Michigan will play Tennessee in the Elite Eight on Sunday afternoon with a spot in the Final Four next weekend on the line. Speaking to the media in Chicago to preview the game, here’s everything head coach Dusty May, Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr. and Trey McKenney had to say, courtesy of ASAP Sports.
Q. Roddy, I was curious, your relationship with Felix, getting to go up against him tomorrow and just kind of what you remember from those Ohio State days.
RODDY GAYLE, JR.: Obviously, me and him coming
in our freshmen year, we were roommates. I pretty much spent all day, every day with him. We just built a special bond together. So it’s obviously fun to play against somebody you essentially grew up with for those two years.
Then seeing his growth, his progress, and honestly just being able to compete against him at such a high level.
Q. Trey, for people who don’t know, obviously you grew up a Michigan fan. But when there was a coaching change, how long did it take Dusty to earn your trust and what was the recruiting process like with him?
TREY McKENNEY: It was pretty straightforward. Obviously, he got the job pretty late in my high school career. He made sure to be able to pick up for some of the slack that he left off where he didn’t know me as much early in my high school years.
His approach was trying to build a relationship with me as a person, and the coaching staff also doing a pretty good job of coming and seeing me and building that relationship and talking with my family. So I got pretty comfortable with him pretty quickly.
Q. Nimari, you talked during the Big Ten tournament about what it means to play in Chicago. Now that you’re here, about to play for a spot in the Final Four, what does it mean to you having it being in your hometown? This city has a rich basketball history. What does it mean to be part of the history?
NIMARI BURNETT: To be playing in the United Center — I remember growing up as a kid and dreaming about playing on a high level. Being here, watching Derrick Rose when I was growing up was always amazing.
But being here, playing for a Final Four, I think nothing tops that. And playing with this group, playing with this team, and having a chance to advance, honestly will take that over playing in Chicago. So I’m grateful.
Q. Roddy and Nimari, Dusty has talked about the sacrifices you’ve made to be on the team. Curious if you guys can speak to that and what made it worth it for you guys to stick around, despite taking on more limited roles.
RODDY GAYLE, JR.: I think the people we have on this team, the staff that we have, allows you to buy into what the program has to offer, buy into your role and just everything on the court. That’s something that has been successful for me. I feel like why shy away from what’s been successful for me in my career.
Especially with the people we had coming back and their personalities allowed me to be more comfortable with it. We had the best player in the country, and he’s the most unselfish one, in my opinion. When you have a locker room full of guys like that who are unselfish and want to see you succeed in life, it’s easy to be able to play your role.
NIMARI BURNETT: What also makes it worth it is playing here at this stage right now. Playing with the most unselfish, the best players across the country and getting to this moment, playing in the NCAA Tournament, it means everything. And these are the goals that we set prior to the season.
So any level of success will take a level of sacrifice. We all understand that, but we’re all committed to that one goal, which is to win a National Championship.
Q. For all three of you, this is your fifth game at the United Center. You’re 3-1 so far. All of them, other than the game against Alabama in the second half have been close. What is it like playing here for the fifth time, playing in the building and so many neutral site games?
NIMARI BURNETT: It’s exciting. Just playing for a Final Four but also for a National Championship. You see the rafters, you see Michael Jordan. It’s quite amazing to be stepping on the same floor, sharing this history, but doing it on a different level. But I’m grateful and excited for these moments. These guys are too.
RODDY GAYLE, JR.: Our fan base do a really good job supporting us in these games we have at the United Center. We’ve been able to rally off of that. We’ve been successful feeding off the energy of the crowd.
Q. Roddy, this whole Roddy March thing, sports are mental. I wonder how much you wake up, say it’s March, I’m Roddy Gayle. I’m going to have a good game today and whether that actually leads to success.
RODDY GAYLE, JR.: It’s just the circumstances for me personally. Coach said it a few games ago, especially with these game, you just bring your best and if your best doesn’t get the job done, live with that. I take it as now it’s literally do or die. And if I don’t give the extra sprint, don’t get the extra dive on the floor, loose ball, that could cost our team.
