2024-25 ITH Season Preview: Michigan Wolverines

  • 09/20/2024 8:30 am in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the coming weeks.

Today, our team previews continue with Michigan.

Previously: Penn State, Washington, Minnesota, USC, Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Oregon, Maryland, Wisconsin, Ohio State

A disastrous 8-24 season forced Michigan to fire Juwan Howard after five seasons in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines beat out Louisville to land Dusty May, an IU alum who guided Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023.

The 47-year-old May hit the transfer portal hard in the spring out of necessity. Michigan returns only three players from last season’s roster, and only two, Nimari Burnett and Will Tschetter, were rotation regulars.

The Wolverines lost starters Terrance Williams II (USC), Dug McDaniel (Kansas State) and Tarris Reed Jr. (UConn) to the portal and graduated Olivier Nkamhoua, Tray Jackson and Jaelin Llewellyn.

The new-look Michigan backcourt will feature Auburn transfer Tre Donaldson at the point, with Ohio State transfer Roddy Gayle Jr. alongside at the two.

Donaldson was in a platoon situation last season for the Tigers. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 6.7 points, 3.2 assists and 2.4 rebounds in 19.3 minutes. He shot 41.2 percent on 3s and should play most of the point guard minutes. Donaldson had a 2.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio last season.

Gayle Jr. took a major leap forward last season as a sophomore for the Buckeyes. Gayle can get into the lane and is likely a better shooter than his numbers from a season ago showed. He battled a wrist injury, contributing to his 3-point shooting numbers dipping from 42.9 percent as a freshman to 28.2 percent as a sophomore. Still, he was highly productive and is a proven producer in the Big Ten. Gayle averaged 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists in nearly 31 minutes per game.

With Burnett’s return and Rubin Jones’s addition from North Texas, the Wolverines have multiple options on the wing. Burnett, who has battled injuries his entire career, was healthy all last season. He averaged 9.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 rebounds while shooting 34.7 percent on 3s in 31.3 minutes per game.

Jones, a 6-foot-5 guard utilizing his additional year of eligibility due to COVID-19, missed 11 games last season with a hamstring injury. In 23 games, he averaged a career-best 12.1 points and was second on the North Texas roster with 35 steals. He also shot a stellar 41.6 percent on 3s and averaged 29.5 minutes per game.

Michigan will likely deploy a twin-tower frontcourt with Yale transfer Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin, who followed May from Florida Atlantic.

Wolf, a 7-foot junior, has a game that extends out to the perimeter and is an excellent passer. He was a coveted player for several high-major programs in the transfer portal after All-Ivy League first-team honors last season. Wolf had 13 points and five rebounds in Yale’s NCAA tournament upset of Auburn in the first round of last season’s NCAA tournament. Wolf averaged 14.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.3 blocked shots and a steal in 30.8 minutes per game. As a 7-footer with mobility that can score from all over the floor, he could be a matchup nightmare for the Big Ten.

Goldin, a 7-foot-1 senior, has the size to be a force in the paint in the Big Ten. He was an essential part of FAU’s Final Four run in 2023 and averaged 15.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots in 25 minutes last season.

Tschetter, a 6-foot-8 senior, returns to provide frontcourt depth and experience. He shot 51.9 percent on 3s last season on 54 attempts and that shooting ability at his size should keep him in the rotation. He made six starts last season, averaging 6.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 17.9 minutes.

Sam Walters arrives from Alabama as a 6-foot-10 sophomore with plenty of upside. Walters can stretch the floor and made 39.4 percent of his 3s on 99 attempts. Walters came off the bench for Alabama’s Final Four team and is a Florida native with whom May was familiar from his high school days.

Jace Howard, Juwan’s son, is also back for his final season of eligibility. The 6-foot-8 wing averaged 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds last season and stuck around despite his father’s dismissal.

The Wolverines also added three freshmen in guards Justin Pippen, Durral Brooks and Lorenzo Cason. Pippen, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, was a four-star prospect who came on strong in his final high school season. Brooks committed to the previous coaching staff and is from Grand Rapids Catholic Central, where he won Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award last season. And Cason had committed to May at Florida Atlantic and opted to follow him to Ann Arbor.

At No. 33 in Bart Torvik’s projections for next season, the Wolverines have NCAA tournament aspirations in May’s first season. Michigan was picked to finish ninth in the league by the Blue Ribbon college basketball Yearbook and 11th by the Lindy’s Sports college basketball preview magazine.

Bottom line: May is one of the top coaches under 50 in college basketball and was highly successful the last two seasons at FAU, which had little basketball success before his tenure. The Wolverines have assembled a capable roster and the frontcourt combination of Wolf and Goldin will be intriguing to watch. After Michigan’s dismal 3-17 Big Ten record last season, there’s nowhere to go but up.

Quotable: “The most pleasant surprise has been seeing how well Danny and Vlad developed chemistry on the offensive end. We still have to figure some things out defensively, but offensively, that’s probably been one of our most seamless transitions so far.” – May on The Michigan Insider on Michigan’s two-big lineup.

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