Dusty May, Vlad Goldin, Danny Wolf and Tre Donaldson were on the podium this afternoon to preview Michigan’s Friday night tilt with Auburn.
Q. Three guys that were on your Florida Atlantic team are playing in the Sweet 16 on various teams. First of all, I’m curious, sort of what that says about sort of the enduring nature of that run for you and also with the talk that, hey, Cinderella dead, you being only a couple years removed from that. Are you buying into the NIL, the portal has killed the Cinderella run?
DUSTY MAY: I really enjoyed watching our entire team separated, when you see the number of guys, we knew it in practice our backups were really, really good. Obviously Alijah and Nelly and Vlad they’re such competitors that impact winning and make those around them better. Just them being in new situations it’s been fun to watch. We stay in close contact and we’re in group chats and follow each other closely. So it’s been a lot of fun.
The second part, I don’t think Cinderella is dead. I don’t think she’s going to be making visits as frequently as she did before. I look at it like this, we lost a few players at FAU early on. One left before we thought he was an All-League player. We’re obviously disappointed everyone was always upset. My response is, hey, we get paid to coach basketball, to do the best we can. If they decide to leave, we have to support them.
Now, what we have to do a better job of is making sure we keep these guys long enough to be All-Conference. If they decide to leave, then that’s part of it. But we can’t leave before they become All-Conference players.
I think it’s just a group that emerges out of nowhere. Even in our case, we had the year before we were really good. We had injuries. We lost games we shouldn’t have lost. So that kept our guys probably from being recruited as aggressively because we just weren’t on the same stage. So a lot went into that, a lot of layers to it.
I don’t think Cinderella is dead, especially when we see how good of basketball is being played at the Division II level. Josh Schertz is a close friend. Ben McCollum is a good friend. Jim Crutchfield down at Nova. Those guys move up, and they’re good basketball players. So I think it’s just going to look different.
Q. The way they use Broome offensively, Auburn, can you talk about how unique it is and how you have to be prepared defensively without giving away state secrets?
DUSTY MAY: I think we’re all aware at how lethal he is on the block and getting to where he wants to get to and drawing fouls. He’s added a 3-point shot, and then he’s a very good passer, and he kind of quarterbacks their offense. So he’s a challenge on a number of levels.
We actually recruited Johni aggressively at FAU, and there were four big guys the same year at South Florida, and at that time we couldn’t oversign. Giancarlo Rosado committed before Broome. We begged him to wait until the spring, but he wanted to go and get it over with so he committed to Morehead State. I can’t imagine if he was on our FAU team as well.
He’s a good basketball player. He’s always been a guy that’s just produced. He’s been effective. Even before everyone knew who he was, he was getting double-doubles every night against high level players.
We’ve just got to make everything tough. We’ve got to challenge his catches, we’ve got to push him off a step or two, just make life difficult for him.
Q. Dusty, last time you lost a game, obviously an infamous game or famous game, whatever, against Michigan State. You said after there that you have to get to that level of toughness and culture and everything else. You haven’t lost since then. What changed so quickly after that?
DUSTY MAY: Renewed commitment by our players to look ourselves in the mirror and realize we have to do this, this, and this to be better. Credit the staff, they challenged our guys in practice, and our players responded. We changed our — and granted, we had five games in 14 days, so we really weren’t practicing. We were getting a little bit loose. We were getting away from what made us us, but we felt like we’ve kind of just got to get through this stretch.
We felt like once that happened, we had a week to practice, we had a week to regroup, refocus. When you have good players that care about each other, they want to do better, usually if you just point them in the right direction, they go with it. And they embraced the physical toughness — the things we worked on in practice, they embraced it, and therefore they made a jump.
I think just the rest also helped, just not having so many games.
Q. Coach, you talked about maybe you guys focused a little bit too much on the regular season title back then. But now under seeded, the edge that you talked about coming into last week, do you feel like this team plays a little bit better with that chip on its shoulder as an underdog?
