Mills: Michigan Is Hungry For A Final Four Berth

It's the JR Sport Reef Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We are down to the Sweet 16.

One big matchup that I'm waiting for right here in Atlanta, Georgia is going to take place on Friday. We got Auburn, a hot pick, and we got Michigan, a surprising pick. Well, right now we got someone we might as well call him Mr. Michigan here with us on the line. This guy won Mr. Basketball in 86. He won a national championship with the Wolverines in 89.

He played with the he played in the NBA for more than a decade knocking down those threes. And now you can catch him on all of Michigan's radio broadcasts. It's my main man, Terry Mills. Terry, how are you? Man, I'm doing well, man. Thanks for having me on, man. Thanks for being patient, man. I know we're trying to get this figured out, but we're off and rolling.

Hey, technology is good when it works and when it rolls. So I appreciate you being here with all of us. Let me ask you this. You've been around and have seen a lot of Michigan basketball over the years. Dusty May comes in in one year, takes this team from 24 losses, has some giant seven footers. And now they're staring at an elite eight. What did he do?

Man, I tell you what, when he came in, I was at the press conference and he just said right away, I want to win right now. I didn't know what that was going to look like because I think once, you know, Juwan was gone, all the players that pretty much we had kind of scattered. They went in different directions. They were gone.

And I didn't know what it was going to actually look like. But I tell you what, it all worked out. Players believed in him. I think Danny Wolfe, his question was, would he be able to play with Vlad? And Dusty said, Vlad can play with anybody.

Vlad can play with anybody. So just to see that and then see that four or five pick and roll started to work, man. I tell you what, it's been exciting to call these games. You cover right now in Michigan basketball. It's a unique setup right now when you have these two seven footers, especially in basketball. A lot of people have moved towards the three. What do you think about that setup that he has right now between Wolfe and Golden? Well, you know what?

I love that set. You know, what happened was when you go through the Big Ten season, people start to figure it out or what's going on, which makes it a little bit more difficult. Now you're trying to disguise it, run it in different different ways. But but I tell you what, I love the fact that we're playing other teams just not used to it and maybe they can't figure it out right away. And that's been special for us, you know, to see us run that against Texas A&M toward the end of the game and just get that figure it out. Man, I tell you what, it's special. Well, Terry, we saw Gail come up and have a big game.

He's had his ups and downs throughout the season. There's always so much attention paid to the big guys. What about the quote unquote smaller guys?

What about the guards? Well, that's that's been the whole case. You know, when Dusty first got here, he said, you know, what's gonna happen? He said, the big guys are gonna get all the credit if we win.

And he said, if we lose, they're gonna probably blame me. So just for those guys to work behind the scenes and, you know, take, I guess, backseat if that's what you want to call it. But, you know, we're a team that not necessarily worried about who's getting these shots or this team getting these shots.

It's all about who's got the hot hand, who can expose their man. And that's what we're going with. And Roddy Gail, man, you're talking about him coming to life, man. He's had his struggles, his ups and downs. But one thing I can say about that young man and this team is that they believed in him, regardless of all the outside noise, they believed in him, I believed in him.

And if you believe in Dusty May, and he tells you this is what this guy is, you better believe that's what he who he's gonna be. When he came in, he was like, Reuben Jones is a special player. He's a defensive player. He said he was a thorn in my side when I was at FAU. And I'm starting to see that now.

I mean, he is about as pesty as anybody from a defensive standpoint. So Roddy Gail, like I told him, he calls himself, well, he don't call himself, I guess they called him double agent. And I'm kind of like, hey, Roddy, hey, let's live off of that. If that's what we just did, we're in the NIL.

Let's make some shirts and call it double agent. And as long as you're putting up these numbers, they should sell pretty good. Hey, we got a Michigan basketball legend joining us. Terry Mills, also a champion 89 with the Wolverines calls the games on the radio right now for Michigan. What should we expect this Friday here in Atlanta? We got people listening all over the country. What can we expect here in Atlanta as they get ready to take on Auburn? Well, I think you can expect admissions don't come to play.

I've seen the lines and I read a lot of things. But look, we haven't been favored since what we lost our last three games in a row. We weren't favored to win a Big Ten Conference. Just kind of the way we kind of wilted coming down the stretch. We were right in here to 10 for the Big Ten regular season.