And I don’t want it to end that way, knowing I didn’t leave everything on the court. That carries so much mentally, physically, and playing really free.
Q. Nimari, curious, with Tennessee as a 6 seed, they’ve knocked off Virginia, Iowa State. I don’t know if you exactly call them a Cinderella team. Maybe a giant killer. When an underdog takes on that role and is finding success, what can that do to their confidence and how much of a concern is that for you guys?
NIMARI BURNETT: I would call them a really, really good team. Rick Barnes has been coaching for a while and coaching at Tennessee for a while. He knows how to win, especially at this level.
We understand that especially at this point of the season, any team is a challenge. We’re also ready to take the challenge to them as well. We look forward to a really good, physical game but also playing our style of play on both end of the floor.
Q. Trey, what similarities would you say your team has with Tennessee? That’s part one. Two, is there a team comp that Tennessee is the most similar to, to who you played this year?
TREY McKENNEY: I think I would say Tennessee, they try to get as many second chance points as they can. They’re on the offensive glass really heavy. That’s something we preach because I mean, we have a lot of size down low. We want to get as many shots as we can because we know those are the most efficient shots.
I would say they play — rebounding-wise, they play a lot like Purdue. So yeah.
Q. Roddy, I’ve seen you kind of give Yax some glances for some of the confident quotes that he’s made the past couple days. On the floor, though, how do you think the confidence and personality has helped him?
RODDY GAYLE, JR.: On the court, Yax is free. Especially when he’s emotionally invested in the game, he’s at his best with his activity offensively, defensively, on the glass. Some of his antics may be extra sometimes, but that fuels him to be his best. You let that happen.
As far as media, been tasked with Roddy watch, so I’ve got to make sure he’s on his best behavior.
Q. Roddy, Nimari, you guys faced the best offensive rebounding team in the country last year in Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament. I’m curious if there are similarities from that prep or their style of play you can use when preparing for Tennessee tomorrow?
RODDY GAYLE, JR.: Just like being able to get hits early on and not allow them to get position. They play three bigs most of the time, similar guys. So it’s just all about positioning for us, especially on the long rebounds, long shots.
Being able to chop our feet, not letting balls go over our head and being able to win the position back.
NIMARI BURNETT: We’ve played — especially in the Big Ten, teams like Illinois, like Trey mentioned, Purdue, there’s been a lot of teams that crash the glass heavy, and that’s their identity. That’s been Tennessee’s identity throughout the season.
So we look forward to getting physical hits throughout the course of 40 minutes and winning the rebound battle is one of our goals for this game.
Q. Nimari, you’re one of the more experienced guys on the team. How do you share that with the teammates? How do you describe your leadership style?
NIMARI BURNETT: I lead by example. I am a vocal guy, but I tend to lead more by example and doing things the right way while also being there for the younger guys, guys that haven’t been in this level before.
A lot of these guys on this team are already prepared for these moments. I would say it’s part of their upbringing, part of their previous experience, and just being ready for this moment. My job as a leader is pretty easy, especially with the coaches who also lead by voice and example as well.
So I just feel like I add the level of leadership that is, of course, age and experience, but also just bringing it together with the group.
Q. Trey and Roddy, you have made 11-plus 3s in these tournament games so far. Tennessee is one of the best teams against the 3 defensively, allowing 30 percent of 3s to go in. How do you plan to attack that from beyond the arc.
TREY McKENNEY: They’re definitely going to be really physical. I think on offense, we need to try to play to our advantages, and whether that’s a good open 3, to try to get a great 3, we would take the great 3 all day. I think just trying to play off close-outs and get the better shot.
RODDY GAYLE, JR.: To go back off what he said, being able to keep the advantage. We know they’re heavy in the gap, so being able to get the ball space when somebody drives and play off of that. Playing off of close-outs is important because those guys will go from the block, essentially, out to the 3-point line. Being able to take off that and turn good shots to great ones.
