The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526802
OCTOBER 2024 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 43 ❱ MICHIGAN BASKETBALL "… We're in team sports. We welcome having more talented players for long- term development and short-term de- velopment, as well. We're excited to add a couple spots." In addition, the Michigan Board of Regents approved an athletics depart- ment budget of more than $250 million for the 2024-25 academic year. Florida Atlantic, May's former school, had $33 million to allocate for the entire ath- letics department in 2023-24, so May should have much more in the way of resources. How the money is distributed will be up to the school, as well as May and his staff. "Our sport is a meritocracy where if you're self-aware, then you realize when you should be playing and when you shouldn't," May said of recruiting 15 to the roster. "We welcome having a couple more spots. It allows you to take potentially a developmental player, someone that might take a year or two longer than [someone] you would sign otherwise. "I like it because we love the devel- opmental part. We love working with guys. We enjoy having players in our program." YALE TRANSFER DANNY WOLF IS IMPRESSING EARLY Michigan men's basketball head coach Dusty May knows what he has in big man Vlad Goldin, who played with him at Florida Atlantic and figures to be one of the nation's best big men this year. He's starting to get a good feel for Yale transfer Danny Wolf, too, and early returns have been extremely positive. Practice observers and Wolf himself say the 7-foot power forward is mov- ing extremely well after changing his body, making shots from distance and defending well, too. The latter was a question mark given his size, but May has been pleased. "There's been a lot of information out about recruiting the portal, and you have to make quick, decisive decisions," May said. "We went back and watched him after he had signed just from a dif- ferent lens. Before, you're trying to de- cide, does he fit here? And then after that you're trying to decide, what do you really, really have?" They watched the high-major games, the conference tournament champion- ships and games against better compe- tition to get a read. They saw a guy who had everything they were looking for, including the ability to guard quicker power forwards. "We always thought he had really good lateral quickness. We thought he was more physical than people gave him credit for," May said. "In the recruiting process, people were I guess killing us saying, 'How are you going to play him at the four?' But we were very confident that he could guard fours in the Big Ten because of his ability to move, and obvi- ously being 7-foot helps. "But, yeah — he's done a good job of guarding the basketball [since he got here]." Giving the Wolverines a potential twin tower duo that could spell trouble for the rest of the Big Ten. COACH ADDS SON CHARLIE MAY TO MICHIGAN ROSTER Michigan men's basketball head coach Dusty May has added his son Charlie to the 2024-25 roster as a walk- on, continuing a U-M tradition. Charlie, May's middle son, spent the past two seasons at Central Florida and will have three years of eligibility remaining, hav- ing redshirted his first year at UCF. The younger May appeared in six games last season for a total of 10 min- utes, attempting just one shot. May's youngest son, Eli, will be an incoming freshman and serve as a man- ager for the Michigan program while his oldest son, Jack, was a walk-on at Florida the past four seasons. ❑ Wolf, a 7-foot forward from Yale, was the Ivy League Tournament MVP. He averaged a team- best 14.1 points per game and a league-high 9.7 rebounds per contest. PHOTO COURTESY YALE ATHLETICS 2024-25 U-M NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Oct. 20 vs. Oakland+ (BTN+) [Charity Exhib.] Nov. 4 Cleveland State Nov. 10 vs. Wake Forest* (ESPN2) Nov. 15 TCU Nov. 18 Miami (Ohio)# Nov. 21 Tarleton State Nov. 25 vs. Virginia Tech## (FS1) Nov. 27 vs. South Carolina/Xavier## (FS1) Dec. 10 vs. Arkansas% (ESPN) Dec. 18 vs. Oklahoma$ (ESPN2) Dec. 22 Purdue Fort Wayne Dec. 29 Western Kentucky + Detroit * Deacon-Wolverine Challenge, Greensboro, N.C. # Fort Myers Tip-Off On-Campus Matchup ## Fort Myers Tip-Off, Fort Myers, Fla. % New York City $ Charlotte, N.C. Big Ten Home Opponents^ Illinois Iowa Maryland Northwestern Oregon Penn State Washington Big Ten Road Opponents^ Indiana Minnesota Nebraska Ohio State UCLA USC Wisconsin Big Ten Home/Away Opponents^ Michigan State Purdue Rutgers ^ Dates TBA