DUSTY MAY: Probably. When you look at where we all came from, none of us were in the McDonald’s game, none of us were in the up-and-coming coaches list. Yeah, probably, it’s probably just who we are. We have a chip on our shoulder.
Maybe because of our positioning, where we were, maybe we lost that chip, I don’t know. It’s obviously resulting, but any time we don’t win a championship, I’m going to look back and think I should have done this different, different, different. Maybe made those same decisions along the way.
Nonetheless, I think we have a group that embraces that chip on their shoulder and that underdog role.
Q. Dusty, can you recount your first time seeing Danny on film? Does it like swing open doors of imagination of what was possible with kind of his weird skill set?
DUSTY MAY: Absolutely. Obviously the first thing we look at in the portal is offense and physical traits and winning and whatnot. As soon as we watched Danny, we knew we could make it work offensively. We just had to make sure it would work defensively.
To be honest, the first time I watched him, I thought he’s more physical than I imagined. I’d watched him a few times on television. You’re flipping through and Yale is playing Princeton or whatever, and they’re both well-coached, so you kind of want to take a peek at it.
I thought at first glance, this guy is more physical than I lot. He has better lateral quickness than I would assume of a 7-footer in the Ivy League.
Then I immediately called and text the guys that were going to be on staff and said, hey, do you mind watching one or two games? Pick out the Kansas game or the Gonzaga game, pick out the games with high major athletes, and let’s just really watch and try to, I guess, predict whether he can guard those guys or can’t.
Coach Boynton, Coach Church, Coach Williamson, all the guys we knew would be in the fold, all said the same thing, yeah, he can do it. So I’m not crazy. They all were as convicted as I was, yeah, we can make this work.
Q. You and Bruce Pearl both have connections to the state of Indiana. Will this be you guys’ first time crossing paths? What is it like battling it out on this stage of the tournament?
DUSTY MAY: It’s not our first time crossing paths. I was sitting out as a Division II player at Oakland City. We played in USI’s tournament when Coach Pearl had the Screaming Eagles at the top of college basketball. Their university was 20 miles apart.
Actually, in that tournament if I remember correctly, Central Oklahoma State who had Eddie Robinson played there, an NBA player, there were some really, really good teams, and then there was us.
So I’m very familiar with the program he built there. His dad, when I took the FAU job, I was out trying to round up fans one at a time. I’d go to breakfast with old guys coaches and lunches. His dad was in some group with some former players from the Celtics from the ’30s or whatever, and they would meet and talk ball for lunch. I’d go and have breakfast with those guys and have lunch.
Steven Pearl and I, we’ve crossed paths for years recruiting. Extremely familiar with Coach Pearl when I was assistant at Florida was when he came into the league. So there’s a lot of — a few degrees of separation with Coach Pearl. Couldn’t have more respect for the way he’s been able to sustain winning, build programs wherever he’s been, and been at the top of college basketball.
Q. Obviously four coaches in this region have Final Four experience. From your personal experience when you went through it, is there anything that you’re kind of learning lessons or things that you implement from that time that you’re bringing into this game and kind of sharing that with your guys on what they should be able to expect this weekend at all?
DUSTY MAY: Yeah, a big part of it is simply minimizing distractions — the tickets, the fans, the people coming from everywhere just wanting to be a part of it. It’s all healthy. We want to share this experience with as many people that we love and care about.
But there’s also an element of this is — we have to focus on the work. We have to focus on what we’ve done to get us to this point. And that, in addition to especially a group that we’re not supposed to be here, so we’re not content just being one of 16, or we’re not content competing for an Elite Eight that we still have.
We feel like we can compete with anyone in the country, so why would we come here and just be complacent and content that we’re here? Let’s keep our head down, focused on the work, and see where it takes us. Hopefully we look up in a couple weeks and we’re really, really proud of what we did in the rear view mirror.
But when we look at it now, it’s a waste of time. We’re really just — and for me personally, I was in awe the first time, like, wow, this is happening. It was so different because you weren’t at Michigan. Now it’s kind of like we have another four-team tournament in Atlanta. We’ve got to prepare for this game, and we’ve got to be ready for this, this, and this.