Q. Dusty, how much have you shown the guys the film from FAU beating Rick’s team three years ago, I think, and does the team look any different? Any similarities? You guys can get an advantage from?
DUSTY MAY: There’s a few things that were great reminders. We didn’t show them any film. We try not to overload them. There were a couple lessons we learned.
We felt like the first 17 minutes of that game, we were completely overwhelmed. We were struggling to make passes. We were trying to do too much as individuals. Just before half, we made a couple of really good plays and felt like, okay, that’s it. There’s the solution now if we can carry that over into another half and play really good ball.
And we were able to do that and had a double digit lead with a few minutes left.
I think it’s just a reminder of it’s shocking how physical they are in a good way, how hard they play, how active they are with their hands. It’s very difficult to throw a direct pass anywhere on the court because of their effort. Obviously, their size, athleticism factors into that.
So, yeah, it was a good reminder to watch that edit because some things definitely popped back into my head to be aware of.
Q. Dusty, this one kind of slipped through the crack the other day. Talking about recruiting Yaxel and how you were late, you said we’re not disrupting anyone’s season no matter what rumors are out there. We just call the head coach. What did you mean by rumors?
DUSTY MAY: This time of year and this couple weeks, for example, you’re receiving calls and they sound something like this. So and so is — if they bring in this player, then this player’s going in the portal. If this player goes here, then that player doesn’t want to play with him, and he’ll probably leave. If this coach leaves this school, then this player’s going to go into the portal. Things like that.
And so usually, if you hear that rumor, then someone called last year and said Bennett Stirtz might go into the portal after the season. And this is probably maybe this time or a week prior.
So I called Ben and said, hey, is it true that Bennett’s going to leave next year? He said, I don’t think so. He said we’re going to do everything we can to keep him. If he wanted to leave and go to the portal, there’s only a few guys I would feel comfortable could coach him well. I’d certainly help that. No, I don’t see that happening.
Same thing with AK. I know Andy Kennedy. Someone called and said Yaxel had another year, the JUCO ruling. And just called AK and said what’s he going to do next year? Stay there, go to the NBA, enter the portal? I don’t remember what his initial response was. It was something like that.
You hear all this stuff going on. I’m sure half of our roster has — all of our roster has — everyone has representation now. So when a head coach, his season ends today and he takes the job tomorrow, he has an agent that’s been working those back channels.
And I’d say 90 percent of the good players have the same thing going on right now, whether it’s working the back channelling to stay and leverage to get more for themselves or doing what agents are paid to do to represent their clients. That’s what I meant by that.
Q. Trey McKenney yesterday early in the game was taking 3s that you expect a veteran to take early in the shot clock. What does that say about your trust level for a true freshman to take shots like that in a Sweet 16 and how Trey has earned that through the year?
DUSTY MAY: He’s earned the right to take those shots through his day-to-day work, his preparation. He’s shot them throughout the year. When Trey comes in, if we can generate this shot, an open 3, we want him to take it whether it’s 5 seconds in the shot clock or 25 seconds in the shot clock.
He’s an explosive player and he came in last night and got right to it. We needed it.
Q. Dusty, how do you process the longevity of somebody like Rick Barnes? I imagine that your formative years, you watched a lot of his teams play. What does he mean to you as a basketball person?
DUSTY MAY: Well, obviously, I mean, when you just look at three consecutive Elite Eights, in this era, the level of consistency. And when he got to Tennessee, I was assistant coach at Florida. So we saw how quickly he was able to get it turned.
They have the same identity. Every year, year in year out, they have the same base. Ryan Albert, now the athletic director at Georgia Tech, was the associate AD here. He was our associate AD sport administrator at FAU. When he left to go to Tennessee, I would call him, hey, what’s Coach Barnes doing this summer? What’s coach doing in preseason?
