Dusty May previews Alabama

My history with Nate is when I was an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan, I was a young assistant and still trying to to learn the profession and whatnot. And Nate was at Romulus and they had 6 AM workouts. So I'd go over and watch his team work out. We talked ball.

We actually went and spent a week at, 5 days at Chicago Bulls training camp with Scott Skiles. Nate and I and Josh Baker and a friend of mine from Indiana that worked for the Bulls got us in and gave us full access. And we've been friends since then. And then he goes to Buffalo and works for Danny White, who was close, you know, close with the White family.

So a lot of connections and then I go, still go every year down to his coaching conference and we've shared a lot of thoughts. I've learned a lot from Nate. He's a brilliant basketball coach and finds a way to be really, really good every single year and that's one of the most difficult things to do. What I've seen from the team, an elite playmaking group, very, very versatile.

They shoot the ball really well. When they're on top of their game, they're rebounding it exceptionally well, especially the long rebounds. And then defensively, they've taken a step, they've They took a jump forward lately, and I think one of the reasons they struggle at times this year just because they've had so many different lineups and they've had several multiple, I guess, short-term injuries where they just haven't had one group together with any consistency.

Probably Saturday. That's this week. So yes. Let's finish out Wolverine Row.

Coach, follow up on Elliot Cadeau. 26 assists versus 5 turnovers in your last 3 games. Can you talk about how he's come through for you as a facilitator all year? Yeah, he's— you know, I was actually watching film with one of the guys yesterday and I was showing him a few of Elliot Cadeau's clips and just basically trying to help him see what Elliot Cadeau saw because he's, he's a savant with, with what he's doing and he probably doesn't even realize all the things that he's doing because he's, he's so intelligent.

He's able to get us in closeout opportunities without really having to run any offense. His ability to read the floor, read the game, manipulate defense is incredibly impressive. And then you factor in his speed and quickness to get where he needs to with the ball and because of that you can't really pressure him. He's done a lot for us and he's continued to improve.

His obviously— his shooting is valuable when they try to go under for him to punish that coverage. But he's what we want in a point guard. He's a guy that makes everyone on the team better.

Their playmaking. I think Labaron Philon is as creative of a playmaker as there is in college basketball. Their ability to make threes off the bounce and off the catch is unique. But their spacing, I mean, we do it some but not near as much as them.

And St. Louis does it as well where they'll space their 5 men to the corners and play guard-to-guard ball screens. And they're pretty creative with the angles and the speed of them and the spacing with it. And so they're going to try to, take advantage of matchups. They're going to try to create creases.

But I think just the playmaking that they have and the range that their guys shoot with, they have deep, deep range, which makes that court look even bigger. And with our size, we typically want it to look as small as we can.