Latest / Bleacher Report / Dusty May & Michigan Postgame Press Conference - National Championship | March Madness 2026
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: We're joining now by the twenty twenty six National champions
- 0:03Speaker 1: head coach Dusty May the University of Michigan with Trey McKenny,
- 0:06Speaker 1: yaxelende Borg and Elliott Cadeaux. Coach, could you open up
- 0:10Speaker 1: with some thoughts and then we'll get some questions for
- 0:12Speaker 1: the student athletes.
- 0:13Speaker 2: First, Yeah, what a way to wrap up the twenty
- 0:15Speaker 2: five twenty six college basketball season with this group. I
- 0:19Speaker 2: want to begin by thinking last year's team at Michigan,
- 0:24Speaker 2: we came up a little bit short, but those guys
- 0:26Speaker 2: laid the foundation, established an identity for us and also
- 0:30Speaker 2: helped attract these guys to come in and chase this
- 0:34Speaker 2: stream together. And secondly, I want to thank our FAU guys,
- 0:38Speaker 2: the team and staff that really really this one time
- 0:42Speaker 2: I'm making about me, that really helped us grow together.
- 0:46Speaker 2: And that was the first time I'd been with a
- 0:48Speaker 2: group that was truly sacrificial where we were about each
- 0:52Speaker 2: other and because of that, we all improve so much.
- 0:55Speaker 3: And this team's done the same thing.
- 0:57Speaker 2: When you bring a group this talented together, they decide
- 1:00Speaker 2: from the beginning that they're going to do it this way,
- 1:02Speaker 2: and they never waiver and they never change. That's probably
- 1:06Speaker 2: the most uncommon thing in athletics now, and it's a
- 1:08Speaker 2: tribute to their to them their character, but also those
- 1:12Speaker 2: in their circles around them, their coaches, their parents, their
- 1:16Speaker 2: their mentors. They allowed these guys to give themselves up
- 1:21Speaker 2: for the group, and it's never guaranteed, but for these
- 1:24Speaker 2: guys to cut down the nets after all they sacrifice
- 1:27Speaker 2: is pretty special.
- 1:28Speaker 1: We're looking for questions for Elliott, Yaxel or Trey. First,
- 1:31Speaker 1: we're gonna go to the second row. Well, we can
- 1:33Speaker 1: go to the first row. First, we'll go to Mitch.
- 1:36Speaker 1: Then we'll go to the second row. Then we'll go
- 1:37Speaker 1: to the center. We're gonna have a nice time, guys.
- 1:39Speaker 4: Okay, thank you.
- 1:41Speaker 5: This is for Yaxcellent and Elliott. The game wasn't a
- 1:45Speaker 5: typical Michigan game in terms of your shooting, assists, three points,
- 1:50Speaker 5: almost none of that was going on. How did you
- 1:52Speaker 5: guys find a way to sort of shift your game
- 1:55Speaker 5: in the middle of the game to a to almost
- 1:58Speaker 5: a wholly different identity and still win.
- 2:00Speaker 4: Elliott first, please, then you Axel.
- 2:02Speaker 6: You know all year we've been just finding ways to win,
- 2:05Speaker 6: and you know, we made two threes the whole game.
- 2:08Speaker 6: We wasn't making shots. We weren't like we had a
- 2:12Speaker 6: couple of assists, not as many as we usually do,
- 2:14Speaker 6: but we constantly just been finding ways to win all year,
- 2:18Speaker 6: no matter how everybody's playing.
- 2:21Speaker 7: To piggyback off of that year early on this season,
- 2:24Speaker 7: we went through our struggles offensively, trying to find our rhythm.
- 2:26Speaker 7: We stuck out and what really brought us together was
- 2:29Speaker 7: how you know, unselfish we were eventually in those moments
- 2:32Speaker 7: and our defensive toughness, you know, and whenever offenses are rolling,
- 2:35Speaker 7: we find a way to make players with our defense
- 2:37Speaker 7: and make it lead the quick offense.
- 2:39Speaker 4: Second row, same area of the room.
- 2:42Speaker 8: Chris Bells with the wolverin now three Axel, When did
- 2:44Speaker 8: you know you were going to go?
- 2:45Speaker 3: What percentage were you at?
- 2:47Speaker 9: And were you a little bit tentative early and a
- 2:48Speaker 9: little bit scared to move on it much?
- 2:50Speaker 10: Yeah?
- 2:50Speaker 7: I knew I was gonna go as soon as I
- 2:53Speaker 7: got back on the court the first game. I knew
- 2:57Speaker 7: there was no way I was going to miss this game,
- 2:58Speaker 7: no matter what was going on. You know, I was
- 3:00Speaker 7: very tended at this game. Yeah, I felt like I was,
- 3:02Speaker 7: you know, pretty much holding our team down. I felt
- 3:04Speaker 7: like we could have been up by way more early
- 3:05Speaker 7: in the game.
- 3:06Speaker 3: Later on in the game.
- 3:07Speaker 7: I kept having opportunities to make plays and I couldn't
- 3:10Speaker 7: make the play. But these guys stuck with me no
- 3:12Speaker 7: matter what. They all believed in me. I was, you know,
- 3:15Speaker 7: I was trying to push through my mental and you know,
- 3:18Speaker 7: physical battle. I was dealing with myself. But you know,
- 3:20Speaker 7: these guys really helped me out and helped me push through.
- 3:22Speaker 4: Upfront in the center.
- 3:25Speaker 11: Tom Crawford press passed Fox four seven Land, saying this
- 3:28Speaker 11: is for yeah, because there was a time late in
- 3:30Speaker 11: the second half you came out you look frustrated. I
- 3:33Speaker 11: saw it on a TV monitor. L Z kind of
- 3:36Speaker 11: was motivating you at that moment and seemed like and
- 3:39Speaker 11: then you went in the game and you and you
- 3:41Speaker 11: scored a couple of buckets real quick. You know, since
- 3:43Speaker 11: he had that a similar injury or he was perhaps
- 3:47Speaker 11: share that conversation and what he has meant to you.
- 3:49Speaker 7: Yeah, he was. He was telling me to stop being
- 3:51Speaker 7: so hard on myself. You know, he was basically saying, like,
- 3:53Speaker 7: I'm one of the reasons why we're here, like one
- 3:55Speaker 7: of the biggest reasons that we got to this moment,
- 3:57Speaker 7: you know, and nobody's gonna you know, downplay or what
- 4:00Speaker 7: I've done this year because of one bad game. So
- 4:02Speaker 7: you know, he just kept telling me to keep going
- 4:04Speaker 7: no matter what. He believes in me, all of us,
- 4:06Speaker 7: all the rest of the team has my back no
- 4:08Speaker 7: matter what, and you know, just just find a way
- 4:10Speaker 7: to get easy buckets, you know. Coach Joyner also came
- 4:12Speaker 7: to me and talked to me about the Anthony Davis
- 4:14Speaker 7: game where he was having a bad game and he
- 4:16Speaker 7: found a way to you know, impact the team. So
- 4:18Speaker 7: I just haded to find a way to do something
- 4:20Speaker 7: to help the team out and eventually started working out.
- 4:22Speaker 4: Up front on the left side.
- 4:27Speaker 12: Steve Kannaky the Karnacky Wolverine Report, Elliott, When when you
- 4:32Speaker 12: came here to this tournament, everybody was forecasting who would
- 4:37Speaker 12: be the most most valuable player or the tournament and such,
- 4:41Speaker 12: And when you got the trophy, I know that that
- 4:43Speaker 12: trophy right there is what.
- 4:44Speaker 4: Means the most to you.
- 4:45Speaker 9: But what did it mean to you to be honored
- 4:47Speaker 9: like that?
- 4:49Speaker 8: Man?
- 4:50Speaker 6: It means the world to me. Like, I'm just so
- 4:52Speaker 6: proud of myself where I came from. Like last year,
- 4:56Speaker 6: I was really down on myself. A lot of people
- 4:58Speaker 6: doubted me. I'm just so proud of myself for me
- 5:01Speaker 6: to be able to say I was the most outstanding
- 5:04Speaker 6: player and win a national championship at the same time.
- 5:08Speaker 9: To the left of the isle, Bob would let's give
- 5:12Speaker 9: Detroit News follow up to that, Elliott down on yourself
- 5:15Speaker 9: last year? What did you guys see when you first
- 5:18Speaker 9: got together where you started talking about winning championships when
- 5:21Speaker 9: you maybe barely even knew each other and you didn't
- 5:23Speaker 9: know what you still had in you coming here.
- 5:25Speaker 4: Where did that come from?
- 5:27Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 5:28Speaker 6: I just saw so much talent around me since day one,
- 5:31Speaker 6: and just like a unique set of talent, like three
- 5:36Speaker 6: bigs at the same time, switching.
- 5:39Speaker 3: One through four.
- 5:40Speaker 6: I just seen like a unique type of basketball that
- 5:43Speaker 6: was playing, and I knew like it would be a
- 5:44Speaker 6: mismatch nightmare for every single team that we played, and
- 5:48Speaker 6: it was this year.
- 5:49Speaker 4: Up front and on the right side, Mike, Yeah, Elliott, your.
- 5:53Speaker 10: Job obviously changed when LJ went down, A lot more
- 5:56Speaker 10: responsibility on you, and.
- 5:58Speaker 4: Somehow you went from there too.
- 6:01Speaker 10: In these last two games, playing maybe the two best
- 6:03Speaker 10: games you've played all year, can you explain that journey?
- 6:05Speaker 10: How you were able to traverse that through the course
- 6:07Speaker 10: of this month.
- 6:09Speaker 6: Yeah, I feel like I've been playing the same from
- 6:11Speaker 6: when LJ went down. I feel like I just got
- 6:14Speaker 6: the balmore and I just played more minutes. I just
- 6:16Speaker 6: had higher usage, so it seems like my stats were higher.
- 6:19Speaker 6: But you know, I think LJ. I think LJ for
- 6:25Speaker 6: even if he's out, he's still supporting us. He's still
- 6:28Speaker 6: he's literally assistant coach out there, and it just inspires
- 6:31Speaker 6: me to go out there and just play for him.
- 6:34Speaker 4: Third Rail on the right.
- 6:36Speaker 13: Congratulations, guys. This question is for Elliott and Yaxl. You
- 6:39Speaker 13: guys both transferred in at the start of this season.
- 6:42Speaker 13: What have you seen in terms of your fit with
- 6:44Speaker 13: the rest of the team and how have you seen
- 6:45Speaker 13: yourselves grow since you become a part of this Michigan team.
- 6:50Speaker 7: Man, once we transferred in, I know, especially for me,
- 6:53Speaker 7: the whole University of Michigan to welcome you with open arms.
- 6:56Speaker 7: You know, I've seen many many Twitter arguments, these guys
- 7:00Speaker 7: going back and forth with everybody saying like, you know,
- 7:02Speaker 7: we deserve the spot here and we you know they're
- 7:04Speaker 7: gonna cherish every moment of us being here, you know,
- 7:07Speaker 7: And shout out to Will Roddy, Lamari LJ.
- 7:10Speaker 3: Especially those guys.
- 7:11Speaker 7: Once we all got together, they were super genuine with
- 7:14Speaker 7: us the whole way. They tucked the sitting under their
- 7:15Speaker 7: wing and they you know, they showed us the mission away.
- 7:18Speaker 7: You know, they could have easy got but heard or
- 7:20Speaker 7: something because the new guys were coming in stealing their minutes,
- 7:22Speaker 7: stealing their points. But you know they didn't care. All
- 7:24Speaker 7: they cared about was winning. And you know, look where
- 7:26Speaker 7: it let us.
- 7:27Speaker 4: You know, this is the yellow mics, CBS in the center.
- 7:30Speaker 14: Audio's CBS yak. So now that you have a championship trophy,
- 7:34Speaker 14: can you tell us a little bit more about the injury?
- 7:37Speaker 14: Do you are you gonna need follow up surgery, follow
- 7:39Speaker 14: up consultation? Is there any what What did it take
- 7:44Speaker 14: to get back on the court tonight.
- 7:46Speaker 7: I hope I didn't mess anything up any more than
- 7:49Speaker 7: I already was. I'm gonna find that out in a
- 7:51Speaker 7: couple of days, you know, once we finished celebrating. But
- 7:54Speaker 7: and it took a lot to get on the court, honestly,
- 7:57Speaker 7: and to stay on there. I was, I was dealing
- 7:59Speaker 7: with a lot of men to mental issues today. You know,
- 8:03Speaker 7: these guys all you know, leaned in on me and
- 8:05Speaker 7: helped me out, help me dig out, dig myself out
- 8:07Speaker 7: the whole man, and you know, just just continue to
- 8:09Speaker 7: keep fighting. You know, Chris shout out to him because
- 8:11Speaker 7: he was with me pretty much all day, all night
- 8:14Speaker 7: trying to make sure that I was even sixty to
- 8:15Speaker 7: fifty percent able to play, you know, and I think
- 8:18Speaker 7: the best I could, regardless the outcome. But it feels
- 8:20Speaker 7: really really good to be a champion, to be on
- 8:21Speaker 7: top of the world.
- 8:22Speaker 15: Man second row on the left side, Hazio richardson The
- 8:28Speaker 15: Daily Wildcat Trey, This question is for you.
- 8:31Speaker 6: What about your teammates just makes you the most proud
- 8:34Speaker 6: to say that you want a national championship with them?
- 8:37Speaker 16: I think just the way throughout the season. I mean,
- 8:40Speaker 16: everybody on this team is extremely talented, and for us
- 8:44Speaker 16: to be able to, you know, sacrifice something for ourselves,
- 8:47Speaker 16: I mean a lot of us, you know, could be
- 8:50Speaker 16: somewhere else, you know, doing more than what we've done
- 8:52Speaker 16: this season. But I think it just shows that this
- 8:55Speaker 16: team is super selfless. And I've never been around such
- 8:58Speaker 16: a you know, such a talent to a group of
- 9:00Speaker 16: guys that you know are willing to take a lesser
- 9:04Speaker 16: role for somebody next to them. So I'm just really
- 9:07Speaker 16: grateful to be around this team, and you know, I'm
- 9:09Speaker 16: going to cherish this moment for the rest of my life.
- 9:12Speaker 1: We want to thank and congratulate Elliott, Yaxel, and Trey
- 9:16Speaker 1: twenty twenty six national champions. They're gonna head back to
- 9:19Speaker 1: the locker room right now, which is open until twelve
- 9:24Speaker 1: fifty six. Ways Grads Champ, Grads Guys.
- 9:33Speaker 3: Grass Champ.
- 9:38Speaker 4: Firstman's up front on the left hand.
- 9:41Speaker 8: Dan walking down who sports Congratulations Dusty. It took you
- 9:44Speaker 8: a very long time in your career to get to
- 9:46Speaker 8: a point where you could pick your next move. Essentially,
- 9:50Speaker 8: what made you think that you could do it at
- 9:53Speaker 8: Michigan and do it quickly once you got to that point.
- 9:56Speaker 2: The hardest part and first, hold that question real quick, Dan,
- 10:00Speaker 2: I want to Elliott beat me to it.
- 10:02Speaker 17: L J.
- 10:02Speaker 2: Cason was playing as well as any backup guard all
- 10:07Speaker 2: the country and probably playing as well as anyone on
- 10:08Speaker 2: a roster, and he at Illinois, he's hooping and has
- 10:12Speaker 2: the most Florida man injury in the history of injuries,
- 10:15Speaker 2: and the next day you would think he retired.
- 10:19Speaker 3: And took over an assistant coaching spot. His spirits were up.
- 10:22Speaker 2: He's immediately pouring into the guys, trying to learn pick
- 10:25Speaker 2: their brain because he had a different perspective, and that's
- 10:29Speaker 2: very indicative of this team. He never one day brought
- 10:32Speaker 2: negative energy because he felt sorry for himself, and for
- 10:35Speaker 2: Elliot to shout him out beat me to it is
- 10:38Speaker 2: pretty impressive as well.
- 10:39Speaker 3: But the toughest part.
- 10:42Speaker 2: About jobs, and this has always been my opinion because
- 10:44Speaker 2: I've just taken jobs. My wife used to get angry
- 10:47Speaker 2: with me because I just call her and say, hey,
- 10:48Speaker 2: what do you think? Do you mind if I take
- 10:50Speaker 2: this job for whatever reason? And so now you don't
- 10:54Speaker 2: get a chance to really go feel the place and
- 10:57Speaker 2: see it. And even fau I went to see it,
- 11:00Speaker 2: and before I'd seen anything, I already.
- 11:02Speaker 3: Signed the contract. That's how impulsive I am.
