Michigan basketball had an exemplary season in Dusty May‘s first year with the program, not only winning the Big Ten Tournament, but advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. Facing 1-seed Auburn, it was going to be a tough challenge for the Wolverines coming in as the 5-seed. But the maize and blue battled valiantly for 30 minutes of the 40-minute game, only to fall to the Tigers, 78-65.
After the game, May met with the media to discuss what is now the final contest of the 2024–25 season. Here is everything he had to say.
Opening statement
Congratulate Auburn and the job they did, especially in the last 8 or 10 minutes of the game. They played with an incredible amount of energy, enthusiasm, physicality, and knocked us off our spots. They were a load on the offensive glass. I think those extra possessions were the difference in the game.
I want to give our guys a lot of credit too. We really, really grew as a group. This was an awesome team to be around every single day. It hurts when you don’t perform at your best for the last game and put yourself in position to win.
Overall, just very, very proud of this group.
What’s the journey been like for you getting this team to where they are now and going forward into the future, what’s that look like for you?
That’s the toughest part. You think back to June or whatever date it was when we had the full group here and what they looked like then and where you were at that point, it didn’t look anything like it does now.
Just to see these guys, you’re bringing so many new guys, you have some other guys still in the program, you don’t know how their personalities are going to mesh, their skill sets. Just for these guys to want to be better every single day, to be open to change, to love each other, to get off the mat when you get knocked down, just proud of the group.
A lot of fun. Obviously we had a blast, and we did some things that we’ll have forever. We’ll have a banner and whatnot.
Man, when I think back to the first Michigan team I was a part of, these guys, they left a legacy. They’ve helped us establish an identity, and they should be very, very proud of their body of work.
Coach May, that frontcourt duo that you brought together this off-season, what can you say now reflecting on the season that they had as a duo about your image for them when you brought them in, what you sold them on, and how it played out and maybe how they reached those expectations or exceeded them along the way?
Well, No. 1, I credit them. They bought into a vision, and sometimes it’s hard to buy into something that’s not seen, that you can’t see. Also, they worked. They wanted to figure out solutions. They wanted to figure out the best way to do it, and it starts with just getting really quality people that are good at basketball and then figure out a way to make it work.
Now my mind shifts to next season immediately. What’s it going to look like? How do we replicate the best of this season? And how do we fix some things? We’re still playing for another few weeks.
Yeah, those guys, they became a national story because of the unique skill sets, how well they worked together. But also, the other three guys on the court didn’t get as much credit as they deserve because they were the ones spacing, cutting, feeding the ball, whatever the case.
Yeah, it was unique for us for those guys to get some really quality attention and press and give us another kind of, I guess, subculture or identity going forward.
#Dusty #Michigan #basketball #Auburn #postgame #presser #transcript