When I got the FAU job, I watched their pregame warmups and routines and just felt like that’s a team that’s really — man, they’re very intentional with everything that they do.
I called their strength coach and said do you have anyone in your tree I need to interview or query? I have a lot of respect with how your guys play, how well they move, how physical they are.
Also, there’s a different level the way they work and attention to detail. I’ve tried to absorb as much as I could from afar about his program. Couldn’t have more respect for him as a human being.
Chris Walker on their staff — I know their assistant coaches, they’re just really, really good guys who are great ball coaches. I actually started drinking Kombucha
Tea because Albert told me they have a Kombucha machine. If I can coach with the longevity of Coach Barnes, if there’s secret cause, maybe it’s the Kombucha.
Q. Dusty, Nimari Burnett, what does he do for you guys that is maybe less noticeable from the outside looking in? His size, athleticism, and experience, how helpful will that be tomorrow against Tennessee guards and defending around the perimeter?
DUSTY MAY: Nimari is a stabilizer. Every day, he’s the exact same person emotionally, physically. His pre-practice routine is 10 out of 10. Everything he does is a lot like the Tennessee guys with attention to detail and purpose.
As far as athleticism, we’re going to need our guards to rebound well. The basketballs they can’t get, they’ll have to figure out a way to tip them to guys wearing our color jersey and away from the Tennessee guys.
He’s got length. He’s got size. He’s got athleticism. I think our guards rebounding down will be the difference in us moving on or going home.
Q. Dusty, a coach’s philosophy is a collection of experience from all your different stops. Obviously, it’s a collision with the talent you have and the roster you’ve built. I’m wondering if you can reflect back on this team and the way you’ve built it through the prism of your collective experience.
DUSTY MAY: We’ve always done it a little different. I watch certain teams that recruit a certain profile or certain skill set. We’ve always just really tried to find guys how love ball, who are great teammates, who are competitors. Those are probably the two things we value most.
Competitors because just we have a strong belief that competitors are going to figure out a way to win. Whatever that is, they’re just going to figure out a way to win whatever they’re playing. And so the competitive spirit is probably the most important thing.
And then loving ball would probably be a close, close second. Sometimes we say we don’t really care. You can love to compete or you can love ball. We think we can get to the end result as long as you have one of those.
And then whether — obviously, being big is in vogue. I’d never been a big coach at the Power 5 level. At Florida, because we were so big, our defensive numbers were top five in the country. I didn’t feel like we were that great defensively or had great defenders. Because we were big and athletic, that gave us a baseline to be good.
So we wanted to try to copy that. Then it was convenient because Vlad was 7’1″. And then Danny’s mom went to Michigan and he wanted an academic situation and high level basketball. That puts us 1 out of 5 as far as the academics and the basketball.
And then you have the family connections. We thought, wow, we could have a real shot at getting this guy. Two seven-footers, you’re naturally going to be bigger than most.
We’ve always tried to get good players and have enjoyed the process of watching our guys, learning our guys, to figure out the best way to function as a group. We’re not married to being big. If everybody goes big, we might weave and go small. Who knows? We’re not winning because we’re big. We’re winning because we have really good players and smart players.
Q. Dusty, the regional differences in our country obviously aren’t what they used to be, no matter the corner you live in. You have access to the same music, food, style, whatever, in ways that we didn’t. We’ve held on in college sports, particularly in basketball, particularly the Big Ten, SEC, north, south. I’m curious, why do you think we’ve held on in that area? Do you enjoy that?
DUSTY MAY: I don’t understand the question.
Q. Just there’s still rivalries and differences and identity and north, south, SEC. Maybe they used to say it matters more and that sort of thing.
DUSTY MAY: I think, obviously, there’s cultural differences in every region. I’ve lived in Florida. I’ve lived in the deep south. I’m a midwesterner. I’ve lived in L.A. I’ve lived everywhere but the east coast.