- 11:04Speaker 2: And whatever the case, Yeah, Anna will give you a
- 11:07Speaker 2: better background than me on all this stuff. And living
- 11:11Speaker 2: in Ipsilanti when I was assistant, a young assistant in
- 11:13Speaker 2: eastern Michigan, I'd never I wasn't that familiar with Michigan
- 11:17Speaker 2: other than eighty nine and being a fan of the game,
- 11:20Speaker 2: and just the feelings that people had the pride they
- 11:24Speaker 2: had in their university. I just thought that was really
- 11:26Speaker 2: really cool. We thought it was a great time to
- 11:29Speaker 2: get back to the Midwest. We are to stage our
- 11:31Speaker 2: life or we were empty nesters and just wanted something different,
- 11:35Speaker 2: And then just felt like Michigan was a place ultimately
- 11:37Speaker 2: with the changing landscape, that we could retain really good players.
- 11:43Speaker 3: Even if it wasn't going great for them, it was gonna.
- 11:46Speaker 2: Be hard to leave. And even terrorists is a great example.
- 11:49Speaker 2: He had options to go toywhere in the country and
- 11:51Speaker 2: it was difficult for him. Based on my conversations, it
- 11:53Speaker 2: was difficult for him to leave the University of Michigan
- 11:56Speaker 2: and the relationships that he had made and all the
- 11:58Speaker 2: people that poured in him. So I just felt like
- 12:00Speaker 2: that's the type of place that I'd love to coach at.
- 12:02Speaker 4: We have a question in the front row.
- 12:06Speaker 18: Clayton Safety with the Wolverine coach, congrats, I mean, you
- 12:09Speaker 18: just won the national championship. You talk a lot about
- 12:13Speaker 18: doing something eternal. You're around Terry Mills a lot. What
- 12:17Speaker 18: do you think this accomplishment is going to do for
- 12:19Speaker 18: this group the rest of their lives and.
- 12:21Speaker 2: Beyond it further strengthens their bond, and we didn't need
- 12:26Speaker 2: this for that to happen because of their actions all year.
- 12:29Speaker 2: But to hang us, we call this, we talked about
- 12:31Speaker 2: early in the season a center banner, Like we have
- 12:33Speaker 2: a lot of Michigan's got proud tradition. There's a lot
- 12:36Speaker 2: of banners on the side, there's one lonely banner up
- 12:38Speaker 2: in the middle, and if we were having a bad
- 12:40Speaker 2: practice or we didn't have our edge, we would remind
- 12:43Speaker 2: them that if we're ever gonna hang another banner so
- 12:47Speaker 2: that one has some company, then we can't have these
- 12:50Speaker 2: type of days, or we can't have these type of practices.
- 12:52Speaker 2: And usually that was one way that we could refocus
- 12:54Speaker 2: our group.
- 12:55Speaker 4: We have two in the front row towards the right.
- 12:57Speaker 5: Mitch first, Yeah, congratulations, So see Mitch Alvi pre press.
- 13:02Speaker 5: Like I asked the players before, it seemed like this
- 13:05Speaker 5: was a really unusual blueprint to try to win free throws,
- 13:08Speaker 5: blocks and steals. That's not kind of the Michigan thing.
- 13:11Speaker 5: Were you conscious of that was the way you were
- 13:13Speaker 5: going to have to do it. Did you talk to
- 13:14Speaker 5: the players about, Okay, if the other stuff's not working,
- 13:17Speaker 5: this is what we have to do. We talk about
- 13:18Speaker 5: like changing on the fly.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Yeah, we talked we early in games, we can tell
- 13:23Speaker 2: how the game's being played, and so then we talk
- 13:25Speaker 2: about how we have to adjust and we have to
- 13:27Speaker 2: figure out solutions based on how their guarding us and
- 13:30Speaker 2: all the things. We actually thought the basket would open
- 13:34Speaker 2: up a little bit in the second half. We felt
- 13:36Speaker 2: like we were going to make shots. In the second half.
- 13:38Speaker 2: We generated I think there were two threes in the
- 13:40Speaker 2: first half that we didn't We didn't really love those attempts.
- 13:42Speaker 3: And you're not going to love them all the rest
- 13:45Speaker 3: of them.
