Three reasons to like Michigan’s hire of Dusty May, three looming questions
In the wake of Michigan’s latest coaching hire, we break down three reasons to like the hire, as well as three looming questions about what’s next.
Saturday night, the Michigan athletic department found its next men’s basketball coach, and it was quite a news drop. After days of national media reporting that Louisville was favored to land Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May, the Wolverines were indeed the ones that closed the deal, snagging the 47-year-old.
May, who led the Owls to the 2023 Final Four and has never had a losing season in his six seasons as a head coach, was widely seen as one of the hottest names in this year’s coaching carousel, if not the biggest name. His signing to Michigan ends an eight-day coaching search that Michigan conducted in the wake of firing Juwan Howard after five seasons.
So what should be made of Michigan’s hire, as well as May’s fit with the Wolverines? Below, we begin to discuss that, breaking down three reasons to like the hire, as well as three looming questions about what’s next.
Michigan got its man (and other teams’ man)
There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to college basketball coaching hires. Seemingly great fits can turn out to be flops, while hires panned by fans and media could end up resurrecting a program. Ultimately, no one truly knows how a coach will do until they start coaching games.
But when it comes to Dusty May, this much was known: He was this year’s “it” coaching name, and Michigan won his services.
As Saturday afternoon turned into Saturday evening, almost all expectations were that May was headed to Louisville. After his strong run at Florida Atlantic, May had drawn heavy interest from Ohio State, Louisville, West Virginia and possibly even other programs. Had he wanted to wait it out, he likely could have fielded interest from other programs who may make coaching changes this offseason.
At age 47 and fresh off leading Florida Atlantic to a 60-13 record the last two seasons, including a Final Four, May checks a high number of boxes for Power-Five programs. He turned a dormant FAU program — one who had endured seven straight losing seasons, had never finished higher than 180th in KenPom’s ratings and had only one NCAA Tournament in its history — into one that enjoyed six straight winning seasons, snapped a 20-year NCAA Tournament drought and did so as a single-digit seed twice.
May’s coaching profile isn’t without questions, but sources indicated to 247Sports throughout the process that he was Michigan’s top target in this coaching search. The Wolverines vetted more than a half-dozen other candidates, but May remained at the top of Michigan’s list, and rewarded the maize and blue by choosing the Wolverines over Louisville.
There are a number of potential reasons for that, but it doesn’t really matter right now. Michigan got the hottest name in the coaching carousel, the coach it wanted most from the beginning, and can feel good that it “won” his services by beating out other programs.
