Hour 1: Michigan Wins a National Championship Reactions with UM Head Coach Dusty May

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0:39Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down.

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1:27Now, on with the show.

1:28Rich Eisen:I'm a true champion. Go blue is the mantra. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Michigan, the men's basketball champion. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Today's guests. Michigan head coach, Dusty May. ESPN college basketball analyst, Jay Billis. UCLA head coach, Corey Close. Actor, Emmanuel Shrieky. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Well, hey everybody. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. I'm one happy host sitting here in Los Angeles, California. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial to join us here on this three-hour journey. Jay Billis talking about the men's national championship game in which Michigan outlasted UConn on Monday night.

2:21Rich Eisen:He's joining us on the show. uh emmanuel shrieky the lovely and talented actress from back in the day of entourage she's got a new film out called a love like this she hasn't been on this show in some time um she'll be on this show an hour number three in studio and then we've got dusty may of michigan and cory close of ucla so we have two net cutters on the show and that's how i say hello to overreaction monday nut cutter chris brockman how are you christopher how are you not as good as you congratulations correct jason feller good to see you how are you i'm so glad you're here and not del tufo is going to be crying in his seat and hall soup too bad how are you tj jefferson that candle's lit what's going on it's almost not lit what did you call it did i yeah i was curious that's all good and i to represent you in michigan i were my steiner brothers ah very good greatly appreciate that great greatly appreciate all that congrats man thank you sir i appreciate that I had a lot to do with it.

3:17Rich Eisen:Listen, you know I like giving a little history lesson. I like a little perspective. I did this on the day that Michigan won the national championship in football a couple years ago. So I will start today's show in 1989. I was a junior at the University of Michigan. I was in Chrysler Arena on the final day of Big Ten action. This is before there was a tournament, so the season ended. Big Ten ended when the last game was played, and then it was stay tuned to Selection Sunday to see if you made it and what your seed was going to be, and we were nervous because I was in Chrysler Arena on that last day of the 1989 season when Bill Frieder's Michigan Wolverines got curb stomped by the Ludo and the Fighting Illini.

4:12Rich Eisen:There's Bill with his towel. This is when everyone used to wear towels, I guess. Tarek used to suck on them. He wore one. John Thompson famously did. We all know that. But you could see the faces, not everyone happy behind Bill, and Bill wasn't happy either because after the game, he says, I'm going to Arizona State, but I'll stick around and I'll coach the Michigan basketball team. The athletic director had different ideas about it, and he had a little sway. He had some juice on the campus because his name was Bo Schembechler. Oh, yeah. And Bo famously said to Bill Frieder, nah, the famous phrase of I want a Michigan man coaching a Michigan team was born.

4:57Rich Eisen:It's what Bo said, and we were all like, yeah, yeah, We want a Michigan man here. Go to Arizona State. Count your cards, Bill. Look it up. Go ahead. You do that. And then Bo tapped an assistant coach. He really didn't have much ties to Michigan, but he just wasn't Bill Frieder. And he looked like he was straight out of Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Steve Fisher. And we're like, this is the guy? We're going to turn to the selection committee and say, put us in? Really? And they did. Steve Fisher took a six-seed Michigan into the tournament, and they won their first two games, and then they went to Rupp Arena for their regional action.

5:48Rich Eisen:The semifinal and final Rupp Arena, the vaunted Kentucky Wildcat home, and Fisher's team in the Sweet 16 beat Dean Smith in North Carolina. And we're like, is this possible? Next up, Virginia beat them. Go to the Final Four to wait for it, the Kingdome. And Michigan found themselves in front of the same Illinois team that waxed us at home. And with Sean Higgins shooting a bucket on the baseline, sent Michigan into the final game against Seton Hall, goes into overtime. Ramil Robinson made those free throws. I'm glad Del Tufo's not here to bitch about it. And Michigan wins in overtime and cuts down the nets because Glenn Rice was the outstanding player that he was, leading the team as well as he did.

6:44Rich Eisen:Glenn Rice. An absolute dream scenario. and there's brent musberger interviewing steve fisher with billy packer in the foreground as well this is back when one shining moment was a fresh new song 37 years ago and i was on campus the day of that game in the offices of the michigan daily the greatest student publication ever created i like to think student newspaper i was the sport i was a sports editor and we were all like if michigan wins tonight who's closing the newspaper because back in the day there was a printing press kids and a newspaper needed to be set and type copy had to come in from the kingdom somebody had to put the section all together put it in type make sure it was all set and we drew straws because nobody wanted to do that we all want to go party if michigan was going to win yeah i drew the short straw and as michigan had just beaten wow seton hall and everybody from my fraternity house and everyone else on campus was going nuts and getting more drunk i was like a salmon swimming upstream running against everybody running towards the center of campus to get to the michigan daily newspaper to close that thing out and I'll never forget that night I bet ever unbelievable to be on campus and have something like this happen and then Steve Fisher keeps the job you know it was gonna and somehow some way a couple years later pulls off the recruiting coup of the century and gets the fab five to show up on campus and we're thinking this is it here we go we're gonna do this again make the final game who's standing in the way that you know what christian leitner that's who's standing in the way and coach k bobby hurley and that's where the duke hate begins to boil in all of us at michigan country next year here's dean smith again the the 89 team beat dean smith fab five as we all know the timeout hits the timeout hits and then sure enough this is as one would say as fitting a moment as you can have timeout not only on that but the dream of winning a national championship and college basketball at Michigan for quite some time because it wasn't the same after that for a long time until we turned to West Virginia and hired John Beeline, who brought Michigan to not one but two national championship games.

9:37Rich Eisen:In 2013, Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. ran into Louisville, lost that one. And then in 2018, ran into Villanova on the last night of my life that Jalen Brunson made me extremely miserable.

9:55Rich Eisen:Michigan didn't get anywhere there either. spinning their wheels, turned to Juwan Howard, Fab Five. That didn't work out. Two years ago, 8-24. And then on March 23, 2024, Michigan turned to the wunderkind coach of Florida Atlantic University who just took their team to the Final Four and said, Dusty May, the job and floor is yours. And I'll never forget, just a month later, after finishing the NFL draft for NFL Network in Detroit, ran to the airport in my suit like I was running my 40-yard dash trying to make my flight back to Los Angeles. And who do I run into at security but Dusty May? And I'm like, I so want to sit here and talk to you, but I got to run, man.

10:48Rich Eisen:I got to go. But good luck. We're all counting on you.

10:56and I cannot believe where I'm sitting here today for the first time in 37 years you know I talk about stuff about sports about the passage of time 37 years later Dusty May has me feeling the same

11:11Rich Eisen:way I did that night as a junior running to try and be responsible for my Michigan daily duties but feeling the love and the community and the excitement and the pride. The pride. Because I told you guys this back in December when they started taking that BTA on the rest of college basketball. I told you guys that I thought this team's special nature and superpower was its versatility. it's versatility that if they could beat you with the three they'll beat you with the three if you try and prevent them from beating you with the three then they'll beat you with a transition game and if you prevent the transition game then they've got the big guys to pound in the paint and beat you that way they can beat you half court they can beat you full court they can beat you however they need to beat you because they are that deep and that well put together of a team led by a guy who is now the nickname the Dominican LeBron because he is built like LeBron James 6 '9 and damn near 250 Yaxa Lendeborg who Dusty plucked off the campus of UAB.

12:34And sure enough, last night, that versatility that was shown off

12:39Rich Eisen:in the round of 16 and round of 8, Sweet 16, the Elite 8, for Michigan in Chicago, taking on a high-flying, everybody's got to keep running, shooting threes like going out of style. Alabama team beat them. Then two days later have to turn around and take on a Tennessee team that just wants to beat you up. And they beat them both. They beat them both up. Last night, guess who is there? Standing in their way. Yes. UConn making it back again. Danny Hurley, three national championship games in four years, two national championships in a row to start off this run. And sure enough, what did they do last night?

13:26Rich Eisen:They kept it to their pace. They dictated the pace. They dictated the pace. And Yaxa Lendenborg was definitely not himself. and Michigan took care of business in the first half of this game, taking only a four-point lead in the halftime, and it did not look like Michigan's night. It looked like UConn was dictating the action, dictating what they wanted to do. They have some lion-hearted players on that team, Alex Caravan being the first and foremost, Mr. Indiana himself and Braylon Mullins as well. They are good. They are deep and they are well coached. And Michigan had its hands full last night.

