How Wolverines Won Over Fans in 101-53 Win Over Cleveland State in Season Opener

Danny Wolf and Tre Donaldson keyed an outstanding team effort that included 47 points off the bench. New coach Dusty May heard and felt the appreciative love of the Michigan faithful in debut game.

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

Danny Wolf, a 7-foot transfer from Yale, poured it on with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

By Steve Kornacki

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – This was fun, wasn’t it?

Michigan’s season-opening 101-53 win over Cleveland State here Monday night in Coach Dusty May’s program debut was impressive in so many ways.

“Who’s ready for a new era of Michigan basketball?” shouted public address announcer Anthony Bellino before tip-off.

Well, everybody here and all fans wearing maize and blue and watching this one on the Big Ten Network were more than ready for something like this.

It was fun watching the fans at Crisler Center standing and applauding without scoreboard prompts. They were smiling the whole night long.

I asked May if he could feel and hear the appreciation from the Wolverine faithful, who were starved for such a performance after last year’s rock-bottom 8-24 season.

“Yes,” May said with a smile. “Usually, I don’t hear anything. Sometimes it’s deafening and your ears start buzzing, Your head starts buzzing because it’s so loud. I do think our fans appreciated the way our guys played the game tonight.

“And that’s something that we talk about [having] even late in the game. The unselfishness, and spirit and passion that you play with – you don’t ever turn that off. We told them before the game today, ‘This place will probably be half-full tonight, and by the next month, because of the way we play, and the way we interact with each other, and the way we represent Michigan. We want it to be full, and we’ll give ‘em a month.’ ”

The crowd was listed at 10,334 in the 13,684-seat arena. But that includes tickets sold and it was about half full.

Point guard Tre Donaldson, who had 16 points and a game-high 7 assists, said, “That’s a goal of ours. We want to sell out Crisler. It’s a blessing to have everyone. We had a blast tonight. We had fans standing up on their feet…I mean, it was amazing. It’s something we look forward to every night, and it’s why we’re here.”

Power forward Danny Wolf, who led all players with 19 points and 13 rebounds, said, “Obviously, Michigan is such a storied program. But not as winning of seasons in the past few years [26-40 the last two seasons]. With that, of course, the crowds aren’t going to be as great. But like Coach May said at our shoot-around yesterday at practice, the gym is going to be two-thirds packed right now.

“If we can prove to be the team we are…three, four or five games down the line, we’re going to have a sold-out Crisler and Michigan has arguably the best fan base in college athletics. They were loud tonight and I personally try to stay pretty focused and zone all of that out. But when you have such great fans that are so bought into getting back to the winning ways, it makes the game that much more fun.”

This wasn’t some chopped liver team they totally dismantled. The Vikings were 21-15 last year and made the NCAA Tournament the season before that.

There are bigger games and challenges ahead for these Wolverines, but what popped out most to me was that this is going to be a very consistent, very well-coached team.

Why will they be consistent?

Playing strong one-on-one defense as they did against the Vikings provides countless offensive opportunities.

Playing unselfish offense – often off the fast break -- guarantees quality shots. Nobody’s playing hero or looking to pad their stats, and their .684 shooting percentage (39-for-57) was the second-best single-game accuracy in program history.

Playing as many as 10 for significant minutes keeps players fresh, and they’re able to play aggressively the whole 90 feet of the court.

Rotating so many players will allow Michigan to overcome injuries and off-nights by even their starters.

Rubin Jones, the starting big guard, was out with a minor injury and is “day-to-day,” according to May, but Nimari Burnett took his spot and the Wolverines didn’t miss a beat.

Center Vlad Goldin, who is 7-foot-1 and averaged 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds last year for May at Florida Atlantic, finished with only 2 points and 2 rebounds. No problem.

Wolf, a 7-foot transfer from Yale, also starts along the front line and dominated in every way. Goldin is a graduate student who is here for only this season, but Wolf is a junior who could return next year.

“He’s still getting comfortable in the new system, new environment,” May said of Wolf. “A lot of our guys are. And he’s just scratching the surface. He can shoot the three. He handles it like a guard. He passes it better than most guards, and he guards the ball with great determination.”

What does it say about this team that it was minus a key starter and got so little scoring and rebounding from a proven player, and it still won going away?

“It’s what we thought,” said May. “We talk about parity because we have so many good players who have done it before. And our young guys are probably ahead of schedule with certain parts of their game.

“It just says that every night we could have a different player step up and be our best player. We have a long way to go, though.”

It all starts with defense for this team.

Every player on the team provided hard-nosed D. They moved their feet precisely and quickly, stuck like glue to the guy they covered, and held their hands high. It was textbook defense.

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

Point guard Tre Donaldson, a transfer from Auburn, showed the way in every way. He had 16 points to go with 7 assists, and didn’t miss a shot in 27 minutes.

Donaldson, who is probably going to play more minutes than anyone else, triggered everything. He is ultra-quick and disrupted Cleveland State on the perimeter while hitting shots (4-for-4 from the field including two treys), free throws (6-for-6) and teammates with crisp passes.

He led all Wolverines with only 27 minutes and had a team-high plus rating of 42 points.

Ohio State transfer Roddy Gayle, Jr., drained a three-pointer on a fast-break pass from Donaldson that is a perfect example of the offense May wants. Gayle had 13 points and 4 assists.

May brought in six portal transfers, three freshmen recruits and returned Will Tschetter (15 points), Burnett (4 points) and Jace Howard from last year’s last-place team that ended Juwan Howard’s run as the head coach at his alma mater.

Everybody in the playing rotation did impressive things.

Freshman L.J. Cason from Lakeland, Fla., came off the bench for 14 points and 3 assists.

Sophomore Sam Walters, a transfer from Alabama, also came off the bench to score 10 points with 2 rebounds.

The Wolverines got 47 points from their reserves – or 6 less than the entire Cleveland State team.

Michigan had a 22-5 edge in assists and a 28-4 advantage in fastbreak points.

“As far as our unselfishness in sharing the ball – I’d grade us an A-minus,” said May. “We have guys that enjoy passing the ball and have always taken pride in playing the game the right way. And that’s not easy to do when you build a big lead.

“I don’t think anyone was hunting numbers. They were simply trying to take what the game gave them, and that’s a good sign. We should be able to score on most nights.”

When Tschetter rifled down a one-handed slam, Walters got into his face and they jawed praise at one another. And they were doing that after a play that made it a 50-point lead.

There is no off switch on these Wolverines.

“Late in the game,” said May, “I heard the fans really erupt a couple of times on hustle plays – which is awesome for our fans to be knowledgeable and recognize the right things. The unselfishness, the passion, the toughness plays that our guys made.”

They play hard all 90 feet, all 40 minutes.

They are going to be fun.

“We’d like to do this every night,” said May. “I don’t think we’re going to, but this is going to be ideal. We’ll have to find different ways to win each night when the ball’s not going in. We’ve got to be gritty enough to find the second shot to dominate the shots each night – where we get more and more possessions.”

If this is going to be a team that finds a way each night, hold on tight to something. This will be some ride.