CAN THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES TURN THINGS AROUND IN DUSTY MAY’S FIRST SEASON?

It’s been quite an offseason for Michigan basketball. After a horrid 8-24 campaign, finished off by a brutal 1-14 stretch to close the season, Athletic Director Warde Manuel made a coaching change for the Wolverines. Juwan Howard was relieved from his duties and Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May was brought in to lead the program.

May has been on a whirlwind since he came aboard. He’s been all over campus and has injected new life into the program. Much of this excitement has come on the recruiting trail, where May has completely overhauled Michigan’s roster in just a few weeks. And while part of this likely has to do with his personality, much of it is by necessity — he inherited a virtually non-existent roster.

So, where do things stand as of now? Can Michigan hit the ground running in May’s first campaign?

Let’s take a look.

-Program Departures:

  • Tray Jackson, 6-foot-10, forward, senior (graduation)
  • Youssef Khayat, 6-foot-9, forward, sophomore (transfer)
  • Jaelin Llwellyn, 6-foot-2, guard, senior (graduation)
  • Dug McDaniel, 5-foot-11, guard, sophomore (transfer)
  • Olivier Nkamhoua, 6-foot-9, forward, senior (graduation)
  • Tarris Reed, 6-foot-10, center, sophomore (transfer)
  • George Washington, III, 6-foot-2, guard, freshman (transfer)
  • Terrance Williams, 6-foot-7, forward, junior (transfer)

As noted above, Michigan got hit pretty hard this offseason. The Wolverines not only lost some of their top contributors (Jackson, Llwellyn, and Nkamhoua) to graduation, but also saw a flurry of transfers around the time Howard’s firing became apparent. And while that’s typical for a program going through a coaching transition in today’s world, it left May with only a handful of scholarship players as he took the job.

It’s also important to note that Michigan’s roster was already in a precarious spot prior to the coaching transition as well. The program’s recruiting had stalled over the last few offseasons, leaving the roster short-handed, even before the season began. Michigan entered last fall with multiple scholarships unused, which certainly played a factor in the program’s underwhelming performance.

Perhaps the lone saving grace here is that most of these players were unproductive. Khayat and Washington barely played, Llwellyn struggled with injuries, and Jackson and Reed never found their marks with Michigan, finishing with offensive ratings below 100 last season. McDaniel and Williams were also inconsistent for the Wolverines, particularly McDaniel with his off court issues. The only player that consistently performed like a top-tier player was Nkamhoua. And even he dealt with an injury at the end of the year.

None of this is to say these guys can’t play — in fact, it’s reasonable to suspect players like McDaniel and Reed will thrive in their new transfer locations. But they didn’t perform like stars in Ann Arbor. And that at least makes it easier to replace their contributions.

-Program Additions:

  • Durral Brooks, guard, 6-foot-2 (recruit)
  • Loreznso Cason, guard, 6-foot-2 (recruit)
  • Tre Donaldson, 6-foot-2, guard (Auburn transfer)
  • Roddy Gayle, 6-foot-4, guard (Ohio State transfer)
  • Vladislav Goldin, 7-foot-1, center (Florida Atlantic transfer)
  • Rubin Jones, 6-foot-5, guard (North Texas transfer)
  • Justin Pippen, 6-foot-3, guard (recruit)
  • Sam Walters, 6-foot-8, forward (Alabama transfer)
  • Danny Wolf, 7-foot-0, center (Yale transfer)

Now, that’s quite a haul over just a few weeks. Bringing in nine players over just a few weeks is an incredible accomplishment, especially considering that many of the newcomers arrive with quality profiles. Pippen arrives as a top 75 prospect and five (!!!) of the transfers are rated as four-star prospects by 247Sports. If even a handful of those players live up to their recruiting hype, Michigan should be in good shape to fill out its starting lineup.

Things got even better when May convinced players like Nimari Burnett and Will Tschetter to return as well. While neither was great last season, but improved significantly throughout the year and posted some of their best performances down the stretch. Burnett scored double-digits in five of the team’s last nine games and Tschetter averaged 25.8 minutes per game over Michigan’s final five-game stretch. Those two should be natural fits around what May has added this spring.

If all goes well, Michigan could be looking at a lineup like this:

  • PG - Donaldson backed by Brooks/Cason
  • SG - Jones backed by Burnett/Gayle/Pippen
  • SF - Gayle backed by Jones/Burnett
  • PF - Walters/Tschetter
  • C - Goldin/Wolf

That’s . . . a surprisingly solid lineup given where Michigan was a few months ago. To start, Donaldson, Gayle, and Goldin/Wolf are all proven players. All four have played (and produced) in big games. There really shouldn’t be much of a question about any of them, at least individually. And then Michigan has multiple options at each of the other spots, including a transfer in Jones who’s shown some serious promise already. There’s also enough flexibility with players like Burnett/Gayle to move positions based on how some of the newcomers perform.

There are really only two big questions related to the newcomers. First, how will they play together? These pieces fit together nicely on paper, but will they on the court? Most of these players haven’t played together before. There’s going to be a learning curve and there’s a chance we see this team be less than the sum of it’s parts because it takes so long for them to figure out how to play with one another.

Additionally, there is little proven “star power” here. While nearly all the transfers were rated as four-star prospects by 247Sports, none finished in the top 25 of the site’s transfer rankings. The closest was Wolf, who came in as the 28th best transfer. That means someone is going to need to outperform their rating if Michigan is going to have a star player capable of carrying them to key wins in Big Ten play. Finding someone who can elevate themselves will be one of May’s biggest challenges this year.

Overall, there’s a lot to like here. Michigan should enter the fall with a roster more than capable of getting back to the Big Dance. May will have to navigate some bumps early on and find a star player, but Wolverine fans have to be excited about what’s ahead.

2024-05-07T12:51:04Z dg43tfdfdgfd