When Michigan men’s basketball coach Dusty May was asked about how lineup combinations may change following the Wolverines’ first scrimmage against Oakland, he refused to comment immediately, citing the need to review the numbers first.
When asked about the specific pairing of junior forward Danny Wolf and graduate center Vlad Goldin, however, May seemed to have an answer without needing to consult the statistics.
“What were your thoughts?” May quipped back with a smile when asked his thoughts on Wolf and Goldin sharing the floor following Michigan’s scrimmage against the Golden Grizzlies Sunday. “I thought they looked great together. They played very, very well.”
As May jokingly conveyed, it doesn’t take a deep dive into advanced data to see that the first showing of the Wolverines combination of 7-footers was a success — the eye test said that much.
Wolf’s spacing and Goldin’s physicality were complimentary on both ends of the court. Each of them scored 11 points, Goldin exclusively from the interior and Wolf at all levels. Defensively, Wolf fit Michigan’s philosophy of switching everything, while Goldin served as the exception, guarding the rim and picking up a block in the process.
Of course, it wasn’t seamless. Wolf, the one adjusting to the new scheme, committed a turnover trying to find Goldin inside on Michigan’s third possession.
“Danny did a couple things that were the way they played at Yale,” May said. “Which kind of disrupted our timing. But that’s (why) you need these game reps to learn from it.”
The timing issue continued to creep up at moments, causing Wolf to mishandle a couple of passes which led to two more turnovers. That can largely be chalked up to the adjustment period of playing, as May has described, like a guard.
And against Oakland there were glimpses of Wolf’s flexibility to fit that role. Early in the second half, Wolf collected a defensive board on an airball and nearly took it coast to coast, but elected to dump it off to graduate forward Will Tschetter.
The Wolverines don’t like to rely on one player serving as the primary ball handler, and Wolf gives them another option — especially when Goldin anchors the interior. Proving his effectiveness with the ball in his hands, Wolf drained two threes after creating separation for himself.
But perhaps the aspect in which Wolf looked most complimentary to Goldin was on the glass. Despite Goldin’s stature, and possibly in part a result of May’s system, he’s never been an above-average rebounder. And even at Michigan Media Day, May admitted that he didn’t envision rebounding to be a strength of his team.
Although a scrimmage is unlikely to temper any of May’s doubts, Wolf’s 13 rebounds to make up for Goldin’s four creates optimism. And again, the eye test supported that, with Wolf crashing the boards against a smaller opponent and consistently winning the ball — as a team with two 7-footers should be able to.
“I can’t imagine that anyone didn’t watch those probably 20 minutes combined or 18 minutes combined that they played, and (think) they didn’t have good chemistry together,” May said.
May has expressed his commitment to experimenting and adjusting with lineups and relying on statistics to do so. But in just twenty minutes of watching, May has already penciled in one pairing: his two 7-footers.
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