Dusty May’s Monday press conference previewing Northwestern and UCLA

I think we're going to need everyone on our roster that's in our rotation to play. And once again, we can sit up here and result every single game. Nimari Burnett, if he misses shots, do we just not play him anymore? If he has another 2-game cold streak?

No, we trust the work he puts in. We're trying to generate this shot. I thought Roddy Gayle— I thought Roddy Gayle was an inch on 3 different finishes from having a really good line. He's connecting.

He's trying to win. Our team plays well typically when he's on the court. So what does our rotation look like going forward? If guys play really well, they're going to probably play 25 or 26.

If they're having just an okay game and someone else is playing well, they'll probably play 14 or 15. So I would say that it'll look very similar to that, the same with the rest of our 8 or 9 rotation guys.

Because maybe last year he was a really integral part of what this team was doing, just using Roddy Gayle as an example. He was on both teams. Uh, whereas now if he has a couple games that maybe aren't up to his standard, you almost don't notice in the grand scheme of the way this team— I mean, winning.

We noticed he's playing poorly. If he's not hustling, if he's not guarding, if he's not defending, if he's not connect— I think in the last couple weeks, even though his stat line hasn't looked like it did in Vegas and whatnot, he's, he's taken on more of a connecting role. And, and so is Will Tschetter. And when you look at our team, I feel like there's a much better rhythm to the game on offense.

And if he's not out there, does it look like that? I don't know. But when he is, it does. So once again, guys aren't going to play well every game.

And that's a beautiful thing about having as many guys as we have. There's going to be nights when Aday Mara misses free throws. There's going to be nights when L.J. doesn't have his best. I thought L.J. was awesome yesterday.

And I don't think he's been awesome the last couple of games. And I think he's going to be going forward. We just, we're putting the guys out there we think gives us the best chance of winning that night and trusting all of them because they've earned their, they've earned that trust over time. Alejandro.

You talked last week about feeling like you had the dogs to win the Big Ten this year. Are there, aside from that, lessons that you learned from last February's push that didn't work out that you're applying this year? Not necessarily. Nothing that we didn't know.

But this year our staff's worked for, they worked together for a year. We have some foundational pieces in our locker room that could share our culture when we're not around. They're with the guys 8 hours a day and we're with them 1 or 2, 3, whatever. So, no, those are the biggest things.

I mean, we knew Big Ten season last year because we did our homework before we took the job. I mean, we— but sometimes you have to feel it. But we knew we were going to have practice times and if we didn't have everything in, and we didn't have a base package in on for every situation, it's going to be too late because today we're not going to be able to practice much.

I mean, we're going to be able to clean up a few things and prepare for Northwestern. And then what can we really do practice-wise tomorrow, the day before the game and traveling? So, yeah, we learned what we needed to, what type of roster we needed to have to compete with the best in the Big Ten.

For the most part, yeah. I mean, we've been really consistent on that side of the ball. And then yesterday I thought our hand activity, I thought our personal accountability ability to stay, to guard our guy, to guard our yard was as good as it's been against a team that really could punish you in that area. And then the rebounding piece, that's probably been the biggest jump for us is how well we rebounded.

I mean, Yaxel Lendeborg had 14 rebounds yesterday. He had 6 offensive and a couple games ago and 6 offensive Those are extra possessions. We chart offensive rebounds as defensive stops. So every time you get an offensive rebound, you've given yourself another possession where you don't have to run back down the court and stop the other team from scoring.

And so those are important for so many reasons. But to give ourselves that many extra possessions is, you know, if we can continue to do that, we're going to be a tough out. Because Aday Mara's finding his groove in the post. We haven't been very effective this year against post fires, and now we almost hope to get a post double up.

We haven't been near as— like going into the season, I thought, okay, we're going to be able to throw that thing in the post, invite double teams, and pick it apart. Our off-ball movement and cutting hasn't been as good as we need it to be a majority of the year. But lately that's been really, really effective for us. And so we still think that there's— Each game has a life of its own, and there's going to be nights when we have to throw it into the post, and we got to play through that because everything else is being taken away.

And that doesn't mean one-on-one in the post, but I thought Aday Mara got back to playing with more aggression out of the post yesterday. We went inside early against Michigan. He had a couple plays he scored and then a couple more where he's trying to draw fouls instead of get the basket. If you get the foul, great.

If not, great. But he's improving down low as well. And then Morez Johnson continues to add to his game. And so, um, we just got to continue to have flexibility, variability, and, and be able to win in different ways.