It’s allowed me to separate the emotion and the excitement from it.
Q. You have two guys that know how to beat Auburn maybe a little bit more than most people. Obviously you recruited Tre from there after two years at Auburn, and Danny just beat them in the NCAA Tournament last year with Yale. What is insight from both sides of the aisle from a guy that played there and a guy that beat them in a tournament setting kind of give you when you’re preparing for such an elite opponent like Auburn?
DUSTY MAY: Obviously Tre has a lot of insight with his teammates, with the system and all that. Coach Pearl is going to change his calls. They’re going to have different names. It’s going to be similar to every other scout.
As far as Danny knowing how to beat Auburn, if you play a team, if we could beat the Hawks 1 out of 100 times, it doesn’t mean I know how to beat Quin Snyder and the Hawks.
Obviously Danny did say, hey, a couple times against the press, we tried to do. A couple times against this switch, we tried to do this. Really, really good insight.
At the end of the day, it still comes down to execution. I’m not sure any of us know how to beat Auburn other than play really, really good, sound, poised basketball for about 80 possessions hopefully.
Q. In today’s age of college basketball, it can be tough to get a team to gel with a first year staff right away. You guys haven’t had an issue with that. What would you say your keys to success in doing that were? And was there maybe a defining moment where you saw it all come together?
DUSTY MAY: Number one, we try to intentionally choose like minded people, and like minded people typically gravitate towards those that are like them.
I’ve said this in recruiting actually in the last couple days in zooms and whatever the case, that A-holes don’t like us, and we don’t like them. So we just naturally go after guys who have a lot of character and are great people and guys that we want around our families and we want to have lifetime relationships with.
So it’s just kind of happened — I don’t want to say even unintentionally, because it’s just kind of the fabric of who we are. For whatever reason, we find guys that are like minded and were all on the same page, and we know we all need each other.
Q. I’m wondering if you’ve ever counted for Vlad between screens, rebounds, post offense, defense, how many collisions he has a game, and kind of how he’s maintained his ability to play through all that?
DUSTY MAY: That’s a great question. I’ve been disappointed in Vlad because sometimes I feel like he conserves. When you watch Vlad in the last five minutes of any game since I’ve had him, he puts his body through torture every day of the year, and there’s still a different level in the last five minutes.
He even told one of the assistants recently that in the first half he flashes a lot more, and a lot of his turnovers are on the perimeter in the first half. He basically said, look, there’s so many collisions, there’s so much contact. I try not to use it all up in the first half for that reason. That’s pretty observant.
Yeah, Vlad, he just finds contact. He wants to help his teammates. So the screening, the ducking in, all the stuff that comes with playing with physicality, helping your teammates is important to him. Vlad’s just such a pleaser and an unselfish player that he’s going to do whatever his teammates need.
Vlad for 35 minutes and Vlad for the last five, he almost turns into a super hero the last five minutes as far as the things he does with offensive rebounding, running the floor, putting us in a position to win. That’s the sign of a competitor. When the stakes are heightened, he elevates his play.
Q. Tre’s been a little touchy talking about his experience at Auburn with us at least. How has he been with you talking about his experience? Could there be a little bit more of that insight, this guy likes to go to his left in this situation, like that really inside intel that you can’t get from a scouting report?
DUSTY MAY: Yeah, but even the player that Tre shared minutes with last year is playing for Alabama right now. The personnel is different. Obviously we all know Johni Broome. He’s got a little bit of insight on Baker and those guys, Mazara.
From my understanding, he’s very appreciative of his Auburn experience. They won. It’s got him to where he is now as a person. So, no, he’s never been negative at all about BP or his teammates or anyone. I think it’s just he needed a change, and that’s not always unhealthy.
I said that the other day that I was in the transfer portal last year, a lot of these players in the transfer portal, sometimes change is healthy at different stages of your life. He just needed a fresh start, and he’s found a place where he’s been embraced, and he’s had a bigger role.
He’s certainly produced for us and made big shots and continued to grow. He’s getting better day by day, week by week.
Q. You brought up you being in the portal, that kind of brings a question I had. I think there are people that begrudge athletes for chasing bigger opportunities and more money. I’m curious, what would you say to those critics who’s don’t like the system as it is?
DUSTY MAY: I think every situation is different. Literally, every single situation is different. Sometimes this might be your — I know what players make in Finland. I know what players make in Cyprus. I’ve coached them. They’ve went there.
There’s different situations for everyone. If you’re a legit pro prospect in my opinion, you should go to wherever you think puts you in position to make what the Hawks players make. Then there are other players where this might be the end of the road.
We had a really, really good player at FAU that had another year. He graduated. He didn’t want a Masters. We talked about it, and we didn’t think there was a whole lot of cartilage left in his knees, and it was probably time for him to go make money back home. He’s actually having a heck of a career.
If it was today it would be, hey, you might want to go capitalize and make as much money next year as you possibly can because I was a young coach that struggled to have a down payment on a house. I was a young coach that, if your car broke down, it might set you back a little bit. So every situation is different.
Different backgrounds, what’s your objective when it comes to education? Is education really important to you, or are you in college just for basketball?
I don’t begrudge anyone. Like I said, when we lost guys before anyone knew who FAU was, my message was always, hey, we get paid to coach basketball, and we’re going to do that the absolute best we can. We’re going to pour into these guys. If they decide this isn’t for them, then we’re going to give them a hug and cheer like heck for them going forward.
Is it going to sting? Yes, because we want to win. We want to win every single night. But I’m also realistic that everyone has a different background and their situation looks a lot different than everyone else’s.
Q. Interested in what else has changed during this hot streak for you guys. Turnovers, L.J. Cason has had a little more of a role. If you had to pinpoint a few things that sparked your guys late in the year, what would it be?
DUSTY MAY: Obviously the turnovers. We’ve been much more consistent not turning the ball over. Our guards have done a better job — I don’t know the numbers in data, but my eyes tell me our guards have done a better job of defensive rebounding, which has helped our transition offense. We just look like a much more connected group.
I know really since the Michigan State game that you’re referring to, since then, when I just sit down and look on the court, I feel like it’s a group that just came together and they’re trying to win. There’s no — there’s no situations where he’s trying to get this shot or he’s trying to score, or he’s trying to do this, or he’s trying to do things he’s not very good at.
When I watch us, it’s five guys out doing whatever they can and their function to help the team win. That’s it. I think every team has a stretch like that where everyone’s consumed with one thing winning. Sometimes it’s early. Sometimes it’s late. Sometimes it’s fleeting. But it’s really nothing more than that right now.
I look at that and see our guys doing what they do really, really well organically and just trying to make it work.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll get started with the student-athletes.
Q. Tre, matching up against your old team. Has this been a game that’s been circled on your calendar since the transfer?
TRE DONALDSON: I wouldn’t say it’s circled. The likelihood of this happening wasn’t really high, so I mean just the opportunity is a blessing, and I’m looking forward to it.
Q. Vlad, just asked your coach about the number of collisions you get into in a game, whether it’s screening, rebounding, playing defense or offense. He said maybe you slip more screens and avoid contact earlier in a game to save it for later. Do you think that’s the case? But kind of talk about you embracing a high contact playing style.
VLADISLAV GOLDIN: We know we’re one of the most physical teams, so we just have to like adjust and play as physical as they are. But we’re going to see how they defend, how they play, and if I need to slip some screens, I’m going to slip some screens, but if they’re not going to switch and we’re just going to get a couple hits.
Q. Tre, just about the Auburn thing again, is there something — because you have a very personal connection with them, some intel, some inside knowledge that you can share with the coaches as far as their player tendencies, anything that goes beyond maybe just a scouting report or statistics?
