Defend the Block<\/a> podcast with Brian Boesch before the team headed to Lithuania to talk about their respective games and why they decided to stick with Michigan despite the roller coaster of changes.<\/p>\nMcCoy made his initial commitment with the Fab 5 on their live broadcast during the Final Four and described his gratitude for that moment. And when it came to staying committed to Michigan after May\u2019s departure left him in \u201cshock,\u201d it\u2019s been a matter of building and maintaining trust with Boynton and the new staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been really helpful,\u201d McCoy said of Boynton. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m starting to build a lot of trust with him. I hope he\u2019s feeling the same way with me. He\u2019s been helping me stuff like on the court of court. He just has high character. See him in the weight room almost every single day, getting his work in. As long as pushing us on, too. So I think his high character off the court, like, instills trust on the court as well. And I feel like he\u2019s proven he knows what he\u2019s talking about in the space of basketball and I just can\u2019t wait \u2014 I can\u2019t wait to keep building this relationship with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Costello, it was a very similar sentiment after his initial reaction was he doesn\u2019t \u201cwant to go anywhere\u201d and that \u201cthis is the place for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, Dusty played a big part in the reason I committed here, but I feel I really bonded with them and made it like an unbreakable relationship,\u201d Costello said. \u201c(Assistant coach Kyle) Church was my main recruiter, so I got to talk to him a ton. All the other coaches were super welcoming. When I came here on my visit it really felt like home. So that was the main reason I committed. \u2026 The first thing (May) told us was that once he\u2019s gone, we\u2019ll all see how unimportant he was, which actually came straight from his mouth. But now with coach Boynton, with all the other coaches that stayed, all the new coaches we brought in, just watching games last year, we\u2019re playing with a super similar system and not much is going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being different players fundamentally, McCoy and Costello complement each other quite well \u2014 but not in an expected way. McCoy prides himself on his defensive abilities and rebounding, being able to play and guard most positions. The part he feels like he\u2019s worked more on in the offseason is building his offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m really impressed with how my offensive game is developing right now,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cI think this coaching staff is doing an amazing job pulling me in for film and skill work. Just being all around offensively, being able to play one through three. I think versatility is something I really harp on and being here for the past month or two, I feel like I\u2019m becoming, offensively, trying to have no holes in my game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although for a player like McCoy, the offensive game might seem to be the more intuitive portion of the game, what he is looking to improve upon is something Costello has nailed down. Even for a power forward, Costello has had strong shooting abilities since he started playing basketball, with his size allowing him to play as a thinner forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad, the countless rebounds, the countless hours he sacrificed where he would take a work call on his phone while he was rebounding for me rather than being there in person,\u201d Costello said when asked about the impact of his dad on his success.<\/p>\n
For Costello, those reps with his dad have come to his benefit and development. Something he wants to add more to his game is becoming a more efficient and effective rebounder, like McCoy.<\/p>\n
Despite their differences in size and abilities, they complement each other, and that bond has shown throughout the freshman class so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe clicked almost instantly,\u201d Costello said. \u201cI was kind of surprised to see how fast we all clicked, both on the court and off the court. We\u2019re always wanting to get in the gym, push each other to get better. If one guy was going to go to the gym, everyone else was, too, so that\u2019s been great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already well-spoken and mature for his age, McCoy has found himself also taking more of a leadership role early on with the younger players, crediting the system Boynton has that allows him to be that type of leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a leadership role is available for anybody in the program,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m super shy or anything. I feel like I voice my opinion, so of course I want to be a leader. I feel like I have leader blood in me. So day by day, I think I\u2019m taking that step. But instead of only leading by voice, I\u2019m trying to lead by example, winning conditioning drills, going hard in the weight room. So I\u2019m trying to lead by example.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan Basketball has earned the commitments of several McDonald\u2019s All-Americans the past few years. The one true product…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,1161,1162],"class_list":["post-821752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-michigan-mens-basketball","tag-michigan-mens-basketball-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117167212652709126","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}