The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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66 THE WOLVERINE ❱ MARCH 2025 ball and his instincts for rebounding are special. We need it, because we haven't been very quick to the ball. Part of that is being on the road sometimes. He's bailed us out, just by having a real nose for the basketball, when it comes to re- bounding." He's also teamed with fellow 7-footer Vlad Goldin, U-M's grad center, to pro- vide one of Michigan's most effective of- fensive attacks — the 4-5 pick-and-roll. The charge of the big men dominated the early part of the year for the Wolverines and continues to undergo modifications in response to opponents' defensive ad- justments. "We want him to trust his shot even more," May said of Wolf. "We want him to simplify his game. Obviously, the 4-5 pick-and-roll is not very effective when you put Vlad up into the other defender, and he grabs ahold of him and doesn't let him roll. "The physicality of the league has ne- gated what we do really, really well when the game is slowed down. Now we have to adjust. We're throwing it to Vlad, and he's chasing a little bit more." It's all working well enough to have the Wolverines in the thick of the Big Ten race and to confirm what Wolf hoped in making the dramatic shift from Yale to Michigan. INDIVIDUAL ADJUSTMENT Wolf accomplished about all he could in a two-year Ivy League career, after the Glencoe, Ill., native came out of Massachusetts' Northfield Mount Her- mon School. He earned All-Ivy League first-team honors last year via unani- mous selection and spurred Yale to the Ivy League Tournament championship. He then scored 13 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in Yale's NCAA Tournament first-round upset of No. 4-seed Auburn. He felt ready for a bigger challenge but was determined to be choosy about the process. Wolf put his name into the NCAA transfer portal, but with a do- not-contact disclaimer. He'd make the call, from among his carefully crafted list of schools, and certainly academics played a role. Ultimately, so did Michigan's new head coach. "He puts relationships over basket- ball," Wolf said of May. "He's one of the smartest coaches I've ever played for. He's got a very bright mind. He always wants to learn and get better, similar to myself. It's something we've got in com- mon. "Some coaches you have in this coun- try are broken car salesmen. In the por- tal, you only have a few weeks to sift through all that. He's real. The coaches he's brought in are all real. They'll tell you how it is. "I was coming into a situation with a lot of unknowns, and I had comfort- ability at Yale. I took the jump, and I just relied on them." That doesn't ensure a seamless transi- tion, but it's a strong start. Other bumps in the road — personal adjustments, style of play, etc. — would soon follow. Without question, playing in the Big Ten carries with it a bigger spotlight and bigger swings in reaction, both positive and negative. "When you play at a school like Michi- gan, playing in front of 12,000 fans and you have a good game, you're their favor- ite player, and everyone loves you," the junior mused. "If you have a bad game, you get scrutinized, no matter which way you want to flip it. The big thing is just trying to stay levelheaded through it all, and just know you're going to have good games and bad games. "In terms of physicality, it's just a different world. You're playing against grown men. College basketball is becom- ing an older sport. "That's why I transferred from Yale. I just needed to challenge myself. I had some growing pains, but I worked through them." Newcomers to Big Ten play can ab- sorb a linebacker-like hit on the way to the basket and get a "play on" look from a league official. That's an adjustment in itself, one Wolf needed to negotiate, along with the size and skill differences in moving up, competition-wise. "When I'm going to the basket, I'm going against 7-footers, high-level shot blockers," he said. "In the Ivy League, you just don't have that. There's a learn- In his final season at Yale, Wolf helped the school win the Ivy League championship, earned first- team All-Ivy League honors and was part of a squad that upset No. 4-seed Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL