Tag: Dusty May

Michigan basketball steals player from Ohio State

They’re gonna take this well in Columbus. #GoBlue

New Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May has been on something of a heater over the past few days. And you never walk away from the recruiting trail when you’re on a heater.

May has managed to secure a four-star 2024 recruit in Justin Pippen, son of Scottie Pippen, as well as three transfers — all since Friday afternoon. And on Monday, he made a move that will certainly earn him the affinity of on-the-fence Wolverines fans.

On Monday, Michigan basketball earned a commitment from guard Roddy Gayle Jr. Why is this significant? Not only is he a playmaker, but he’s transferring to Ann Arbor from Columbus, Ohio as a former Buckeye via the transfer portal.

The scouting report from 247Sports’ Jerry Meyer:

Has a college ready body with good length (long arms) and great strength. Is a powerful athlete who thrives in traffic. Handles contact extremely well and loves to dish out the contact. Shoots the ball well off the catch with an efficient and smooth low release. Also scores with pull up jumpers where he elevates and can also score at the rim. Most notably, he has a niche as a potent post up player. Ball handling is solid and efficient. Has the ability to deliver to the open man. Rebounds his position quite well and can ignite the fast break. Has potential to be a formidable and versatile defender. Overall has a well rounded game that impacts a game in virtually all facets.

With Gayle in the fold, Michigan basketball has gotten four guards and one center via either high school recruiting or the transfer portal.

The guard from Utah was rated a four-star as a recruit but also as a transfer prospect. He’s not the first basketball player in recent memory to change sides in the rivalry, with Andrew Dakich having moved from the maize and blue to scarlet and gray in the John Beilein era.

Could Florida Atlantic’s latest hire make them ‘the next Gonzaga?’

Can former Baylor and Gonzaga assistant John Jakus keep Florida Atlantic among the premier mid-major programs in college basketball?

In March of 1999 the Gonzaga Bulldogs went on a magical run to the Elite Eight as an 11-seed, punctuated by a game winner over Florida which led to the iconic Gus Johnson call: ‘the slipper still fits!’

The next year head coach Dan Monson departed for a job in the Big Ten at Minnesota, and an unknown assistant coach named Mark Few took over the program – and the rest is history.

While the story doesn’t quite line up perfectly, there are a lot of similarities to what is currently happening in Boca Raton with the Owls of Florida Atlantic.

FAU went on a miracle run in the NCAA Tournament in 2023, going all the way to the Final Four under coach Dusty May as a nine seed. One year later, he too departed for greener pastures in the Big Ten – taking the head coaching job at Michigan. He will be replaced by John Jakus, a relatively unknown assistant coach who has a background at Baylor and – you guessed it – Gonzaga.

Will Jakus turn around and lead FAU to 25 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and cement himself as a future Hall of Fame coach? It’s unlikely, simply because of the extreme rarity that is Few and Gonzaga’s story.

However, a program coming off a great two year run, in an improved basketball conference, with an invigorated fanbase, hiring a coach who developed under Few and Scott Drew, and who has professional coaching experience in Europe, is certainly one that is trending in the right direction.

Many programs have at times been given the label of ‘the next Gonzaga’ and none have kept it long term – mostly because their coach departed for a bigger job before the program was able to grab a strong enough foothold to succeed without them.

Loyola Chicago lost Drew Valentine, VCU lost Shaka Smart, George Mason lost Jim Larranaga, Florida Gulf Coast lost Andy Enfield, Oral Roberts lost Paul Mills, the list goes on and on – and in the transfer portal era the ability to retain talent at the mid-major level is harder than ever.

Jakus is a phenomenal basketball mind, and both the Gonzaga and Baylor coaching trees are rife with successful names – like Tommy Lloyd, Jerome Tang, Grant McCasland, Leon Rice, and Mills – but the journey to being Gonzaga in Florida will require Jakus not only to stick around long term, but to continue to fight through college basketball rule changes which heavily favor the Power-6 programs.

Perhaps it’s unfair to toss the Gonzaga label around before Jakus has even coached his first game, but FAU has the infrastructure and current momentum to keep it going in the post-May era, and they are a team well worth keeping on the radar going forward.

