Tony GarciaDetroit Free Press
Dusty May, the new Michigan basketball coach, has been pleasantly surprised with how frequently he has been, well, pleasantly surprised since his arrival in Ann Arbor.
For starters, he acknowledged to reporters last month he didn't anticipate the roster and staff coming together quite as quickly or cohesively as they did over the spring, when he not only landed coaches from coast-to-coast but eight key transfers the staff targeted from NCAA tournament teams, arch rivals and everywhere in between.
Secondly, the food is top-notch, he told the program's play-by-play voice Brian Boesch on the latest episode of the team's in-house "Defend The Den" podcast. When May's not taking recruits out to The Chop House or Ruth's Chris Steak House downtown, he said he's been enjoying "a little Peruvian place" (Culantro) on Main Street and joked that he made his way to Frita Batidos for what felt like 10 times in his first 12 days in town.
ON THE GRIDIRON: Here's what Wink Martindale did when Michigan football had to jump into transfer portal
With all that great food, there has to be something to cancel it out. May was notorious for biking to work in Boca Raton, and while he's come to accept he won't be able to take two wheels to work during the season when the snow is on the ground, right now he's enjoying the bike lanes to get from the hotels he's stayed in to the athletic complex where his real work takes place.
The hope, he said, is that cycling can offset the caloric intake.
"I might have to get elastic pants to wear on the sideline," he joked. "I’ll be playing for the tie."
That seems about the only place May is willing to settle for a tie, as the first man who ever led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four is looking to return the Wolverines' basketball program to where it was not all that long ago; atop the collegiate landscape.
After turning over nearly the entire roster except for three players — graduate wing Nimari Burnett, senior forward Will Tschetter and graduate forward Jace Howard — May knows that growing cohesion and chemistry is not just a desire, it is a prerequisite for growing a successful program.
[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Hail Yes!" your go-to Michigan Wolverines podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]
U-M's summer program doesn't officially start until Monday, but players have been in and out of the facility on their own getting in some work. Recently, May saw the infancy stages of team growth during one of those afternoons.
"Rubin (Jones) came in this weekend," May said. "He's not enrolled in classes yet so he’s getting here earlier than he has to. Walk to the practice court and he and Vlad (Goldin) were just talking for 15 or 20 minutes, not working out.
"That’s the most important part of this summer. These guys getting to know each other as people, spending time with each other and then once it’s time to compete it’s a lot easier if you know you’re competing with a guy who really has your back and you know them as a person first."
The summer isn't just for the players getting to know one another. It's also for the coaches to get their first chance to see how their vision of bringing in various pieces from around the country actually translates into on-court cohesion.
May said that his staff did its due diligence when recruiting — he explained his strategy after identifying a target is to try and shoot holes in the plan and find the reasons it won't work, but that nobody had "any significant red lines" which would rule them out — but there's only one way to know for sure. And that will take place next week when the whole team comes together for the first time
"As far as the true relationship piece, that’s still a ways a way before we earn their trust and they earn our trust," he said. "We’re excited to see what makes these guys tick, what motivates them ... as a head coach I tell them I make more mistakes than all of them, so it’s a very safe place to learn and grow.
FALL IS COMING SOON: 100 Michigan football thoughts and questions for every day until the 2024 season begins
"We’re always either trying to get better or protect ego, so with our player and they know us, that’s what we pride ourselves on."
There is one player on the team who can now attest to this firsthand. Goldin, a 7-foot-1 center who played under May at FAU and became the face of the transfer portal class, has a long-standing relationship with May after spending three years together 45 miles north of Miami at FAU.
In addition to being one of the top centers in the nation — he averaged 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds on 67.3% shooting from the floor — he also has the character May looks for and wants to see exemplified night-in and night-out.
Never more was this the case in May's mind than after an undisclosed game, when May called a timeout and drew up a last-minute play that went awry. It ended as an Owls' defeat.
"Walking back to do media I said, 'Vlad, I cost us that game with (my) decision making,' and right then and there he put his arm around me and said, ‘Coach, we win together, we lose together,'" May recalled. "We’re all in this together, the good, the bad, the ugly. That’s what a team is. We don’t say we’re family because we don’t get to choose our family.
"Our family, we’re born into, with a team we all get to choose who our team is and who our teammates are."
In addition to conditioning, the preseason months will be focused on establishing identity as far as tempo, pace and teaching the cutting principles of the free-flowing offense.
It's about laying the bricks of a foundation, finding out who complements each other and mixing and matching various personnel to create advantageous situations.
"If a guy proves to be a great shot blocker, that tells us we can be more aggressive in the full court," May said as an example. "We try to take a step back, look at our best players. What do they do well and what’s the strengths of our group and then really try to attack in those areas."
For as much as has been done, May is still in the process of getting settled into his new role. He mentioned how his family has finally purchased a home, but won't be able to get in for the next few weeks. It will be about that time when the team has gotten to know one another, and there are already plans for games, ice breakers and family trivia to get to know one another.
"We will have the guys over and watch the NBA playoffs together and break bread," May said. "More than anything else, like any relationship, it takes time, but we want our guys to work together with intentionality."
Contact Tony Garcia:apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at@realtonygarcia.
