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ROSEMONT, Ill. —With two seven-footers roaming the paint in graduate center Vlad Goldin and junior forward Danny Wolf, the Michigan men’s basketball team is big. But it’s not just the Wolverines’ front court that is physically imposing — the guards are big, strong and quick, too.
The backcourt rotation figures to be some combination of graduate guards Nimari Burnett and Rubin Jones alongside junior guards Roddy Gayle Jr. and Tre Donaldson. Burnett, Gayle and Jones are all listed at 6-foot-5, and Donaldson, the shortest of the bunch, is listed at 6-foot-3. With any combination of these four on the court, Michigan should have a fairly significant size advantage against most opposing backcourts.
More important than its size, though, is the way that this group intends to use it. With their long wingspans and quick feet, Burnett, Jones and Gayle all hang their hats on being lockdown perimeter defenders that can rotate to defend nearly any position. And that versatility is exactly what Wolverines coach Dusty May wants from his big guards.
“We were looking for positional size,” May said Thursday at the Big Ten Media Days. “We brought in great skill and a lot of size… We felt we needed a physical guard with good speed and positional size up front. We have great versatility.”
Well, be careful what you ask for: May wanted a physical guard with good size and athleticism, and he found himself three.
Gayle, who transferred in from Ohio State, averaged a respectable 0.8 steals per game last season, but has the length and speed to guard one through four — causing havoc for opposing teams. Jones averaged 1.5 steals per game with North Texas a year ago and Burnett had 0.9 steals per game to his name last year. Similar to Gayle, Burnett’s numbers don’t jump off the page. Nonetheless, in many situations last season, Burnett was tasked with manning the opponent’s lead guard, which isn’t a duty to scoff at.
With three versatile guards that aren’t afraid to use their bodies and switch onto bigger opponents to create chaos, May hopes opposing teams will be forced to settle for tough shots, either off the bounce or in the form of highly contested triples.
“The last couple years, we’ve taken a lot of pride in giving up unassisted baskets, making teams beat us by playing 1-on-1 and shooting tough twos, and we’ve been very successful doing it,” May said. “I think that’s the same thing that that positional versatility allows you to do, to be more switchable, to keep the ball in front, stay out of rotation, stay on balance.”
Lockdown perimeter defense forces many teams to drive into the middle of the court more or to look down low in the post for offense. But with the Wolverines’ aforementioned towering front court prowling the paint, the rim likely won’t be a great option either.
“I feel like it’s a little bit opposite,” Goldin said when asked if having good defensive guards alleviates pressure on his rim protection. “It sets the standard that we have to be even better. So if they do that much of a job, we have to level up.”
Just one year removed from allowing the second-most points per game in the Big Ten — only behind a perennial all-offense, no-defense team in Iowa — Michigan’s defense has plenty of upside to be an upper-half defensive squad in the Big Ten. With size and versatility, the Wolverines’ backcourt is leading that charge by setting the standard.
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