14:12Rich Eisen:And in the second half, just kept doing its thing, playing defense. A defensive-minded team showed up last night in UConn, and Michigan matched it and surpassed it, got to the national championship game by averaging over 90 points a game, but cut down the nets because of their defense. The versatility came in handy big time. And part of the reason why I think this is one of the best teams Michigan's ever put on the court or a field or anywhere on the ice in any sport. It is, in fact, the best basketball team Michigan's ever put together and ever put in front of us to represent the institution of higher learning that I love.

15:00Rich Eisen:That's a fact. They cut down the nets. They did it. Dusty May mission accomplished in two years two years I could not be prouder and more happy and he deserves it and so do these kids I do want to before Dusty joins us I do want to address the conversation that Michigan bought this team 10 million dollars in NIL money and they are the first, I believe, national champion. Did you guys see this last night? First national champion to field five transfer students, to start five transfer students. Namari Burnett came from Alabama, but that was a couple years ago. He was a returning player from last year.

15:50Rich Eisen:So was Roddy Gale coming off the bench. So was LJ Kaysen, who they lost to an ACL injury in the middle of the Big Ten season. right those guys came back well cheddar's been around since ronnie cycle he was born that's the sort of type of guy he's been around so you're going to dispute that they bought it or no i'm going to say this um that yes they got the nil money in this day and age of nil money talking like say Kentucky spending 20 million others did spend more than Michigan and Michigan did get players like Morez Johnson to come from Illinois and they got Yaxa Lendeborg to come from UAB and they paid him what he needed to be paid to do that along with a plan and yeah a Dymarok came from westwood just up the road all of these guys did come from other places who cares in this day and age yeah i mean this is what everyone's doing it yeah but what you have to do is get the right guys and get them to buy in get them to buy in and get the kids who were there already to say yeah this may be your last year here, but you're coming off the bench because these new guys are going to start.

17:20Rich Eisen:But guess what? I've got a plan to get you in the game. We're all going to be a collective. We're going to play great defense. We're going to play together. And it's not easy to do that and get them all to come to campus and say, this is your new teammate, and then get them to play like they've played together their entire lives. And get that happening by December. to bta everybody that comes to vegas to try and beat the u of m play that second dusty may soundbite if you don't mind that we were talking about prior to the show if you don't mind and how it's not simple it's just yeah we pay the kids they're gonna come here we're just gonna roll the basketballs out and we're gonna beat everybody up it's not that simple dusty may was talking about the process hit it please i think the most rewarding part is they never changed like this came we weren't very good early in the year the first two exhibitions we beatst john's but they weren'tst john's yet and then we didn't play well and at that point we considered pivoting and and changing our lineup and going a different direction and maybe admitting failure for our vision and because of our staff we we really i remember the day like it was yesterday we're in the conference room and we did a deep dive and and everything that you can come up with to try to predict whether we thought that would it would work and once we left that meeting we were more committed than ever that this is going to work and these are the reasons why now we didn't feel like we were it's like bamboo we didn't feel like the bamboo was just going to shoot to the sky the next week in vegas but it did and then that happens quickly where we're playing at that level and that's typically when it gets more difficult i've been on a sister on staffs when you play like that and that's when it really gets tough because there's more tension there's more of everything coming at your guys and for them not to waver on how they uh i guess continue to give that to me that's that's probably the the hardest part and and most rewarding thing that these guys did okay it's not easy you gotta have the coaches and you gotta have the kids in the locker room who were there before saying uh welcome elliot cadeau from North Carolina.

19:32Let's get you up and running here

19:35Rich Eisen:and win the most outstanding player to cut down the nets. This is what Yaxl said about the welcome committee. Once we transferred in, I know, especially for me, the whole University of Michigan welcomed me with open arms. I've seen many, many Twitter arguments of these guys going back and forth with everybody saying we deserve the spot here and they're going to cherish every moment of us being here. Shout out to Will, Roddy, Namari, LJ, especially those guys. Once we all got together, they were super genuine with us the whole way. They tucked us in under their wing, and they showed us the missing away.