Everywhere I’ve lived, there’s a different culture in the way people live, the way they look at sports, the way they look at society. The Big Ten, you think about it, the University of Michigan was a university before Michigan was a state. So there’s a lot of just ingrained tradition that goes with being affiliated with Michigan. I can just speak for this school that I represent.
So you have 150 years of connection, if you have — if anyone in your family went to Michigan. I guess the culture of sport in the midwest, the farming communities, it’s cold all winter so you work in the summer and you work in the fall and you work in the spring and you’re inside watching hoops and getting ready.
So I think you have a long history of people loving basketball. You go in Big Ten arenas and these places are packed. I used to tell people all the time, our games in high school, we couldn’t announce our schedule until the IU schedule was done because they weren’t going to schedule a varsity basketball game at a small school in Indiana on a night IU played. That was sacred. You don’t schedule church during mass. You don’t schedule basketball during IU games.
Someone told me recently as long as our teams are playing for a championship and we’re representing something, a city, a university, whatever the case, then people are going to really care.
Q. Dusty, Michigan, you guys have scored 90-plus points in all three games so far, the first team to do that since Kansas in 2017. How do you continue to basically score at will against arguably the best defense you’ve faced thus far?
DUSTY MAY: Just continuing to create offense for each other, whether it’s through screening, cutting, passing, whatever the case.
I heard that stat earlier today, and I was shocked because I felt like we left so many points on the floor last night between our missed free throws and front ends and, also, our lack of conversion around the rim in the first half.
Because of our leads, all three games, we’ve slowed our tempo down the last 8 to 11 minutes of each game, drastically. So I think just our guys have found a good rhythm and our role guys are making shots. Our stars — I saw what Yaxel is shooting in March, and our stars have elevated their game as well.
I think all those things combined have allowed us to be efficient on both sides of the ball.
Q. Coach, you’ve had a tight-knit group already. But have the last few weeks being together, traveling, hotels, these games, the wins brought it even closer? Secondly, on Elliot, feels like he’s not the most vocal guy out there, but he plays with an edge and a passion. How do you see that drive him and give him a little bit of an edge?
DUSTY MAY: Well, he is vocal. Elliot, going out to the court when we’re at our best, his voice is heard. We actually made a comment, staff was watching film this morning, about how tough he is. He is an absolute Tasmanian Devil when he’s at his best. He’s impactful. He takes it personal.
When we were analyzing our team and evaluating our group this summer, we’re trying to forecast what could be a problem? What could keep us from being our best? One of the things we thought, we had two psycho competitors in Morez and Elliot, and we had to make sure those two psycho competitors weren’t competing each other. And found a way to make them realize they were very, very similar, so there could be some friction in practice, and as long as it never goes too far and doesn’t get personal, that edge will make us better. Those two guys, their competitive spirit.
You see Yax, he’s a fun-loving guy. He can turn it on and really compete at a high level. But Elliot and Morez are absolute psycho competitors, and our group needed that. So he’s brought that and he’s brought such a high level of intelligence to our group.
I mean, we have a couple guys that I call them savants. When I watch film with our young guys, I’m showing them clips of our older guys and say he probably doesn’t know what he’s looking at here. Let’s dig deep of what he saw there so we can learn from him.
We’ve learned a lot from Elliot. L.J. Cason has learned a lot from Elliot. Trey McKenney has learned a lot from Elliot. But he’s such an intelligent player.
Q. Coach, you kind of mentioned Yax being a fun-loving guy. I was asking Roddy about him. How have you embraced that aspect of personality as a head coach?
DUSTY MAY: I embrace them all for who they are and try to just move the needle a little bit. When we look back to where he was to where he is now, he’s a completely different person. I think when we see him a year from now, when he’s playing in an NBA rotation, he’ll be a completely different person.
I think he’s a little bit misunderstood because he’s not nearly as self-confident. And I’ve even read where some have called him arrogant. That’s not who he is. It’s probably his defense mechanism. He’s as genuine a human being as I’ve been around.