Former Michigan basketball head coach praises new hire

He was instrumental in the new hire. #GoBlue

While Michigan’s 2023-24 basketball season might not have lived up to expectations, the program has a new sense of direction after replacing Juwan Howard with former Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May.

The May hire came as a surprise to many as he was originally expected to take the Louisville job, but former Michigan head coach John Beilein was able to sit down with him and swing his decision at the last minute.

“I asked him several questions,” May said. “We just talked basketball and what we thought the best way to win here was.”

Beilein was Michigan’s head coach from 2007 to 2019, leading Michigan to two national title games and nine total tournament appearances. Beilein is currently serving in an off-the-court role for the Detroit Pistons but obviously still has love for Michigan.

So, of course, it was natural for Beilein to give May his public vote of confidence.

May is an exciting hire plain and simple. He spent six seasons at FAU and went 126-69 in that time frame. His FAU tenure concluded with back-to-back March Madness bids and a Final Four run in 2023. Unfortunately for May, FAU was bounced from the dance in the first round this year after getting in as an eighth seed. Importantly, however, May never had a season below .500 at FAU despite the previous seven seasons before his arrival being under the mark.

The guy just finds a way to win. He turned around FAU and made it into a strong mid-major conference contender, so there’s no reason he won’t be a terrific hire at Michigan.

Of course, May will have his work cut out for him when his first season starts later in 2024. The Wolverines have already lost leading scorer Dug McDaniels to the NCAA transfer portal with promising center Tarris Reed entering his name as well. The first task on his plate will, of course, be building a roster… and this is where Michigan fans will need to practice patience. Due to the nature of the transfer portal, May has already lost his two best players and might see more leave before the season starts. It’s a tough task to ask a new head coach to pull together a competent team without strong NIL or any returning talent, so it might be another sad season or two before Michigan is back playing in March Madness.

Why Dusty May picked the Michigan basketball job over Louisville

NO ONE thought he was coming here! Ha! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — To call it a whirlwind is an understatement. Dusty May was the head coach of Florida Atlantic basketball on Friday evening and by Saturday evening, he was the head coach of the storied Michigan Wolverines program, the 18th in school history.

So how did it all happen from his perspective?

Coming off of a Final Four year with FAU, the Owls were an 8-seed facing off against 9-seed Northwestern in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Playing in Brooklyn, FAU lost to the Wildcats in overtime, and from that moment, the whirlwind started in earnest.

He traveled back to Florida and before long heard that Michigan was interested in him filling its vacancy.

“Walking off the floor — wow, a range of emotions,” May said. “It had been such a challenging season and I don’t say that in a negative way. And typically when your season ends, you feel like you’re going to collapse, you’re emotionally fatigued. You’re just ready for the next chapter, which usually is recruiting and retention and planning meetings.

“I think it was the net that night or the next morning, I get a text from my agent Andy. And he said, ‘Michigan would like to meet in person. We have to work out some logistics.’ So we worked out the logistics. It was Saturday, Saturday evening. We got back at 1 or 2 am Friday night, Saturday evening, drove to Fort Lauderdale, and met with Warde, Doug, Chad at Turnkey, and Andy, myself — and had a great conversation. And I probably showed my hand too early because this was the place that I wanted to be.”

It was a huge shock to the college basketball world that May ended up in Ann Arbor because all of the online speculation all day on Saturday was that he was Louisville-bound. Steeped in basketball tradition, the Cardinals appeared set to hire May as their first choice — it was seen as a done deal.

However, Warde Manuel and the University of Michigan athletic department made a strong, late push, even getting former head coach John Beilein involved in the process.

So, why did May turn Louisville down? It’s as simple as Michigan, he felt, is a better fit.

“Louisville is an unbelievable basketball school. But this was the right fit for me, my family, and it just felt right,” May said. “And I’m a big feel guy, I’m a big fit guy. And from day one, this was one that I just thought would match me and allow me and those around me to have the highest level of success doing it the way that we enjoy doing it.”

May landed in metropolitan Detroit on Sunday and wasted no time. He was supposed to go with his family back to his hotel, but he couldn’t wait. He instead asked if he could see the facilities, as the former Eastern Michigan assistant hasn’t been on campus in Ann Arbor since 2006.

