Michigan Basketball is at the forefront of analytically-based roster construction, and it’s paying off

The Michigan Wolverines are coming off a historically dominant trip to Las Vegas — winning the Players Era Festival following blowout wins over San Diego State, Auburn and Gonzaga last week.

It’s clear this Michigan team was put together with attention to detail, and the Wolverines appear to be at the forefront of analytically-based roster construction. Dusty May’s program was the first to sign up for Evan Miyakawa’s Front Office Suite, which provides “an NIL value for every single D1 player, responsive to current market trends, along with several other powerful features,” including advanced analytics.

“Analytics played a role, eye test played a role and our gut played a role. All of that plays a role,” May told the media on Monday morning. “We definitely looked at the numbers and at the data. Sometimes you do it just to confirm your own thoughts. We have a full-time analytics guy on staff. It’s been very, very valuable just to either confirm or deny what we saw on film.”

There are tons of factors that go into constructing a roster, as May described, and it’s a delicate balance to know which players will fit best in the program. Michigan uses statistics to help construct a roster that makes sense as a cohesive unit, and analytics are mostly a tool to support what the staff saw from watching film.

The Wolverines’ staff put together a roster that has elite physical tools, including athleticism, size, strength, toughness and versatility. But the players also possess things like experience, a team-first mindset and unselfishness. Combining all those traits with the analytics, you can see why this roster was built, and it’s already paying off.

The construction of this roster was very meticulous and diligent, and it has been on full display as the new acquisitions – Yaxel Lendeborg, Elliot Cadeau, Aday Mara, Morez Johnson Jr. and Trey McKenney – fit in seamlessly alongside the returners. Every player has a clearly-defined role and the team plays with great compatibility, which has resulted in a dominant 7-0 start.

Michigan became the first team in the AP Poll era (since 1948) to beat back to back ranked opponents by 30+ points, completely destroying No. 21 Auburn, 102-72, and No. 12 Gonzaga, 101-61. Factoring in a 94-54 destruction of San Diego State, the Wolverines went 3-0 with an average margin of +36.7 points per game en route to winning the midseason tournament.

“We’re excited to have a week of practice to continue to learn about ourselves and get better as a program,” May said. “We’ve had two practices since we returned from Las Vegas, and (Sunday) was our most spirited practice of the year, so that’s a good sign. Going forward, we have to get lost in the fight and lost in the process of improving, so we’re off to a good start.”

Following the impressive performance in Las Vegas, Michigan jumped to No. 1 in the NET rankings, No. 1 on KenPom and No. 3 in the AP Poll. The Wolverines are also the betting favorites (+750) to win the National Championship, according to FanDuel. There’s a long way to go to truly achieve something special, but there’s no doubt Michigan is a legit national title contender.

With that said, May knows his team has to continue to improve in order to reach their championship goals.

“If we get stagnant, then we’re not going to be in position to do what we want to do, so we just have to get better,” May said. “We have to get better every single day and get even hungrier. There’s one thing that success does — it either makes you fat, happy and complacent, or it lights a fire into you that you want it more. So we’re going to fight the fight.”