TRE DONALDSON: I mean, 100 percent. I was there for two years, so I know how it operates, I know how everything runs. When you’re around people for so long, you catch on to what they do for sure. I definitely have tried to help as much as I can with that aspect just to give us our best chance to win.
Q. Vlad, you told us before the season that you thought this team had championship DNA, that you could make a run. What made you so confident after being with these guys for just a few weeks?
VLADISLAV GOLDIN: It’s just like, I don’t know, the connection with the guys, their work ethic, like all the small things that not many people can see. You only can see it only when you work with them. That’s something that I think I was able to see.
Q. For Danny, Coach May was in here saying, when they were looking at you on film, they wanted to see you against high major athletes on film, get some opinions before deciding whether to bring you to Michigan. I was curious, just in your thought process, how much did that factor into wanting to test yourself at the Big Ten level, or did what you did against Auburn last year in the tournament sort of prove that for you? Just what was your motivating factor was for trying to play at this level?
DANNY WOLF: Yeah, obviously I’m sure the game they analyzed most was probably the Auburn game, just the best look for them. Yeah, we won the game, and I had a solid game. I mean, it started before that.
It was just after the season my family and I just knew I needed to not only prove myself against caliber guys such as the Auburns, the Texas A&Ms, Big Ten competition. And it was just challenging myself at practice every day and getting to go against arguably one the best centers in the country every day and we have a bunch of other frontcourt guys to challenge me.
I knew for what I needed and what I wanted for my basketball career, I needed to do that and make that step up. In that Auburn game, I held my own pretty well. We were able to come away with a win.
Yeah, it was more so to just challenge myself and get myself better to prove myself, I would say.
Q. My question is for Vlad. Vlad, Dusty mentioned that the key to this team gelling quickly was relationships and you guys being like minded. Would you say there was a certain point this season where it all clicked and you guys realized, yeah, we can actually win this thing?
VLADISLAV GOLDIN: It’s been happening all season. It doesn’t happen in one day. It’s like routine like day by day, and it’s just like getting better and better and better. Then one day you just look back and you might say it’s clicking, but it’s been a long process.
Q. For any of you guys, I know you’ve got to beat Auburn first, but the opportunity to play Michigan State, a rival for a third time, get some revenge, would you relish that opportunity, or it doesn’t matter to you?
TRE DONALDSON: As a team, we’re not really worried about what’s next for us. We’ve got to take care of the task at hand. Then if we’re able to take care of the task at hand, we’ll deal with whatever’s ahead.
Q. Tre, as far as Auburn football, I was curious how close you came to playing Auburn football. Since your uncle played Auburn football, who will he be cheering for?
TRE DONALDSON: That’s crazy that you knew that. Not many people really know that my uncle played at Auburn.
I was close. I was extremely close to it becoming a reality because my basketball recruitment started so late, and the connection I had with the Auburn football staff, I really had a chance at playing there.
But basketball is what I wanted to do. That’s why I took that route. But I was extremely close.
To the second part of your question to do with my uncle, my uncle is going to be here, and he will be cheering for Michigan.
Q. Danny, you guys were — you found different ways to win in the first two games. What was it, five games in nine days or something when you were playing Texas, physical game, down by 10 in the second half. Do you guys enjoy the role, I guess, of being underdogs or having just sort of a lot of things not going your way and finding a way to win? Do you guys relish that kind of role?
DANNY WOLF: I think it started earlier in the season, Michigan the prior year did not live up to Michigan standards. Obviously there were injuries and things of that nature.
When we came together in the summer, we knew what we were capable of, and we knew what we wanted to get Michigan basketball back to. So I guess from that perspective we had that underdog mentality just given that the expectations weren’t that high because of the prior year.
As soon as we started playing and meshing, we knew that we weren’t really underdogs at that point because we had such a high level team and high level locker room and character. We had a pretty good regular season, and we were in the race for a Big Ten title. Then that kind of slipped out of our fingers.
