Dusty May: What to know about University of Michigan’s head basketball coach
What to know about University of Michigan head basketball coach Dusty May.
NEW YORK − They say all good things must come to an end, something that held doubly true for Michigan basketball at the world’s most famous arena.
The Wolverines built an early 15-point lead over Arkansas on Tuesday evening at Madison Square Garden, but for the second consecutive game couldn’t hold onto the early advantage.
This time, they couldn’t come back after blowing the lead, losing to Arkansas, 89-87, in the Jimmy V Classic in front of stars like New York Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns, Philadelphia 76ers point guard Tyrese Maxey, and even former U-M head coach Juwan Howard, who sat courtside.
The Hogs used a remarkable 59-26 run from the middle of the first half into the middle of the second half to turn a double-digit deficit into an 18-point lead of their own and never trail the rest of the way.
“Clearly shows we cannot stop playing,” Vladislav Goldin said, who finished with a game-high 17 points and nine rebounds. “We’ve seen it against Iowa, seen it against Arkansas. We cannot stop playing because every team can beat anybody. We’ve got to do better on staying one possession at a time. That’s all I can say.”
It’s not as if Michigan went down without a fight. In fact, the Wolverines made seven straight field goals in the second half to go on a 20-6 run and later get within one with 1:39 to play.
After a stop on defense, Tre Donaldson turned the ball over with 35 seconds to play, but Arkansas missed two free throws, which gave U-M another chance. On the ensuing possession, Goldin was swatted by Trevon Brazile (who had missed both freebies) at the rim with 20 seconds to play.
Brazile then made 1 of 2 free throws on the other end, which set up U-M, down two, with one final possession.
Dusty May called timeout with 3.7 seconds left and got the ball into Danny Wolf, who tried to find Roddy Gayle Jr. on the back cut, but the ball fell to the floor. Gayle was able to recovered it and got up an off-balance heave, but it fell short.
“Timing wasn’t perfect, that was it,” May said of what went wrong on the final shot. “Thought Davis laid out to get a finger tip on it, obviously wish we had it back … it was calculated with what we were looking for. Obviously, I think everyone in the locker room typically points at themselves and what they could’ve done better, so I’m doing the same thing.”
The loss ends a seven-game winning streak on the season for Michigan (8-2, 2-0 Big Ten) and an 11-game winning streak in the building known as the “mecca of basketball” after the Wolverines turned the ball over 17 times.
Early on, Michigan looked in position for its fifth consecutive marquee win in a row after a stretch of 11 consecutive made field goals propelled the Wolverines to an early 24-6 run, but Tuesday’s game was a roller coaster ride from start to finish.
Wolf nearly had a triple-double with 14 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, Will Tschetter and Gayle each scored 13 and Nimari Burnett added 10 for U-M.
“I think it was an awesome environment, you play for games like these,” Wolf said. “Shows you a lot about your team. There’s a lot of things we can clean up on, improve on and it’s good to have these games early. We said that about the Wake Forest loss, then won seven straight.
“Here we are with a nail-biter, but shows us what we need to do to finish off the nonconference.”
First half frenzy
Michigan opened the game with a pair of turnovers and made just two of its first seven shots before a feed from Wolf to Goldin for a dunk cut U-M’s early deficit to 8-7.
That started an impressive stretch of 11 straight made field goals The next three came from Burnett, who scored at all three levels with a mid-range jumper, a reverse layup on a back-door baseline cut, then a transition 3 on a feed from Donaldson. After a Wolf fadeaway, Tschetter came off the bench and torched the MSG court.
He started with a pair of free throws before he hit consecutive 3-pointers − first from the right wing, then the left corner. That led to a Rubin Jones steal led to a Gayle layup and then yet another Tschetter 3-pointer from the right wing, as U-M went on a 24-6 run to go up 29-14.
However, Arkansas had Adou Thiero, who also caught fire in the world’s most famous arena; he hit a jumper, a layup and a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions to keep Arkansas in the game before it was their turn to heat up from the floor.
“Adou Thiero should not have played for us tonight,” Calipari said postgame of the big man who was fighting an illness but still scored 13 points. “I asked him for 10 minutes and he gave me 21.”
The Hogs had five in double figures, including freshman Boogie Fland, who had 20 points and seven assists, D.J. Wagner who scored 15 with five assists, Brazile who scored 15, and Jonas Aidoo who had 11 and seven rebounds.
Calipari’s group made nine of its next 11 shots from the floor and eventually in the final minute of the half got as close as one on an Aidoo dunk, before Sam Walters canned a long-ball to give U-M a 49-45 lead at the break.
“At half I was so happy,” Calipari said postgame. “We could’ve been down 25 and we were only down four.”
Hogs hot half
Michigan played among its sloppiest four minutes of the season out of the gate, missing its first four shots from the floor and turning the ball over five times.
Arkansas didn’t exactly start red-hot, making just three of its first eight attempts, before D.J. Wagner and Johnell Davis hit a floater and 3-pointer from the wing to cap a 12-0 run and go up 57-49. The Hogs simply wouldn’t stop making shots, as they made 8 of 9 in the middle of the half, which included three long-balls to go up, 73-60.
That lead ballooned to 78-60 and looked like Arkansas had pulled away for good, when U-M stormed back. The Hogs went nearly five minutes without a point (4:57) and U-M put together a 14-2 run to get within two scores.
Wolf hit an and-1 layup, then Walters canned a 3 in the span of 30 seconds. After that Wolf hit a put-back to get within 10, before consecutive Goldin buckets go Michigan with six, 80-74, with 6:11 to play.
After a Davis and-1, Wolf made a free throw, then found Goldin for a slam to make it 87-83, but Wolf was called for a foul on a contest at the rim on the other end.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. You can send him an email at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
