players are buying in. Sure Danny Wolf
, is an athletic and skilled seven-footer, but what Vlad Goldin
has done thus far in conference play is outstanding honestly. Goldin put up 37 points in Pauley Pavillion, he was looking like the late Bill Walton
out there. Not to mention he followed it up with 19 against the Huskies for good measure.
Beware of the Wolverines
It has been hard to predict the Big Ten so far. The two Michigan schools are clearly at the top. Both are playing well, and the togetherness is elite in my mind. It kind of feels like when the Wolverines and Spartans clash, it could decide the fate of the conference. One thing is for sure Michigan is scary, and coach Dusty May regardless of his thoughts following the win, has done a tremendous job so far.
He certainly had doubters, coming from Florida Atlantic. It’s clear if you can win and reach a final four at a school such as FAU, then who knows what’s possible at a place like Michigan. One thing’s for sure, he has the Wolverines back to a level of confidence as a team, that hasn’t been seen in Ann Arbor since the John Beilein days.
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