Then from a public standpoint, our team kind of — everyone thought that we lost track, and they wrote the ‘ship off. We knew what we were capable of. We never lost faith in each other or trust in each other. Obviously we were looked at as underdogs in the Big Ten tournament given what happened the previous games. Even in this tournament, everyone thought UCSD was going to win, and a lot of people thought Texas A&M was going to win.
We just try to block out the outside noise and realize that people who have those opinions don’t have trust in us or have impact on us. We certainly play with a chip on our shoulder.
Q. The transfer portal is open right now. I know maybe it’s not something any of you guys are exploring, but some of your teammates may be. Just a player’s perspective on the fact that those decisions have to be made while the season is still happening?
DANNY WOLF: Obviously there was news last week about players on our team entering the portal. Times are changing now. It’s college basketball is just going to such a unique and different place than what anyone is used to.
I don’t want to speak to my thoughts on the portal being open during March Madness when teams are playing. I think it’s just — I just — from a perspective of a coach that’s still coaching, it’s a unique position to be in because you have to prepare for the biggest game of the year while also not getting behind the eight ball.
I don’t really know what coaches are doing in terms of the portal, and that’s not for us to worry about. We rock with the guys we have, and everyone is still bought in. Things unfolded in ways that weren’t expected last week. We really just didn’t put much thought into it and tried and look past it.
We have the biggest game of the year tomorrow night, and I don’t think anyone on our team and I don’t think any one of our coaches are going to be worrying about the portal the next 24 hours.
Q. Danny, you talked a little bit about the Auburn game last year already, but what are the first things that come to mind for you when you think about that game? And what do you remember about the matchup with Johni Broome?
DANNY WOLF: Obviously it was an unbelievable game for Yale. I want to think it was one of the highlights of my basketball career, up-and-down game. We had a clear underdog mentality that game, but we knew how good we were and we knew what we were capable of.
I think that’s the same mentality this year although not as big of an underdog type mentality.
Yeah, then from a matchup perspective, they started Johni at the five, and Cardwell came off the bench, so that was my matchup. I thought I held my own, but I know that a year later I’m a far different player than I was last year. Now they obviously start Johni and Dylan in arguably one of the best frontcourts in the country.
I like to think that our frontcourt room is one of the best frontcourts in the country as well. I know we’re all really excited for the opportunity, and it’s not often that you get two elite frontcourts going at it this late in the season.
For myself, Vlad, Will, we’re all very excited.
Q. Wanted to ask Danny and Tre, you guys matched up just last year in the NCAA Tournament in that first round game. Obviously Danny might have a bit more of fond memories than Tre in that one. Wanted to ask about was there anything in particular you guys noticed about playing each other for the first time, and what do you think each guy will bring to the table now that you’re both on the same side trying to beat Auburn?
DANNY WOLF: I was actually thinking about this last night, and I’d never tell Tre this, but we were watching film as a team before the tournament, we were watching film from the SEC Tournament, and there wasn’t a huge — because Tre came off the bench, and there wasn’t that big of an emphasis placed on Tre. But when we saw the highlights, we all were like looking around and being — I don’t want to use bad words, but it was like, oh, crap, this kid can go.
I was actually thinking about this last night because I forget which game it was in the SEC Tournament, but I think he had 19 points or something. He looked like a stud. So from the moment that Michigan was telling me that they were recruiting him in the portal, when I kind of had an idea as to where I was going, I knew it was a kid I wanted to play with. You guys have kind of gotten a glimpse of that these last few weeks as to just the high level player he is.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll say about that.
Q. Vlad, back in the day, you played at the U18 European Championship with great guys like Viktor and against great players like Franz, Santana, Augustas and Moussa. I was curious how that experience helps you for something like this for how you have to play great players all the way and how that compares to the NCAA Tournament.
VLADISLAV GOLDIN: I mean it’s a pretty similar environment when you play a tournament, one game, if you win, you play next. If you don’t win, you obviously go home.
We’ve been playing against great players all year long, so it’s not something that we haven’t seen before.
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