The Dusty Difference: How Dusty May Reignited the Michigan Basketball Program
In the era of NIL, there are two types of coaches: those who embrace it, and those who are falling behind. When Michigan basketball ended its campaign last year, they finished with more losses than any other season in their history. Their record of 8-24 didn’t earn them a spot in March Madness, the NIT, or any other national postseason tournament. It wasn’t the way Juwan Howard wanted to end his tenure as head coach for his alma mater, but the decision to part ways seemed inevitable. The landscape of college sports was changing, and therefore so were the roles of a head college basketball coach. These new responsibilities didn’t align with the reasons Howard was hired in 2019, so the split was relatively mutual.
Beginning just three years ago, court rulings forced the NCAA to allow student-athletes to get paid for their Name, Image, or Likeness, or NIL as it is more commonly known. It was immediately apparent that the implications of this decision would be massive for student-athletes, but the ways it would affect coaching were not so obvious. In the entire history of college sports, coaches would advertise their school’s campus, academics, and athletic program in order to attract recruits. Now top coaches spend as much time attracting donors as athletes themselves. Money has become the primary hook in the new age of college athletics. Not all coaches love this new system, but it’s unlikely to change for the foreseeable future.
After the 2023 season, Michigan’s athletic department knew they needed to make changes to the basketball program. In the head coaching search, they wanted to find someone who could both lead their team on the court and in the complex dynamics of NIL. After conducting several interviews, they found their answer in Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May, and it’s worked better than Wolverine fans ever could have hoped. It took May just nine games into the 2024 season to bring Michigan back into the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2022. Dusty’s playstyle revolves around an extremely fast tempo, deep outlet passes in transition, and relentless rebounding. He believes that it’s always the more aggressive team that will have the advantage down the stretch of games. As some conference games have already occurred, Michigan sits atop the standings with a 2-0 record in the Big Ten.
However, it’s not just how May handles his preparation and in-game decision-making that has brought the Michigan basketball program back into the spotlight. Dusty has been extremely proactive when it comes to NIL deals. He has said that working with NIL collectives comes on an almost daily basis. These measures likely played a role in Michigan landing several transfers this past offseason, including Danny Wolf from Yale, Roddy Gayle Jr from Ohio State, and several players from May’s past home of Florida Atlantic - all of which get significant playing time.
It’s early in the season, and basketball experts try to avoid making too many predictions for how teams will pan out. But it is clear that Dusty May has given Michigan basketball a competitive advantage with both his coaching and ability to entice donors. Michigan will take on undefeated Oklahoma next on December 18th for the Jumpman Invitational. It will be Wednesday’s only ranked versus ranked game on the schedule. Fans should expect a close one as they tune in on ESPN 2, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
