The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1540586
NOVEMBER 2025 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 37 2025-26 BASKETBALL PREVIEW percent from three-point range after a second-half slump. He burst out of it in a big way to lead the Wolverines over Texas A&M and into the Sweet 16 last March, making 4-of-6 threes on his way to 26 points, and had a great summer. "He's an intelligent young man who's got a bright future ahead of him in sports and basketball and whatever he decides after. I would say that he learned just to keep going," May said of Gayle. "Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. He had a really good start to the season last year, and he had a little bit of a funk. He just kept going. "Our season outlook would look a lot different right now if Roddy didn't do what he did at the end of the year, and he had a great offseason. He shot the ball incredibly well. He's playing with a high level of confidence. He just looks much more comfortable. … The environment has helped him be more successful in practice, and he looks like he's ready for a really solid season. I'm excited about Roddy." True freshman wing Winters Grady "He's just ahead of the curve physically, has a high IQ, shoots the ball at an elite level from all three levels. You could just see that, especially in high school. He was above [other freshmen] in those areas." — Graduate guard Nimari Burnett on freshman guard Trey McKenney "We want absolutely no lag time on either side of the ball. And, sometimes, it will probably lead to a questionable shot, but we would take the tradeoff of that quick shot, versus walking it up and allowing the defense to get set and organized." — Head coach Dusty May on the "Inside College Basketball" podcast "We were really good defensively last year; I think we ranked 12th on Ken- Pom. But we can shrink the court with our size. The more length we have, you can shrink the court." — Assistant coach Akeem Miskdeen "He's a selfless guy. He says, 'I just want to assist.' It's never really about points for him. That was something that I was shocked by, because you have guys who are the No. 1 transfer in the portal who want to go for money, want to go for points. His role is, 'I want to get assists, I want to get rebounds, I want to play defense, and I want to win.'" — Senior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. on graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg "I don't see why we can't compete with every single team in the country on any given night. … I love our team, and I think we have a really high ceiling. And there's nothing that makes me say we don't have enough of this or we don't have enough of that to beat any team in the country on a given night. Now, are there areas that we need to certainly improve on and continue improving on? Absolutely. But I'm not going to sit here and say that we're afraid of this team or afraid of that team. We're going to try to compete with everyone we're against, and we have very, very lofty goals, but that's months and months away and hundreds and hundreds of hours of intentional work before it's even worth discussing those things." — Head coach Dusty May "I want us to be one of the best defensive teams in the country, because we're big and we're athletic and we have positional versatility. We're going to put very versatile, determined defenders on the court and see what we can evolve into." — Head coach Dusty May "A bet on talent and outside-the-box roster building. Last year, it was a question of whether [head coach Dusty] May could play two 7-footers to- gether, but the [Danny] Wolf/[Vladislav] Goldin frontcourt became one of the best in college basketball. This season, May might try to prove he can play a frontcourt that goes 6-foot-9, 6-foot-9, 7-foot-3. May employs lots of switch- ing defensively and could come up with a scheme that makes this work and keeps [junior center Aday] Mara in the paint." — The Athletic's CJ Moore on why he ranked Michigan No. 2 in his preseason Big Ten rankings — Clayton Sayfie THEY SAID IT It's just the trust that you have with a guy like that, who's had such success at dif- ferent levels. Just being able to believe when he's telling me to do this. He proba- bly knows what he's talking about. Just taking a leap of faith." — Senior guard RODDY GAYLE JR. on head coach Dusty May PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL