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Dusty May dissects keys to Michigan’s 2-big system ahead of Auburn matchup

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Dusty May arrived at Michigan this past offseason to turn around a program that had fallen by the wayside, and the head coach delivered immediate results.

After finishing 8-24 last season and missing back-to-back NCAA Tournaments under Juwan Howard, May quickly reshaped the roster in Ann Arbor with the transfer portal. That group surged to the Big Ten Tournament title and is rolling into a showdown vs. No. 1 overall seed Auburn in the Sweet 16.

While Michigan has been getting key contributions throughout the lineup, the driving force has been the work of a pair of 7-footers in Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf. Goldin captured the B1G Tournament Most Outstanding Player honor while Wolf has developed into a versatile scorer and creator for the offense.

So, how did May and his staff make it all work? The head coach admitted they expected Goldin, a player of his at FAU, would come to Michigan if he bypassed the NBA, and Goldin’s arrival shifted the outlook for the rest of the roster.

According to May, Wolf’s name surfaced in the transfer portal, and the former Yale standout was intriguing for a skill set different from Goldin’s. In fact, May said his staff felt Wolf was better suited to guard the perimeter in the Big Ten than he was for the traditional post players in the B1G.

“We thought he could move his feet and guard perimeter guys actually better than we thought he could guard Big Ten traditional centers that just wanted to muck it up down low. And offensively we just thought he could pick-and-pop, he could really dribble and he had a great court vision,” described May.

The first step was to get Wolf in the weight room to improve his conditioning. After that, May says the message to Wolf was getting him to understand he would have to “punish” smaller players consistently.

“We weren’t going to play him the same way… We were going to play him at the 4 and thought that was the one way he really needed to improve his game,” May explained. “We thought he would have to be able to punish guards on switches if we were going to play that way.”

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It worked out well with Wolf serving as the team’s 2nd-leading scorer at 13 points per game and leading the Wolverines with 9.8 rebounds. He also tied Goldin for the team lead with 1.4 blocks and was 2nd on the team with 3.6 assists and shot 33% from 3-point range this season.

So, what does that mean for the Sweet 16 against the Tigers? It should lead to a great matchup with Auburn also often going with 2 bigs in Naismith Trophy candidate Johni Broome and center Dylan Cardwell. Broome is the do-it-all forward for the Tigers while Cardwell serves as the more traditional big man in the post.

Heading into the matchup, BetMGM has Auburn as a 9.5-point favorite with the Tigers still among the best odds to reach the Final Four out of the South Region. Friday’s game is also set to be played in Atlanta, so Bruce Pearl’s group will be playing close to home with a near homecourt advantage for the matchup.

We’ll see who comes out on top, but it should be a great battle of bigs all game long.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.