Dusty May and Nimari Burnett after win vs. Auburn

Well, I'll start with Elliot Cadeau. Um, we've got to find a way to keep him in the rotation, and he's picked up some ticky-tack fouls, but I think He's learning to play with those. We don't like to foul our guys out in the first half especially, so he's learning to play with those. But L.J. Cason is a guy with a very high ceiling, and I see— we see growth and maturity every single day.

He's becoming— it seems like he's becoming addicted to the process. He wanted to watch his individual clips first thing this morning. He wants to get better. I think our program, the temperature never changes.

It's about development and improving. And so I think if we can show the ability to help these guys improve their game, then they'll sacrifice like our guys are doing. And I feel guilty sometimes when I look out, um, late in the game like that and you see some really, really good players that are just now getting a chance to show what they're capable of.

But that's also the cost of winning and playing at a a university like Michigan and a program like ours. So just proud of our guys' selflessness and the way they are attacking the process of getting better.

No, we played well both nights and we need to play well tomorrow night. I gave the guys an example. We felt like we've been on the verge of a breakthrough through, and we've kind of enjoyed just falling off the— falling out of the spotlight a little bit. We've enjoyed that because we had practice time, we had a week, and so there weren't many outside distractions, um, for our group.

And so they put their— they, they clocked in and went to work and showed great self-awareness to what each guy needed to improve on. Um, but when I was an assistant at Florida, we played the PK80, and we, and we ended up losing it Duke, but we played really well against Stanford and then beat an excellent Gonzaga program, and we felt really, really good about ourselves.

I can't remember where we ranked, and as soon as we got back, we changed inside. The inside our locker room changed for a number of reasons. And, and so now you lean back on all those experiences so you can get out ahead of what's coming. Now, this isn't, this isn't a new one coming for us.

We had preseason, uh, CJ actually put the target on our back by ranking us number one. Thank Thanks, CJ. So we've had the preseason expectations, but it's been nice for us to just kind of hunker down and get in the bunker with each other and just get better. Our season's so long, Auburn's going to look a lot different today than they will in March.

We're going to look a lot different today than we will in March. We just got to make sure that we look different and we're much more attractive then than we are today.

Throw it up, hoop it up, play against the best, and, and see where you stand. I, I, I don't— guys, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about things I don't have control over other than maybe we can help it be better for the future. And so yet we appreciate this tournament. They've— we, we, we have an opportunity to play 3 really good teams, um, and I assume in any tournament format someone's making the money.

I mean, someone's benefiting financially. So I also don't have a problem with players making money for being a part of something like this. So, um, but I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it other than just being excited to play in this tournament. But I was excited playing Fort Myers last year, to go with our team down to Fort Myers.

And that's, that's when we started to become who we became later in the year, was on that trip together. And so it could be the vitamin D, it could be the sun, whatever the case, but we just, we enjoy coming into these formats because they're fun. They're on television. I mean, we're watching the interview with two of the Fab Five members talking, being proud of our players.

That's pretty, I mean, that's really cool for me and our staff as well. So just all those things, I think they're great for the game. Obviously live sports, college basketball. I mean, I turn on TV and I get frustrated because I hear people complain about this and this and I'm watching the game, I'm like, these guys are so good and we get a chance to compete against them and this is good for the game.

And is it what I grew up watching and idolizing? No, but I'm very grateful to be a part of it. Is it perfect? No, there's no perfect answers for any of these things.

I mean, if you want to do a perfect format, then it's going to be tough. Then you'd have less teams involved. So I'm a big fan of high-level games in this type of environment. It was a sellout.

No, but this probably one of the— move it to a high school gym of 500 seats and it would be. So I've been impressed with the, the feel of this tournament. It's felt like a subregional. As I think I heard Frank Fischiller, Coach, one of these guys tweet, um, earlier today or yesterday.

So yeah, we've enjoyed it. Obviously, if we're 0-2 right now, probably not near as much. But, um, yeah, I mean, next year we'll be back here trying to win whatever bracket or tournament we're in. I don't think our guys are playing like this because of the financial incentive to win.

I think they're playing to win a championship, and whatever comes with that comes with it.