20:08Rich Eisen:They could have easily got butt hurt or something because the new guys were coming in, stealing their minutes, stealing their points, but they didn't care. All they cared about was winning, and look where it led us. And now it's a banner. The 1989 banner is no longer alone. 37 years later, I had much more hair back in my junior year of college. still the same handsome guy inside but i'm a prideful prideful father of three able to celebrate this moment with that man in the middle who accomplished this mission and represents this school my school our school with the class and demeanor and smarts to put it all together and pull it off and he sat on tom iso's bench and said yeah we're winning tonight can't wait to talk about that next with this man let's take a break dusty may getting set to join us right here on this edition of the rich eisen show live next

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23:43Rich Eisen:My radio audience is just rejoined here chatting with Dusty May, the head coach of the University of Michigan Championship Basketball Program, live here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's talk about putting this team together. How does one do that where you're adding pieces while you have to also understand how they would work together? How did you put this team together, If you don't mind walking me through that process. Well, in year one, we knew we would lose Vlad Golden because he was out of eligibility. We never dreamed that Danny Wolf would be a first round draft pick after one year. We thought he would be on the radar.

24:15And so we anticipated having Danny for two years and we lost him. And immediately we went and got Elliot Cadeau. And we just felt like he was kind of that centerpiece that we could sell to recruits that he's going to get you the ball. He loves to pass. He's got the speed and quickness to break down the defense on his own. And so then it was identifying a number of bigs. And we had a big net that we casted for bigs because we had a really great sell with Vlad and Danny having the success they had and also departing. And so we got Elliott and then we got Adai and Merez and we felt really good about our team.

24:55And then Yaxel, knowing that those guys were here, still wanted to come to Michigan after he couldn't get a first round guarantee in the NBA. and so we thought that once Yaxel came that we actually might lose a die in Merez because obviously teams continue to to recruit and and even now with NIL contracts and ref share contracts teams can come in and just sign a guy that's already signed a contract it's happened repeatedly in our league and so for those guys to to take the leap of faith like they did and trust us that we could make it work with three guys that played center on their previous teams um was a either a testament to them or insanity on their part.

25:33Rich Eisen:Well, I imagine you're also dual tracking with the kids you already have to give them a heads up about minute sharing and things like that. Was that what you were doing also with Roddy Gale and LJ and Namari and Will to just use four names of players that were sticking around? Absolutely. And Will reminded me of some texts that he and I exchange right after um we were able to get these guys last year and and i told will that basically the him the job he did in recruiting and the sacrifice he was making um was gonna was gonna bring us a national championship and i'd forgotten that that i had said those things um so for for us to speak it into existence like we did was pretty cool um but yeah that's and then we knew roddy and amari were and lj were incredibly unselfish guys that were all about winning and so we're pretty open and transparent with our current players, what our plans are, who we're bringing in, what we envision.

26:29I know coaches say a lot of times players decide who plays. We tell the guys we have an idea of what it's going to look like. It's penciled in now. Obviously, that can change in the spring, in the summer, and in the fall, but we have a penciled in picture of what it's going to look like. Those guys bought in to giving themselves up to do something great together.

26:51Rich Eisen:Dusty May here on the rich eyes and show how special is yaxel dusty oh he's just scratching the surface ricks he's rich he's so naive he's so uh new to the game i mean it's it's it's special because he has such a a good heart um and and he's open to everyone i mean he for example coach boyton has to go grab him because he'll stay and sign autographs for for an hour for two hours you know typically guys walk out they'll sign a couple and keep it moving he would literally would have stayed in the arena last night and signed 80 ,000 autographs if someone wouldn't have rescued him from that. And he's such a great teammate.

27:28He never wanted to be above the group. He embraced his deficiencies and leaned on his teammates to help him improve.

27:35Rich Eisen:So what do you say sky's the limit? What are you thinking about at the next level for him? What it looks like? I mean, I go to a lot of NBA games. And when I watch these games, every time I leave, I say he's an NBA rotational guy or starter now on a good team. He's smart. He can defend multiple actions. I mean, multiple positions. He can play multiple positions on the other side of the ball, and he's going to do whatever the coach asks him to do. And I think those things are pretty valuable in today's climate. Dusty May here on the Rich Eisen Show. And Mara, I was in Pauley Pavilion the night that you came by in your first year here.

28:14Rich Eisen:I left early, not because you were dismantling UCLA, but the city He was quite frankly burning down at the time, and I had to leave. But Maher didn't look anything like the guy that he looked like this year. How do you work with him? Who works with him? How do you work on all these moves that he now has and the defensive player of the year ability, Dusty? Well, Rich, he had a lot of those moves in his arsenal already. Obviously, Coach Williamson, our staff, he's in charge of player development. He does an amazing job. We always defer to our players and give them credit. They do the heavy lifting.