There’s a video of Purdue about this or that. I was shocked by the video because it was so out of character. I’ve probably had too many drinks a few times and done things I shouldn’t have at a bar at 3 a.m.
He’s just such a good guy, awesome to be around. But as you hear our players talk about his level of unselfishness and never being above the group is what’s made this year more special.
Q. Coach, love to get your breakdown of Nate Ament and Ja’Kobi Gillespie for Tennessee?
DUSTY MAY: We have the scout on Ja’Kobi. We played last year against Maryland. He’s dynamic. He’s got a clean shot from 27 feet, so he extends their range and their spacing.
His ability to get in the paint and find small cracks and crevices to create offenses is as good as anyone we’ve played. He’s smooth. He’s a smart player. He’s crafty.
We recruited Nate early on so I watched him play with his high school team and travel ball. He’s a special talent. He’s 6’10”. He gets to his spots. He shoots 3s. And I’m pretty sure one of the reasons he probably chose to go to Tennessee was to learn how to work to be a pro. He’s done that. He’s a completely different player than he was four months ago or six months ago, whatever the case.
Once again, that’s a testament to the culture of Tennessee basketball.
Q. Can you share your favorite 3 a.m. personal story? Probably not. Okay.
Talk about the agents and the clients —
DUSTY MAY: Those were before camera phones.
Q. You talk about agents working for clients, but you hear coaches talk about tampering. Are the rules clearly defined? How do you make sure to follow them to be sure that’s not taking place?
DUSTY MAY: There’s so much hearsay. I don’t want to get into this because it’s — you never know if it’s leverage. I’ve heard we’re recruiting a player that’s a junior, and we can’t take juniors. So you try to address it, and you realize onces it’s on Twitter, there’s no reason to talk about it. Just let it go.
But even when we’re negotiating with agents, they’ll tell us, well, this school offered this, and this school offered that. I was talking to one of my closest friends in coaching. He’s had postseason meetings — they were in the tournament, got beat early, and he’s had postseason meetings. He said this guy’s been offered this from this school. You don’t know if it’s true or not because — if an agent is using leverage or maybe the agent called a coach he knows and said this kid is leaving, he’s just got to wait until the portal opens. Do you guys want him?
I don’t know. It’s really complicated, like I said. We had one of our player’s agents two weeks ago say he’s spoken with other schools. He caught himself. I said you work for your client. And we’ve got the next month to evaluate from our standpoint and his standpoint, if this isn’t the best place, there’s no hard feelings. You work for him. You have to do the best for him. We want him to stay. If he doesn’t feel like he’ll have an opportunity to play and develop, whatever the case, there’s no hard feelings.
So he was almost shocked that we weren’t angry at him because he said he’d spoken to several other schools. So it’s — as long as they’re all on one-year contracts and as long as there’s as much fluidity as there is in college basketball, until we figure out a system, it’s not going to change. I don’t take it personally when our guys say they have offers from other schools. I just don’t.
I don’t like it because, obviously, it’s more work for me and it’s change and it’s hard, but I’m not mad at them for it.
Q. Dusty, you probably addressed this earlier, but I wasn’t here. Do you think your big guys are maybe looking forward to facing a big, tough, physical rebounding team like Tennessee, as opposed to a team with all sorts of guards around the 3-point line?
DUSTY MAY: I don’t know. There’s going to be a lot of good big guys on the court for both teams tomorrow. We’re at the point of the season now where we’ve proved we’re able to win no matter how the game goes. Slow, fast, physical, free-flowing.
So we try to figure out how the game is being officiated, what the rules of engagement are, and try to do the best we can. We feel like we’re built to win and play whatever it is. We feel like being adaptable is a strength.
Q. Dusty, Elliot was just talking about trust being a big part of the recruitment with him and the conversation between you and him. Wondering what that conversation was and how you think that’s helped him flourish this year.
