So I saw two stories after the Michigan / Arizona game that I thought showed some great thinking by the Michigan coach. I suspect that someone has done it before, but the results couldn’t have worked out better.

First, there was a video on social media showing that May brought his team out to Michigan’s football stadium, the Big House, put a mobile hoop up in the field, and had a shooting practice so that his team could get used to shooting on a basket with the site-lines of a football stadium. The Wolverines went 12-27 from three-point range for 44 percent (which was 8 percent better than any of the other 3 teams). Could have just been a coincidence but the practice on a football field likely helped.

The other thing was how Elliot Cadeau played. Cadeau started the game 2 for 14 from the field before hitting his last three shots, as he would drive to the basket and the float these wild shots high off the backboard that had no chance of going in. I kept thinking that I was really impressed how Michigan kept getting the rebound and scoring – bailing out the wild shots.

Except the shots weren’t wild at all – they were by design. May realized that he could not lob the ball in over Arizona’s athletic front court to score in the paint like the Wolverines normally did. So Cadeau would drive hard to the basket, draw the help defense from Arizona’s big men, and then he would lob the ball high off the board knowing that the Michigan forward who was originally guarded by the player who helped would be wide open to get the rebound and lay it back in. Cadeau had 10 official assists, but he intentionally missed several shots to put his teammates in position to score.

Arizona had lost only twice all season, a four point road loss to Kansas and a three point overtime loss to Texas Tech. They were always in every game because of their amazing defense in the paint. And Dusty May made multiple decisions that prepared his team well, leading to an 18 point victory.

Please don’t take this to mean that I think Michigan has the best coach. Dan Hurley is an incredible basketball coach. Ilinois had the 2nd best offense in the country. They had been only held to under 70 points twice before the Final Four. Houston in the Sweet 16 held them to 65. And the other was in the regular season when they faced UConn in Madison Square Garden – where they scored 61.

And UConn came in prepared and held that efficient offense to 62 points again on their way to a nine point victory. They knew Illinois would make adjustments from their first game. They knew Illinois had multiple offensive weapons. It didn’t matter – they shut them down for a second time when no one but Houston’s highly ranked defense could do it.

But no one is debating Hurley’s greatness, and the UConn coach has two national championships to prove it. But I have heard grumblings about how May played a ton of money in the transfer portal and is now watching as that money leads them to a title.

Yaxel Lendeborg was certainly one of the biggest prizes of the portal, but he was also a starter for mid-major UAB. Eliot Cadeau was considered too turnover-prone and just a mediocre shooter when he decided to leave North Carolina. Center Aday Mara was playing 13 minutes off the bench for UCLA. Forward Morez Johnson Jr was playing 17 minutes off the bench for Illinois.1

Its easy to say that Dusty May bought a team in the portal after watching Michigan’s run of dominance. But what he got out of the portal was a guy dominating a mid-major conference, a point guard that a blue-blood program no longer wanted, and two bench players. And Dusty May turned them into a team that is winning most of their games by double digits.

You might hear that the Michigan coach is successful because he won the transfer portal – but he also has improved the game of all those 4 transfers. He is an outstanding coach. He might not beat Dan Hurley tonight, but that doesn’t diminish what he has accomplished. And Hurley might not beat the Wolverines buzz-saw tonight, and that doesn’t diminish what he has accomplished.

We are lucky enough to be watching two of the best coaches in college basketball tonight – don’t let any grumbling from the media make you believe anything different.