“I think we came here while we were going to the hotel. And I said to them, ‘Well, we don’t have a lot of time. But let’s go ahead and go check out the facilities and tour campus,'” May said. “It’s been a while since I was here. And we walked in and we took about eight detours. So I see the practice facility and the weight rooms, football stadium. So the first thing we did was come here and really get a tour of the place and meet all the people that were here.”

Dusty May says the right thing when it comes to Michigan basketball rivalries

He gets it! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The thing that makes college sports better than their professional counterparts is that the rivalries are much more heated and more intense. There’s a lot more pride on the line with college allegiances than that in the pros, so getting a head coach who understands his school’s rivalries is of paramount importance.

New Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May has had quite a few stops ranging from his time as a player to throughout his coaching career, so he’s seen his share. He was a student manager at Indiana under Bobby Knight before getting his coaching start at Eastern Michigan — just seven miles down the road from Ann Arbor in Ypsilanti. He’s coached at Florida under Mike White, so he knows both rivalries as well as this region — both from his time in Bloomington as well as being an Illinois native.

Though he’s had something of a whirlwind — coaching FAU in the NCAA Tournament on Friday before accepting the Michigan job on Saturday — May doesn’t need to acclimatize to who the Wolverines’ rivals are in Ohio State and Michigan State.

WolverinesWire asked him on Tuesday at his introductory press conference what he knows about Michigan’s rivalries and he dropped one line that indicates he’s well aware of how things work up in Ann Arbor.

“I grew up in Big Ten country — you’re well aware of the rivalries,” May said. “And I became really, really close with a few guys that played football at the school down south. And Cris Carter lived in a neighborhood next door he works at FAU now. So I’m very, very familiar with the rivalries.”

The most Michigan thing ever is to not mention Michigan State while acknowledging Ohio State as ‘the school down south.’ Whether that was already in May’s vernacular or he learned that upon taking the job is unclear, but he already seems to have a good first grasp on what the maize and blue are all about in respect to the schools Michigan loathes.

Dusty May vows to make Michigan basketball ‘enjoyable to watch’

Good, because it hasn’t been for a few years. #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Things in Ann Arbor weren’t ever quite the same after the 2020-21 season.

It was Juwan Howard’s third year with the Wolverines and it appeared to be his best. The maize and blue won the Big Ten and appeared to have an inside track to the Final Four as a 1-seed, but were upended in the Elite Eight by UCLA. From there, it all went downhill.

In 2021-22, the Wolverines were a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team and though they had an NCAA Tournament run into the Sweet 16, it was less than expected considering the previous year. The next year, Michigan was relegated to the NIT instead of the big dance, and this year, the maize and blue made neither — and Howard was fired after a program-worst 8-24 season.

Now Michigan has a new head coach in Dusty May, who led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four last year. Knowing what fans in Ann Arbor crave the most, especially considering how much Howard’s teams had second-half collapses, the one thing he vows is that fans will appreciate what the maize and blue are doing on the court.

“As far as style of play, our goal is to be enjoyable to watch,” May said. “We want to win championships, but we also want to put fans in the seats and be easy on the eyes. When you watch us play, you should see teamwork, you should see efficiency on both sides of the basketball. But our identity will be teamwork, passion, and togetherness. The details work themselves out. We’ll figure that out later but watching Michigan basketball will be enjoyable.”

That would be a good first step, not only from a competitive standpoint but also in making the Crisler Center a place to be feared. Unlike Michigan football, the basketball program doesn’t quite fill out its arena if the team struggles, and home attendance has suffered as a result. The hardwood Wolverines will certainly get something of a bump this year strictly by virtue of it being a new era with a coaching change. But if May can make good on his promise, then fans will come for another, more important reason: to see a winning team.

Dusty May explains what Michigan basketball will look like under his command

This is exciting to hear! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan basketball went from one style of play under former coach John Beilein to what was supposed to be a more NBA-style approach under Juwan Howard. The problem with the latter is that if you don’t have a lot of natural shooters, it can be easily disrupted — especially if you’re not good on the defensive side of the court.

Now, the Dusty May era begins in Ann Arbor in earnest and he shared a bit of his vision for his Wolverines. Though he won’t commit to exactly what it will look like given there are currently just three scholarship players on the roster, he knows what he wants it to look like. And it’s awfully enticing to Michigan basketball fans who just endured an 8-24 season.