DUSTY MAY: I don’t remember that specifically. I do think as people, we all have personality traits. I’m a person that I trust 100 until it’s violated maybe twice.
So if we’re going to sign you and we’re going to ask trust and loyalty from you, then you’re going to get it from us. So when you come here, especially as a point guard, we recruit you, we’re going to trust you to run our team, to work together, to collaborate, to be the best for you and the best for us.
We do take a lot of pride, and it has to work for our guys while we win. Obviously, winning is our objective. We have to win. But we also want them to be fulfilled in their role, their growth, their development while they’re winning.
So that’s usually the starting point of all of our conversations is that trust factor, that it’s going to be an open relationship where if there’s issue, we’re going to talk about it. We’re not going to whisper and do the other stuff. We’re going to go man to man, figure out a solution, and figure out a way for both of us to achieve what we need to achieve.
Q. We were having a conversation with Elliot about his move-in experience, and he said there you were bringing a table up the stairs helping him move into the apartment. He said no other coach would have or has ever done that for him. That seemed to be a sentiment guys were echoing in the room. Where does it come from that you care for them so much and do that?
DUSTY MAY: I forgot about that. I’m from Greene County, Indiana. I’m a blue collar guy. I cut grass, I cut tobacco, I bailed hay. I worked in turkey barns. I did everything labor while running cross-country and playing basketball and baseball.
If you see a neighbor moving in, you go help them. We had a couple of rental properties in Bloomington when I was at IU. The elderly lady didn’t cut her grass. I cut her grass. Where I’m from in the community I was raised by my parents, that’s just what you do. When a player is moving in, it’s a lot quicker if we walk across the parking lot and help them move in rather than just mom and dad. It’s kind of how we run our program.
Q. It feels like it might be infectious with your players. How much do you appreciate you’ve seen them lean into the “we’re a band of brothers” type of thing?
DUSTY MAY: It’s the best part of all this. I’m not consumed with winning tomorrow so we can go to Indianapolis and be in a Final Four and have all the stuff that goes with it. I’m consumed to keep this journey going with this group. They’re so much fun to be around every day. To see how they’ve grown as far as their relationships and who they are as people is very rewarding. And hopefully our staff is modeling the right behavior 24/7, seven days a week.
Q. Coach, earlier you touched on how Yaxel has been shooting well in March, including 10 of 18 from 3 at the United Center. What have you seen from the game that has made him a 3-point threat?
DUSTY MAY: I think confidence. Our staff has done a nice job of staying with the work and process after practice and before practice. Getting the extra confidence that comes with putting in the work. His teammates believing in him. And also I think he’s found different solutions to generate shots.
We’ve been disappointed in him all year that he didn’t believe in his shot like we did as a staff. He didn’t shoot many 3s before he got here. The first week, we made a comment his shot probably looked as close to Klay Thompson as anyone on our roster. There’s no reason he doesn’t become a 40 percent shooter. He hasn’t gotten there yet, but we feel he can be that with confidence, reps, and if we can get him good shots meaning paint touch 3s.
Q. I close on a house in ten days so I’ll find you. But seriously, Trey McKenney has had a fabulous freshman season. What do you see as his next step development-wise?
DUSTY MAY: I don’t want to put a ceiling on anyone and I don’t want to put any, I guess, expectations when you’re trying to do this and trying to do that. But I think he’s going to be one of the best guards in the Big Ten. If you’re one of the best guards in the Big Ten, you’re going to be one of the best guards in the country next year. We’re excited because, first and foremost, of how hard he’ll work and how much time he puts into it.
To see him do this late season when a lot of freshmen have hit a wall and are ready for the season to be over six weeks ago, he’s continued to improve. He’s about the film, shooting, weights, taking care of his body. He’s a professional with how he works every single day.
I did work in a furniture warehouse as well and I’ve delivered furniture, so I have a unique skill set when it comes to moving and angles and getting couches in tight spaces. I’ll be there.
