A lot has changed in college basketball since Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May was in the Big Ten.
The last time May was involved in a game involving the conference was 2000, just before he finished his undergraduate degree at Indiana, when he served as a student manager under Bobby Knight. Back then, there were seemingly two portions of the season: nonconference and conference.
Naturally, one finished before the other started.
Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May looks on in the first half against Tarleton State at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.
That’s no longer the case. With Big Ten expansion (even before it moved to 18 teams this year) and TV contract money going way up, the league saw an opportunity to get more eye balls on the conference early if it threw in a pair of league games prior to the calendar flipping.
That’s why newly ranked No. 23 Michigan basketball (6-1) is preparing for its first league game of the year when it travels to take on No. 11 Wisconsin (8-0) at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin on Tuesday (9 p.m., Peacock) just five days after Thanksgiving.
“If I was the czar of basketball, I’d probably finish the noncon first,” May said Monday morning at Crisler Center before practice. “But I’m all for it. Whatever it is, both teams, everyone in our league has the same thing.
“You kind of see where you are. You play two games, you could be 2-0, 1-1, 0-2, and you realize you still have a lot more left and it just shows you where you are in early December, and you have to be a much better team in January if you haven’t performed well.”
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Red hot Badgers
The Badgers are not one of those teams that has started slowly. Coach Greg Gard’s group was a popular pick to take a step back this season considering he needed to replace three starters. Senior forward Tyler Wahl graduated, last year’s leading scorer AJ Storr went to Kansas, and longtime point guard Chucky Hepburn left for Louisville.
John Tonje of the Wisconsin Badgers is fouled going up for a shot by Dylan Parker of the River Falls Falcons in the second half of the exhibition game at Kohl Center on Oct. 30, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Even still, the Badgers are undefeated with a pair of wins over Power Four schools — top-10 Arizona at home Nov. 16 and a plucky Pittsburgh team at a neutral site in the Greenbrier Tip-Off in West Virginia on Nov. 24. The reason Gard’s team hasn’t fallen off is elite guard play.
Sixth-year transfer John Tonje has been one of the best players in America early on. A former four-year player at Colorado State (though he went 1-for-9 vs. the Wolverines when they met in the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament), Tonje spent last year at Missouri before he suffered a season-ending foot injury.
He joined the Badgers this offseason.
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound guard had never scored 15 points per game at the mid-major level, but is No. 7 in the nation in scoring (22.9 points per game) with remarkable efficiency from the floor (52.7%), 3-point range (42.1%) and free-throw line (94.5%).
John Blackwell is a 6-foot-4 athlete who has taken a step and should be motivated. The West Bloomfield native went to Brother Rice, but was largely underrecruited in high school. Neither U-M or MSU offered the former three-star prospect a scholarship (Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Oakland all did) before the Badgers scooped him.
Wisconsin Badgers guard John Blackwell dribbles the ball past James Madison Dukes guard Noah Freidel in the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament at the Barclays Center.
Blackwell is scoring 14.9 points and grabbing 4.4 rebounds per game. Together, they pace one of the nation’s best offenses: Wisconsin is No. 1 in the country from the foul line (86.4%), No. 3 in steal percentage (5.8%) and No. 10 in turnover percentage (13.1%) according to KenPom, which has the Badgers ranked No. 18 offensively (117.9).
Fifth-year players Max Klesmit and Steven Crowl and sophomore Nolan Winter are complementary pieces.
“They have a really unique mix of downhill drivers that get to the line and convert at the line better than anyone else in the country,” May said. “Their post guys can shoot it. They can score one-on-one after the dust settles, but they’re really, really efficient as passers, which I think gives the cutters even more confidence to cut, the shooters even more space.
“It’s going to be fun because they play the game the right way. They’re playing with great tempo. They share the basketball. They live in their strengths. Hats off to coach Gard. I don’t think anyone expected them to be where they are right now, but they’ve done a nice job and they’re obviously playing extremely well together.”
‘Showed what we’re capable of’
Michigan Wolverines center Vladislav Goldin (50) dunks against Miami (Ohio) in the first half at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024.
May has much respect because he knows how difficult it is for a new team to gel.
U-M has also gotten off to a great start at 6-1 (though the NET rankings which came out Monday said each of those games are currently in the Quad 3 or Quad 4 category).
“We showed what we’re capable of doing when we’re not turning the basketball over,” May said of U-M winning the Fort Myers Tip-Off over this past week. “So we’re excited to see where we stand against one of the best teams in the country on the road this early.”
May said the “glaring improvements” his team needs to make are on the defensive glass and with turnover rate, which he said “looks worse than it is.”
“We do think we’re a lot closer to cleaning it up than some teams in this situation,” he said. “It’s not as if we don’t have what we need to get it fixed.”
There has been a lot to like as well, too, coming off a 2-0 week against Virginia Tech and Xavier.
Nov 27, 2024; Fort Myers, Florida, USA; Michigan Wolverines center Danny Wolf (1) reacts after making a basket against the Xavier Musketeers in the first half at Suncoast Credit Union Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
U-M, which KenPom sees as No. 22 in the country, is rated No. 38 on offense and No. 10 on defense. Perhaps the best stat for Michigan’s coaching staff is that the group already ranks top 15 in effective field goal percentage on both ends of the court (No. 15, 59% on offense; No. 12, 42% on defense).
The other early season woes, like getting better chemistry when two 7-footers are on the court at the same time, is something that will take time. In the old Big Ten, there would’ve been a few more weeks to figure it out for May.
Not these days, but that’s okay too.
“You know how tough it is to win at Wisconsin and how infrequently teams win there,” May said of what he can take from his past into this game. “But as far as anything else, it’s been a long time. Game’s changed a lot.
“Personnel’s changed. Coaches have changed. Everything’s changed.”
Michigan vs. Wisconsin prediction
Tony Garcia’s pick for the Big Ten basketball opener: Michigan 79, Wisconsin 77.
Next up: Badgers
Matchup: No. 23 Michigan (6-1) at No. 11 Wisconsin (8-0), Big Ten opener.
Tipoff: 9 p.m. Tuesday; Kohl Center, Madison, Wisconsin.
TV/radio: Peacock (online only); WWJ-AM (950).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan’s Dusty May ready for early Big Ten matchup at Wisconsin