“If we ever walk the ball up the floor, if we’re not at least jogging or moving at a solid pace, then the guys will hear from me,” May said. “It needs to be free-flowing. They don’t want the defense to ever get set. We shoot probably too many 3s. We finish at the rim, we play modern basketball. We do use analytics, use the metrics, but we try to find the best way for us to play that usually centers around what do your best players do well? And then what do the other guys bring for skill set?

“And then you mold (them), but fast-paced, energetic guys that want to share the ball, playing together, all five guys are connected on both sides of the ball. It’s more like jazz, we’re playing off of each other, reading each other.

“So I can’t say we’re going to shoot a ton of 3s this year, because I haven’t seen a roster yet. But they are worth more so we’ll sure a lot of them.

“And defensively, we try to be a little bit different. We try to be as disruptive as we can with our personnel. And we’ve always taken a lot of pride and trying to play a little bit different than everyone else than the groupthink just so you’re not preparing for us every single day in your own gym. But what it looks like to the detail, I don’t know yet. But I do know what I want it to look like at the end of the day. And it’s fast. There’s a lot of action. Very, very few stoppages. And hopefully, we’re scoring a lot of buckets.”

The reliance on 3s isn’t exactly a new thing but what will be interesting is to see how May uses his rotation, ball screens, and playing quickly to help that along.

What will be new is playing at a faster pace. Under both Beilein and Howard, the offense was more about ball rotation than it was about pushing the ball down the floor. If May can get the conditioning component right along with players who can execute his vision, then the Wolverines could be, as he says, very enjoyable to watch.

WATCH: Michigan basketball officially introduces Dusty May

He’s such a great fit for #Michigan basketball. #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — There were a lot of smiles and a lot of support as Dusty May was introduced officially as the 18th head basketball coach in University of Michigan history.

In somewhat of a whirlwind, May left his former post with the Florida Atlantic Owls in Boca Raton, Florida following their ouster in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, only to be announced as the new Michigan basketball head coach on Saturday night. And on Tuesday, he was introduced in official capacity by Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.

You can watch the entire press conference featuring May’s introduction below.

Gallery: Michigan basketball introduces new head coach Dusty May

Welcome to Ann Arbor, Coach! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Just under five years after the last head coach introduction for the basketball program, and two months after last being in the Junge Family Center (for the introduction of Sherrone Moore as the new Michigan football head coach), Dusty May stood in front of the media and many from the athletic department as the 18th head coach in Michigan basketball history.

It was something of a whirlwind for May, who just under a week ago, was the head coach of the Florida Atlantic Owls, a team that had made the Final Four last year but were ousted from the NCAA Tournament in the first round this year. Michigan moved quickly to hire May, competing directly with a Louisville program that had appeared to be in the pole position. However, on Tuesday, May officially took charge of the Michigan Wolverines.

WolverinesWire was on hand and captured some of the action of May’s introduction to the world as the new head coach of the maize and blue.

Mutual interest reported between former Wisconsin G Connor Essegian and a Big Ten rival

There is mutual interest between former Wisconsin guard Connor Essegian and Michigan, according to a report from 247Sports.

There is mutual interest between former Wisconsin guard Connor Essegian and Michigan, according to a report from 247Sports’ Davis Moseley.

The young guard entered the transfer portal on Sunday after a quiet second season with the Badgers. He averaged 3.2 points and 7.3 minutes per game in 2023-24, down from 11.7 points and 27.4 minutes per game as a freshman in 2022-23.

Related: If Wisconsin decides to move on from Greg Gard, who could it target as its next head coach?

Essegian transferring isn’t entirely surprising. It would have been tough for him to crack Wisconsin’s guard rotation in 2024-25 with Chucky Hepburn, John Blackwell, Max Klesmit and A.J. Storr set to return.

A potential transfer to Michigan would certainly be an interesting twist in Essegian’s relationship with the Wisconsin faithful. He remains a fan favorite even with the decision to transfer, though landing at Michigan could change things.

The Wolverines are working to rebuild their program after firing Juwan Howard following an 8-24 season. Former Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May was recently hired and appears to already be at work in the portal.

For more on Wisconsin’s roster and transfer portal activity, check out Badgers Wire’s ongoing 2024 transfer portal tracker.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.

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