- 13:45Speaker 2: We thought we're really good offense, and the ball just
- 13:47Speaker 2: didn't go in, and so we just were trying not
- 13:50Speaker 2: to result in all that we do and just stay
- 13:53Speaker 2: with the process and evaluate the contributions.
- 13:56Speaker 3: And how it felt.
- 13:57Speaker 2: And so then early in the second half the game
- 14:00Speaker 2: got a little bit chippy and physical, and so we thought,
- 14:05Speaker 2: this is going to be a game we just have
- 14:06Speaker 2: to figure it out. We started going offensive defensive early,
- 14:10Speaker 2: offensive decent substitutions early, and Yukon was dominating us on
- 14:15Speaker 2: the glass. Credit to them, they were motivated and determined
- 14:17Speaker 2: as any team we played on the offensive glass, and
- 14:20Speaker 2: but we did feel like we were defending well enough
- 14:23Speaker 2: that we were gonna be able to find enough baskets.
- 14:27Speaker 4: Up front on the right side.
- 14:29Speaker 15: Jake Singer with Mason brew First, Well, congratulations, Dusty. A
- 14:33Speaker 15: lot of the players just now we're talking about your
- 14:34Speaker 15: assistant coaches being so instrumental in getting them ready in
- 14:37Speaker 15: game before the game. Can you talk about your cohesive
- 14:39Speaker 15: coaching staff and how much credit was to them to
- 14:41Speaker 15: getting you guys to this point winning this national championship.
- 14:44Speaker 3: I go on until tomorrow.
- 14:47Speaker 2: That's one of our seekert sauces is we have an
- 14:50Speaker 2: incredibly talented group of coaches that never make it about themselves.
- 14:54Speaker 3: And look, this is an ego driven business.
- 14:58Speaker 2: This is a lot of alpha mel's with great egos,
- 15:02Speaker 2: and that's why they're successful doing what they do. And
- 15:05Speaker 2: these guys have made our players the number one, two
- 15:09Speaker 2: and three priority from day one, over their own careers,
- 15:11Speaker 2: over their own individual attention and accolades and things like that,
- 15:16Speaker 2: and so just it's it's hard for our players not
- 15:19Speaker 2: to follow the team, which is the staff when they're
- 15:22Speaker 2: modeling that behavior every day, and they deserve a big, big,
- 15:27Speaker 2: big chunk of credit for this second round.
- 15:29Speaker 10: The right side Mike Mike the course of the Sporting News,
- 15:32Speaker 10: does the UH I think from the public standpoint anyway,
- 15:38Speaker 10: you brought in Elliott before even the three bigs, and
- 15:41Speaker 10: so he even he said he doubted himself. The team
- 15:44Speaker 10: he played on last year did not have a great year.
- 15:46Speaker 10: Other than assists, he did not have a great year.
- 15:49Speaker 10: What did you see in him that you thought he
- 15:51Speaker 10: could get you to this moment?
- 15:54Speaker 3: It's a great question.
- 15:55Speaker 2: We had seen him in prep ranks, and we had
- 15:58Speaker 2: seen him in high school ranks, and we like we
- 16:00Speaker 2: needed a quarterback, a pass first quarterback on the floor
- 16:06Speaker 2: at all times. And with Elliott, once we got him,
- 16:10Speaker 2: we were able to sell him. And even I coached
- 16:14Speaker 2: Seawan May years ago in AU basketball, and so I
- 16:18Speaker 2: called Sean and I said, and he gave me all
- 16:20Speaker 2: the intel and everything on the background, and I just said,
- 16:22Speaker 2: let me ask you one question. Would seventeen eighteen year
- 16:26Speaker 2: old Shawn May, he was a McDonald's American NBA player,
- 16:28Speaker 2: All American, all of them, would he want to play
- 16:30Speaker 2: with Elliott Cado? And he said, explicative, Yeah, absolutely, let's go.
- 16:35Speaker 2: And I said, that's all I need to know, because
- 16:38Speaker 2: Sean is one of the smartest, best players I've ever
- 16:41Speaker 2: been around, and so I valued his opinion that much,
- 16:43Speaker 2: and that was that was a stamp on the intangibles
- 16:47Speaker 2: and whether I thought we could win this with him,
- 16:49Speaker 2: because on film it was there. I mean, he's he's
- 16:52Speaker 2: a savant, he's brilliant, and so he's he's made us
- 16:55Speaker 2: better coaches, and hopefully we've helped him become a better player.