It didn't work out. Guys believed in one another. Hey, we're going to come to compete.

And, you know, you'd kind of have to think about it. You know, you'd kind of listen to different people, whether it be fan bases or whatever, they can almost consider in this season right now to be a success. I don't know if it's Sweet 16, all of a sudden you're successful or whatever it is. This team is hungry. They can see the finish line right now. And we're not satisfied.

They're not coming in here saying, okay, we're Sweet 16, take it or leave it or we're playing with house money. Now we're coming to win that ballgame. And I think they're gonna be in the fight. Well, Terry, you talk about people not paying attention. I mean, they, the fifth seed, like what was that about? Yeah, well, they kind of, maybe that gave them a nudge.

Maybe they felt like they was disrespected or whatever it is. But for whatever reason, we didn't complain about it. We got on that plane, left Indiana, went to Denver in the altitude. That first game against UC San Diego, we really didn't match up with them and kind of almost felt like it was a setup game, to be honest with you, because I think they were the better team as far as forcing turnovers. And we were that team that was having problems giving turnovers.

So it's kind of more or less a setup. They played with, you know, taller, shorter guys, we got taller guys. So it was really a bad matchup, but it worked out in our favor. We took care of it. I like the way the team responded.

You're talking about two different scouts. You're talking about a team that's shooting threes. And then all of a sudden, you got to worry about a team that's crashing the boards here. And I thought Michigan really locked in on that. Coach said right before they got ready to go out on the scale.

Want to give yourself a chance? We got to be able to rebound with them. And we got to take care of the basketball. And I've heard that speech before all season with coach, you know, whether we played Michigan State, Illinois, Maryland, those type of teams to hit that glass like that. And we weren't responding. I mean, those teams were actually getting 15, 20 offensive rebounds.

I don't know what changed, but the message has got there at the right time. Then all of a sudden we play Texas A&M and we're plus nine on them. So that lets me know that we can do it and only nine turnovers.

So it's in there and we can do it. And whatever our game plan is, stick to that game plan, trust it. Talking about Auburn, a team that definitely hits the glass, they're going to get after it. And we're going to be in the fight because we know we can do it now and know what it's going to take. We're not going to be out here trying to turn the ball over and give ourselves a fighting chance. Michigan basketball legend Terry Mills is here with us. You got some big words for the team as well you should. Given what you've seen so far, would you be surprised if they won a national championship?

I wouldn't be surprised at all. I mean, we have to make up and when we're together and we're locked in, I see us playing just as well as anybody. When we get down earlier in the season, you can see shoulders drop, head drop.

I don't see that now. You know, I told my broadcast partner Brian Bush, we want to tie him up. We were down 10. I said, hang on because we're going to win this game. He was like, what do you think so? I said, yeah, we're going to win this ballgame.

He said, why do you think that? I said, well, we're sitting on the floor. I can look in them guys eyes. And them guys eyes saying we're going to come back. They ain't saying, oh, here we go again. So getting down, hey, you better look out because this team is going to be ready. They're going to fight to the end.

So whether down 10 or whatever it may be, they're coming. Well, Terry, let me ask you this. You won a national championship in an 89. Glenn Rice knocking down all the shots, making shooting look easy.

You made shooting look easy as a big man throughout the course of your career. What's your favorite memory? What stands out to you about that 89 run?

Just, just to run the way we went about it. You know, kind of similar things went on, I guess, with this team in a certain way. We lost the Illinois on senior night, which was parent night. We basically got handled by, by Illinois and they handled us twice that year. So it kind of, and then you look back at this team on parent night against Maryland. Maryland handles us at home.

So it's kind of similarities in that part. We were considered to be an 89. I think we're what 24 and seven or something like that. And we're considered to be underachievers.

You know, I don't know what the guidelines is these days. I thought if you went 20 games, that's a successful season, but obviously not for us. But the way we came together, you know, you know, you lose your coach and you know, you got to figure it out, you know, and we all came together and say, Hey, we're going to prove them wrong. We're going to prove everybody wrong.

We're going to take our sacrifices that we have to take and we don't get it done. And it was just a magical run. And for me to be on the other side of it right now and watch these guys make that run. I want to know what a video cameras and stuff.

We didn't have all that type of stuff. I'm like, where's the camcorders that guys, these are moments you're supposed to be taking pictures and enjoying it. And for them to, you know, run over to our fan base after we won that game against Texas A&M.

