Michigan turned the ball over 21 times on Friday night, but the Wolverines were able to win and cover the spread against a shorthanded TCU squad. Four players finished in double figures for the Wolverines.

Here's everything Dusty May had to say about the win.

We begin by thanking our fans, the last 4:51 of the game, we gave up one field goal and we had a couple guys cramping. We weren't playing very good basketball for our standards. And when the place erupted, I felt like our guys, they had a jolt of energy and it was enough to push us over the top. We made incremental progress for the things we're trying to fix. Obviously, we still have a long way to go, but we're still figuring each other out. And that's part of the fun of having a new group, that we simply stay the course, we find solutions, and we're never pointing fingers at each other. And I think our guys did a nice job of that tonight, despite the turnovers and whatnot. They stayed together and stayed connected, which is most important.

Yes, both. Late, we were playing a little bit too fast. There is a theme, and the beautiful thing about playing these games against good teams and good programs, Jamie Dixon's one of the best coaches in our game. He has a new team, and so they'll look a lot different in January, February. But each team presents a new challenge, whether it's zones, or no middle defense, or whatever the case. And we're a bigger, less playmaking team off the bounce. And when you drive, they collapse. And so you have to have great off-ball movement, you have to have ball fakes. We were over-penetrating. We probably stressed not turning the ball over too much, probably talked about it, and probably told them what not to do too much this week, instead of focus on what we wanted to do to beat their defense. But we were so consumed with focusing on ourselves. We had a long prep week, and chose to use the majority of it on ourselves, identifying what we needed to go forward, rebounding and defending and whatnot. So we'll definitely spend some more time on the details as far as turnovers, but it's part of the growth process for us.

His ability to shoot the basketball, he's a smart player. He stretches the defense too, he shoots with great range. So in theory, it gives our bigs more space to operate. He's just really sound. I mean, he's a guy that we really believe in and think when he's in the right mindset, then he can have these types of games more consistently. And he was even closer to having a real breakout game. There's a ball that kind of squirted through his legs and whatnot. But he's played consistently well this year. It's nice to see him rewarded making shots, because he spends a lot of time working on his game. He's in the gym every single day, shooting extra, working out, and he's a great teammate, and this is what we expect to see going forward.

From day one, we've tried to play at such a fast pace. And our first couple years, that I was the head coach, we were really poor turning the basketball over. And we went basically from worst to first with the same players. And it's a lot of the same things, where we're encouraging them to play a lot faster than they've ever played. The decisions are quicker, they're seeing bigger bodies. A lot of these guys that came from American Conference, or especially the Ivy League Conference, they're seeing more length, they're seeing more speed. And so we're not gonna panic. We're simply gonna continue just to tighten up a little bit, tighten up a little bit. But there are some themes. The over-penetration is something that we have to fix immediately, because we're putting ourselves in harm's way. And that just comes with more reps and decision making and getting used to the game. But we do feel confident that we'll look back at the end of the year and this will be, we'll have a significant improvement from where we are now.

Yeah, there were several against Wake Forest that we just didn't go with enough or want to. And there were, even tonight when TCU got a few, and they got 13, and I think we'll clean that up as well. I don't think it was a lack of effort. Those guys maybe, they used their position to get us under the rim where we couldn't jump, whatever the case. But I don't remember looking out and seeing us watching as many rebounds as we have at times. I thought everyone jumped in the fight. Obviously, the tape will tell, will confirm or deny. But for the most part, I thought we had everyone getting in the fight and helping out rebounding basketball, especially the last five minutes.

Absolutely, when I was an assistant of Florida, we felt like our, I think we were top five defense, three or four defense in the country. And we didn't feel like we had a great defensive team, but we felt like when we just had big bodies in length and size on the court, that the shots that they make against smaller guys, they just missed them. Obviously, the size is a big part, a big component of our game. And so yeah, we felt, and Sam Walters tries to do everything we ask him to do. Obviously, he's known as a sniper, but he's making progress defensively. He's guarding the ball better, he's rebounding. He came up with several loose basketballs, so very proud of his growth and being self-aware to what he needs to get better at. But yeah, I thought that the three bigs together with Rubin (Jones), I think it was Rubin and Tre (Donaldson), I thought those guys turned it up defensively and came up with big stops.

Yeah, he (Burnett) had four fouls, and we took him out to kind of together ourselves and gather our thoughts. And him and Roddy, I think, were both cramping. But then when that group got in a good defensive rhythm, they strung together three or four stops. We just felt like Sam's a good free throw shooter, we have good size. Rubin's a good defender. We just felt like, why disrupt this lineup? Because they were getting stops, and we felt like we had enough scorers to finish the game.

Yeah, Tre, I thought Danny's passes to Tre, the skips, I think they figured some things out on the fly with what was happening in the game. But Tre made big shots, he got to the rim. I thought he had a really nice finish through contact. That's another area, we haven't finished well through physicality a lot this offseason. And then Danny, I thought Danny settled in and played with much better pace to his game, and he made big plays. But most importantly, he got 14 rebounds, and most of them were big boy rebounds in the paint, so credit him.

I thought he was very sound, I thought he has a calming presence. I thought they went at him, being a freshman playing his first game. I thought he guarded the basketball well, played with good physicality. He's gonna get better and better, and the reason is he's already really good. But just, he's gonna get the game reps and experience. And he's like having a junior, senior point guard on the floor mentally. He's just very, very sound. So it's nice to have him back, he's on a minute restriction. We'll work him back in slowly, but it was great for him to get out and feel the game, especially when it gets that program with the speed, athleticism, as TCU.

I think they've started every game, but maybe one of the exhibitions together. So yeah, that's a lineup that we've kind of settled in. Those guys have played well together. I do think with our team, it's gonna be a game by game approach. And Rubin Jones isn't gonna go 0-for-2 from three most games. But yeah, I mean, they're both veteran guys. They've been in a lot of games. Tre Donaldson's won a lot of basketball games on that Auburn program. And Nimari's playing like a seasoned vet, and with his efficiency. And stayed out of foul trouble. Certainly, he'll be up for our team in minutes with the high-spinning guys.

I mean, we all know sample size, right? I mean, it's three games and hopefully a 35-plus-game season. I don't know. Right now, we got the first report that this is our best group, as far as not turning the ball over. This is our best defensive five, so it's a three game sample size. I would think probably eight or ten games. It's probably conference play when I think we'll be able to know what type of lineup combinations we're working with. And then, obviously, foul trouble. It is basketball. Guys don't play their best every night. So there's a lot of variables that comes with the art in addition to the science with it, but we're looking at that stuff daily, trying to figure it out.

Just the other guys were performing well. Freshmen, as we know, through college basketball, if they're on the court in these big type of games, then they're pretty good. You look at college basketball, especially as old as college basketball has been. So we don't expect our freshmen to play their best every single night. There are gonna be a lot of learning lessons and growing pains, but there's no one that believes in L.J. Cason more than our staff does. So going forward, he'll learn from this, and that's just a matter of some older veteran players playing well tonight.

On offense, he had a different gear in the second half. He played, I thought he played fearless in the first half. They kind of had him being a little bit tentative. I thought he ran our team on the offensive end and made, like I said, big shots and made big plays. And when the shot's going in, typically it ignites our defense. And as coaches, we wanna act like they're not correlated. But when you're making shots, you tend to play a lot harder. So if we can continue to get shots up, we've proven once again, I don't think we had a great shooting night. And we shot 50 percent from the field and 38 (percent) from three, got to the line 23 times. So if we can continue to figure out ways to take care of the basketball, it's going to help, obviously, our offensive efficiency. But more importantly, it's gonna help our defensive energy as well. Because we gave up way too many live ball turnovers that led to easy baskets. I think the first seven points of the game were results of our turnovers.

Probably just self-awareness. And I'll take the blame for all of them early, that maybe we'll clean up some things with the game plan and have maybe a little more condensed offensive attack. But once again, until you've been in these situations where a guy's playing you completely different than you've seen in the last 70 practices, there's an adjustment period. And so, that's the beautiful thing about our season. You see all these different defenses. And when we're playing Michigan State, or Wisconsin, or whoever, then we're gonna be able to refer back to the type of defense that TCU played, or the way Wake Forest was on the glass, or things like that. And so, as long as we're being conscious about learning and getting all these things into our long-term development, then all of these games will pay dividends later and help us win those games when they really, really matter. They really matter now, but when they really, really matter.

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