- 16:58Speaker 4: Right side turned the back of the room.
- 16:59Speaker 17: Forty Hey Dusky Pat forty from Sports Illustrated. We talked
- 17:03Speaker 17: there about Elliott, but the group as a whole. When
- 17:06Speaker 17: you're putting it together, you never really know for sure
- 17:09Speaker 17: how rewarding is it to have it turn out this well.
- 17:12Speaker 3: I think the most rewarding part is they never changed.
- 17:15Speaker 3: Like this team. We weren't very good early in the year.
- 17:18Speaker 2: The first two exhibitions we beat Saint John's, but they
- 17:21Speaker 2: weren't Saint John's yet, and then we didn't play well,
- 17:24Speaker 2: and at that point we consider pivoting and changing our
- 17:27Speaker 2: lineup and going a different direction and maybe admitting failure
- 17:30Speaker 2: for our vision and because of our staff. Really, I
- 17:34Speaker 2: remember the daylight was yesterday. We're in the conference room
- 17:36Speaker 2: and we did a deep dive and everything that you
- 17:39Speaker 2: can come up with to.
- 17:41Speaker 3: Try to predict whether we thought that would it would work.
- 17:45Speaker 2: And once we left that meeting, we were more committed
- 17:48Speaker 2: than ever that this is going to work. And these
- 17:50Speaker 2: are the reasons why now we didn't feel like we
- 17:53Speaker 2: were It's like bamboo. We didn't feel like the bamboo
- 17:55Speaker 2: was just going to shoot to the sky the next
- 17:56Speaker 2: week in Vegas, but it did. And then that happens
- 17:58Speaker 2: quickly when we're playing at that level, and that's typically
- 18:01Speaker 2: when it gets more difficult. I've been on a sister
- 18:03Speaker 2: on staffs when you play like that, and that's when
- 18:05Speaker 2: it really gets tough because there's more tension, there's more
- 18:08Speaker 2: of everything coming at your guys, and for them not
- 18:10Speaker 2: to waiver on how they, I guess continue to give
- 18:14Speaker 2: to me. That's probably the hardest part and most rewarding
- 18:19Speaker 2: thing that these guys did.
- 18:20Speaker 4: Final question the final four Lindsay Hey.
- 18:24Speaker 19: Dusty Lindsay Snow from the Athletic. I went up during
- 18:27Speaker 19: the game into the very last row and sat with
- 18:29Speaker 19: a bunch of Michigan fans, some of whom had paid
- 18:32Speaker 19: a lot of money for a pretty bad view. I wondered,
- 18:36Speaker 19: what is it like to coach at a program where
- 18:39Speaker 19: you have that type of fan support. And also when
- 18:41Speaker 19: you came to the Final four when you were young,
- 18:44Speaker 19: did you ever sit in those really bad seats when
- 18:46Speaker 19: you were a coach that was making no money or
- 18:48Speaker 19: trying to get in.
- 18:49Speaker 2: No, I never had tickets. I never attended a game
- 18:52Speaker 2: until Mike Davis made it in O two. And at
- 18:56Speaker 2: that time he had already offered me a position on
- 19:00Speaker 2: the staff, even though he didn't have one yet coming
- 19:03Speaker 2: from USC. So we'd played in the same regional, we'd
- 19:07Speaker 2: got upset by UNC Wilmington, and he created a position
- 19:11Speaker 2: to bring me back home. But in that process they
- 19:13Speaker 2: continue to advance, and so he he got me great
- 19:17Speaker 2: tickets right behind the team and started that process of
- 19:20Speaker 2: acclimating to their program.
- 19:22Speaker 3: And so that was the only time I ever went.
- 19:23Speaker 3: And so, yeah, the tickets.
- 19:27Speaker 2: You know, all these people that pay hard earned money
- 19:29Speaker 2: and give us their time to support us, it's it's
- 19:31Speaker 2: it's appreciated.
- 19:32Speaker 3: We're very very grateful.
- 19:34Speaker 4: Well, thank you.
- 19:35Speaker 1: Congratulate Dusty made the head coach of the twenty twenty
- 19:37Speaker 1: six national champion Michigan Wolverines.
- 19:40Speaker 3: Thank you guys,