Michigan Basketball Head Coach Dusty May After Close Win Over Penn State

Michigan remains unbeaten after a very close 74-72 win over Penn State in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions had a shot at the buzzer to send Michigan home with its first loss of the season but it was not to be. After the game, head coach Dusty May gave props where they were do and did his best to explain how a then 9-5 Penn State team almost handed his mighty Wolverines their first loss of the season.

"I know I felt a burst of energy walking out and seeing how many fans we had in the maize and blue. So we're grateful for those that traveled as far as they did to come and support these guys."

"A lot of times coaches get up here in a game like this and talk about what they didn't do. Penn State was more physical than us. Their game plan was better than ours. They beat us to every 50/50 ball. And it came down to two teams really battling. And unfortunately, the last shot was was off, and as [Freddie] Dilione had made big shot after big shot. And luckily, the clock ran out on that one.

"But you know, they played well. I thought [Ivan] Juric was extremely effective. He was physical. I thought they played a smart, disciplined game, and, you know, they capitalized on the mistakes that we made. And so luckily, to get out of here with, much like another league game, we're very fortunate to get out of here finding a way to win.

"We have veteran guys, and so we had a look that we were going to figure out a way to win. And this is part of the growth process — they have a lot of young guys that probably just don't have the experience in these moments, but games like this in the last couple that they had are going to, they're going to prove very beneficial in January, February, March, for especially young ball club, because they're coming together. We knew how tough it was going to be."

"We went through this last year where we had about a month where we didn't make any shots, and they missed some clean looks tonight,

"They did a nice job of fan out threes, and then [Dominick Stewart] just looked excited. And probably the difference in the reps that he has, and Dilione from last year, Dilione jumped up and knocked those down, and Stewart didn't, despite them being great looks. And there were a couple times I thought, [Eli] Rice had so much urgency to get to him that Morez [Johnson] and those guys were able to tip the ball.

"But no those, it's just part of going through it. It's, it's experience of being in these moments. And if you put yourself in them enough, you gain the confidence that you're going to figure it out. But, you know, like I said, we were very fortunate to get out here with a win, but we also, this is such a grind. We can't be too high, too low, but I am a little bit really — I don't want to say happy that our guys aren't jumping with joy, but you know, we have to play better if we're going to chase the championship."

"It changes a lot with the game plan. He's been very impressive on film with his ability to get anywhere he wants to on the floor, and then defensively, he's disruptive on the ball. He's disruptive off the ball running through passing lanes. So, you know, obviously, when any of us lose a guy, that is a big part of what we do, it hurts, and I don't know what happened to him, but they're a different team with him out there.

"But credit the other guys. I thought they stepped up and played well. Like I said, their bigs were extremely effective around the rim with their decision making on the perimeter. And I thought they set great screens. They punished our drops with physical screens, and they were able to get downhill. So credit those guys."

"Yeah, the possession before, you know, Freddie was in a good rhythm and he's probably the most experienced guy on on their team in these moments, and obviously familiar with the system and all that. But I thought Yax [Yaxel Lendeborg] did a really nice job of defending him one on one with the size, the possession before, and forced a tough shot that Freddie had made a couple other times earlier in the game. And in the last possession, it seemed like they were trying to get Yaxel off of him. And I thought Nimari [Burnett] did a nice job of switching up and forcing a tough shot.

"And you know, it's tough for Freddie, because he's made a couple threes in that same situation. Do you go get it to over time? Do you go for the kill with the three? You know, obviously it's easy to sit here and question those things now, but in live play, I mean, you trust the guys to go make some plays to win, and we made just enough."

"I don't remember exactly what our message was at halftime, other than the boards. We were getting destroyed on both glasses, I think we had one offensive rebound and they had nine. So that that's pretty much what we focused our energy on.

"The big lineup didn't get a lot of minutes together. Morez was in foul trouble, so we were kind of, we were working that, and then they start fouling [Aday] Mara, and we're in the front, and they got a couple stops by fouling Mara, so we actually worked incredibly small late with that group, with with Yaxel technically being the five and Roddy [Gayle] being the four.

"That big lineup has been elite almost every minute all year on the defensive end, and they haven't been elite on the offensive end all year. And I thought Penn State's zone got us out of rhythm. Usually it takes us two possessions, and with the passing ability and our size, we're able to play over the top of it. But I thought for three or four possessions, they were able to knock us out of rhythm and take away what we were looking for, and therefore we came out empty handed.

"So there were a number of things that changed the rhythm of the game. They controlled tempo. I thought the tempo press. I thought the zone kept our guys off balance. And, you know, we need all of these learning lessons if, if we're going to continue to improve."