I just wish they could have just ran on up in the stands, man. Just just go enjoy this man. Because I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying calling the game, but they don't realize the impact that they'll have later on in life. It'll be 10, 20 years down the line because us winning the national championship, it still rings right now.

And people walk up to me every single day. Tell me where they've been. Thank you for winning that championship. And I said, after we won that conference championship this year, I said, you know what? Championships bring brotherhood.

Y'all got a brotherhood right now. So you're going to be able to come back 10 years from now and say, that's what we did. We won that championship. Remember when we made that run three games in a row? Then they flew us off to Denver in altitude. We had to deal with that. Now we're in the Sweet 16.

They're going to have a story to tell when it's all said and done. All things Michigan basketball. Legendary Mills is here with us.

The JR Sportbree show on the Infinity Sports Network. As we start to wrap things up, you talk about the future. We've seen so many changes in college basketball from when you played to what we see now in NIL and transfer portal. What do you think this game, this is going to look like in a few years from now? It's the wild, wild west. Yeah, it's the wild, wild west.

I'm trying to figure it out myself, even with the transfer portal part of it. I kind of wish that portal wouldn't have came out until after the final game is over with. Because you actually see teams losing players that's still in the tournament. You know, like we just lost Justin Pippen. It's not bad timing on his part.

He has to do what he has to do. But it's bad timing the fact that we're in there and the NCAA is allowing that to happen. So it could be a distraction.

It could not be a distraction. But I think this team is just focused on what they have to do. We've had some injuries and it's kind of that next man up mentality. But I don't know what this team is going to look like next year or what different teams are going to be like in the future. Because it's got unlimited situations going on right now.

It's like I'm just trying to figure it out. And I'm watching that portal go up like the stock market. Man, I'm watching it. Man, it was 200 yesterday. It's 500 today.

You know, I don't know what the number is today, but it was 500 yesterday. But man, it's something else, man. But, you know, you wish these kids the best. But you just never know, man. They don't ever tell a story on the other side of it. You know, you might have 1,200 kids jump out there, think they're going to get paid, get some money. All of a sudden you backed out of that scholarship. They don't ever say that all of them didn't get another scholarship. You know, now they're all trying to figure it out because they jumped out there in the portal and it didn't happen for you. You don't hear the bad part of it. You just hear the good part of it. Trust me, everybody's not going to get paid.

1,200 players to get in the portal like last year, I guarantee 1,200 of them didn't get paid. Hey Terry, man, one thing you got paid at doing by the time you got to the league, you were knocking down them shots. Big man knocking down them threes. We saw you and Big Smooth.

You got to tell me, who was the best big man shooter that you have seen with your own eyes? I would probably have to go with Luca right now. I think Luca really strokes you right now. But, you know, I always say I grew up in a bad time, you know, the way these guys are getting paid right now. And there are people that remind me that all the time. You tell me I walk around like, man, you're just born at the wrong time.

You're born at the wrong time. So, you know, I love watching the game and I love seeing people develop. And the NBA game is going to a whole different level. It's different.

I'm a college basketball guy right now because I like the strategies and things that go along with that. But the NBA is like everybody right now. They can just shoot three, whether you can't shoot it or not. It's like, go ahead and throw it on up here. We'll see.

Let's see if I think it has slowed down. I think a couple of folk realize they are not Steph Curry. So we'll see. Right, right, right. He's the one that set the tone for it. And he's got everybody thinking you can shoot from half court. But he's an amazing player. Yeah.

Everybody ain't him and everybody ain't you. And that was great. Sorry.

How about that? I appreciate the time. Tell everybody where they can watch you, listen, keep up with you, all that good stuff, Terry. Yeah, we're on 950 a.m. right here locally. I don't know what our channel is on Sirius, but we're on 950 a.m. And WWJ, that's us, man. And I can't wait to get that call, man. We're leaving out tomorrow. We'll be in Hotlanta. We'll enjoy it. But hey, this is a business trip. You know, I always say that. Don't worry about the weather.

It's going to be 70. Maybe we can put our shorts on. But hey, the ultimate goal is this is a business trip. We're not going fishing and all of that type of stuff. We're not going to the water park. We're coming there on business. Hey, Terry, you know, there's a there's a lot of other things here in Atlanta, too. So, yeah, I do know that business trip. You got it.