2024-25 Season

Dusty 101: Defense never gets set

On March 23rd, Michigan hired Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May and kicked off a new era of the basketball program. May has rebuilt the roster and re-tooled the program with an impressive coaching staff, but his first game on November 4th is still weeks away. We know the basics about May’s resume, the highlights of his FAU team’s success, and what he’s said in press conferences, but there’s still much more to uncover. 

We’ve spent the summer digging into May’s game film, press conferences, interviews, clinic videos and more to understand his basketball vision and how that applies in Ann Arbor. Over the next two months, we’ll look closer at May, his philosophy, and his track record in a series of bite-sized breakdowns that feature everything from on-court tendencies to sideline demeanor to analytics, schematics, and culture building. 

Welcome back to Dusty 101. Next up, we discuss May’s preference to play uptempo. (Previously: Offensive philosophy, Shot selection)

Jordan Sperber famously highlighted how every coach claims that they want to play fast in their introductory press conference, and Dusty May was no exception. 

“I do know what I want it to look like at the end of the day. It’s fast, there’s a lot of action, very few stoppages, and hopefully, we score a lot of points,” he said at his introductory press conference.

Of course, not every coach who talks about playing uptempo basketball in their first press conference builds a team that embodies it on the floor. There are also aesthetically pleasing ways to play basketball that aren’t uptempo; just ask John Beilein.

We won’t know how Michigan plays until it takes the floor for exhibition games later this month, but all signs point toward May being serious about playing fast on offense.

May’s teams at Florida Atlantic have lived up to that standard offensively. He’s twice finished in the top 100 in average possession length and only once finished outside of the top 150 (181st in 2021-22). While May’s teams won’t be mistaken for Alabama or Iowa anytime soon, they are significantly faster than anything Michigan fans have seen recently.

John Beilein’s Michigan teams never finished faster than 243rd in average offensive possession length, usually checking in around 300th or worse. Under Juwan Howard, the Wolverines finished 222nd, 199th, 182nd, 194th, and 148th over the last five years.

“Offensively,” May summarized his philosophy in a clinic this summer. “The goal is to put pressure on the defense, pressure on the rim at all times, and not let the defense get set.”

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