College football and college basketball seem to have different issues. Though the former is working to become more like the latter, moderating the best regular season in all of sports in order to create a more exciting postseason, having a huge regular season game in basketball appears to be more embraced now compared to the growing sentiments in football that perhaps marquee games should be saved for the College Football Playoff.
Take Michigan basketball vs. Duke on Saturday. No one is saying that the Wolverines would have been better off not scheduling a big-time opponent in the regular season. Instead, the matchup is mostly given praise. And, unlike the growing sentiment on the football side of it, head coach Dusty May hopes to see more games scheduled like this in the future.
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“100%. We have a responsibility to do what’s best for the enterprise of college basketball, to do what’s best for the University of Michigan, for the Big Ten Conference,” May said. “I can’t wait to see what the ratings were, but the buzz, all the attention around the game was very NCAA Tournament-like. And so we have a game simulation of the energy, the distractions that are around a game. And then we dealt with some adversity. We got in at whatever time the night before, we had travel issues and this and that.
“And so that’s part of having to prepare differently and make decisions on the fly. How do we respond to this and how do we not? So yeah, I think we learned a lot, and it will have us better prepared for the NCAA Tournament. Obviously, you don’t want to lose a game in February, but I’m very confident our guys are going to bounce back and play well going forward.”
The Wolverines did learn a lot playing Duke, especially drawing the shortest straw in the wake of a 68-63 loss. Coming away without a win may cost Michigan the No. 1 overall seed, but even so, May sees some advantages.
Of course, much of what transpired on Saturday was situational, but with the Wolverines treating Saturday’s matchup like a tournament game, it raises questions if some of the in-game strategies will remain the same when March comes.
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“Depends on who you’re playing,” May said. “There’s a couple teams in the country that jump out as far as just putting the onus on the officials. They’re going straight through you. And we’re probably not going to draw a lot of charges against Duke as primary defenders. Just not. And so certain games, I think we would do different.
“We’d make different decisions, if that makes sense. And different players and different opponents and how they play, how we play. But teams that are able to just go through you, probably sit or go zone or whatever the case. There’s some solutions. But would we want to sit out Aday the last 14 minutes? I think probably that situation, he’ll learn and grow from it where next time he can, if that makes sense also.”
The Wolverines still have four regular-season games left with home games against Minnesota and MSU and road games against Illinois and Iowa. Then, the Big Ten Tournament before the NCAA Tournament.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan basketball: Dusty May on Duke loss, NCAA Tournament prep
