Will Tschetter recalls one of the first conversations he had with Dusty May back in the spring. Once May took over the Michigan basketball program and Tschetter decided to come back, May asked Tschetter where he thought he could improve.
“The first thing I said was being able to guard the perimeter better, being able to move my feet and be more laterally quick,” Tschetter said on the Defend the Block podcast Tuesday . “He said, ‘What do you think you can do to do that?’ And I said, ‘lose weight.’ And he’s like, ‘I was about to say the same thing.’”
With Tschetter and May on the same page, they put a plan in place with strength and conditioning coach Matt Aldred to help Tschetter slim down. After he played at 250 pounds last season — necessary for his role, which often involved playing the 5 and guarding opposing bigs — Tschetter is down to 230 pounds going into this season.
This season, the Wolverines won’t need him to guard bigs as often. Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf will earn the vast majority of minutes at 5 and even play together, meaning that slimming down provides a pathway to more playing time on the wing for Tschetter.
To play there, though, Tschetter needed to do more than just change his body. He’s also worked on learning more about how to guard all positions, from the bigs he guarded last year to small guards who rely on their speed to beat opposing defenders. Tschetter says that going up against guards like that in practice has helped him better understand how to stop them.
“Being able to go up against LJ (Cason), (Justin) Pip, Tre (Donaldson), Rubin (Jones) … those really quick guards who are really crafty and explosive, that’s been great,” Tschetter said. “Being able to pick their brain on what makes it hard for them to score has been super beneficial.”
Dusty May Promo!
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