Dusty May stuck to his itinerary and landed a hell of a transfer class.
Six weeks ago, the Michigan Wolverines basketball team had four players on the roster and two committed freshmen at the time, with more departures anticipated to follow given the coaching change.
It wasn’t the first time head coach Dusty May faced this kind of challenge, building a roster from the ground up. But at least he had more than 48 hours and the ability to bring transfers in on official visits, unlike his time at FAU.
From the time May spoke to the media in March to last Tuesday, however, Michigan filled all but one roster spot. They brought in six players from the transfer portal, two high school prospects, and retained three Wolverines from last year’s team.
What’s more telling than the sheer number of players and their ranking is the efficiency of May and his coaching staff to bring in the large amount of talent.
“We were 8-for-8 for guys (committing who visited), so we hit pretty good,” Michigan assistant coach Akeem Miskdeen said. “We had a big pool of guys. What narrowed the pool was what Dusty’s purpose for our team was going to be, which is having skill guys. A guy that can dribble, pass and shoot. That’s what we wanted. That’s what we targeted with a harness. And that’s who Dusty took the lead on, and you close the deal.”
As rumors and smoke screens flew around social media over the previous month and a half surrounding which players the Wolverines were targeting, the coaching staff had a clear-cut plan — bring in skill players who can score at all three levels and who can play in May’s up-tempo, pick-and-roll system.
“We went into this blank canvas looking for a pass-first point guard that was capable of shooting off the dribble and off the catch and was also a capable defender,” May said. “And then we needed a center that could do a lot of things. So we addressed those needs and then we thought, ‘Now let’s fill in these other gaps with talent, with skill, with size, high basketball IQ.’ Those were the things we’re looking for. And we do feel like right now we’ve got a group that complements each other, we haven’t stockpiled the same type of player.”
Within the current landscape of the transfer portal and NIL, coaches have to take more calculated approaches to recruiting players. While long-term relationships are the goal, many coaches recognize a lot of the players they recruit may be for a short period of time, and they want to get the most out of the player.
May admitted he likes to coach younger players because he, in theory, has more time with them. But when he was building a brand-new roster for the Wolverines, his sights shifted to finding players who fit his scheme and style, and who were coachable.
Once May and his staff put together a list of players they wanted to bring in, they set out to convince the player that Michigan was the best place for them. The coaches did so by creating an itinerary that featured some of the best food Ann Arbor can offer, tours of the basketball facilities, and then having honest conversations about how each player fits on the team.
Part of the visit also involved meeting the current players, taking recruits to their favorite restaurants, talking about the school and even staying with them on campus. This helps the current players bond with the visitors before they were even officially a part of the team, which can go a long way in building a strong bond and culture.
“When you take a team over, it is his players now,” Miskdeen said. “So one of the things we did was we had them come on the meals with the recruits, we introduced them to the new recruits. We don’t want it to be these guys versus these guys. Some of those (existing) guys are staying in housing with the new recruits. So we’re gonna find a way to make sure our culture is intact. And it’s not going to be a separate culture. It’s gonna be we’re all in this together. This is Dusty May’s team.”
All in all, May and his staff at Michigan are hoping to hit the ground running in their first year in Ann Arbor with a diverse cast of players from the portal and guys who were already with the program.