Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May, who cut his teeth in basketball coaching as a team manager for Indiana under Bob Knight in the 1990s, is going back to the Big Ten. May is now a Michigan man.
A little more 24 hours after his eighth-seeded FAU team was bounced in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament by Northwestern, May on Saturday agreed to a five-year contract to be the next coach of the Michigan Wolverines. School president Santa Ono announced the move shortly after CBS Sports reported May’s decision.
May, 47, led FAU to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances the last two seasons and to 60 total wins in that span, including a run to the Final Four in 2023 as a No. 9 seed. He leaves FAU after six years where he had six winning seasons after inheriting a program that in the seven seasons prior to his arrival never finished above .500.
May will succeed coach Juwan Howard, who was fired from his post earlier this month following an 8-24 season. Howard was 87-72 in five seasons but just 24-40 over his final two years in Ann Arbor. Michigan finished the season last in the Big Ten race at 3-17, the program’s first last-place finish in nearly six decades.
Given May’s profile as one of the brightest rising coaches in the sport, he became the top target for a number of schools. Michigan swooped in to snag May amid what was a heated race of schools hoping to land him, with Louisville and Vanderbilt also potential destinations. Vanderbilt was seriously considered, per a source, but Louisville was ultimately the biggest rival with Michigan. Why did U-M win out? Sources told CBS Sports that May was enticed because it wasn’t as pressurized of an environment as Louisville. Its place in the Big Ten — and the conference’s financial strength as it embarks on a billion-dollar media rights deal in an 18-team landscape starting later this year — was also a factor.
While it was presumed for days by many in college basketball that May would opt in at Louisville, the reality is that May was uncertain of his choice as late as early Saturday afternoon. According to a source, May waited until Saturday evening to make his decision, ultimately saying yes to Michigan after he received enough affirmation that his values in coaching, program-building and NIL resources were all in line with Michigan’s new strategies in the post-Howard era.
May went 126-69 in six seasons at FAU and helped instill a culture of winning to a place with almost no history of success in men’s basketball. The Owls were a hyped team in 2023-24 after making the Final Four — earning a top-10 preseason ranking — but ultimately fell short of expectations after earning a No. 8 seed and losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Northwestern 77-65 in overtime on Friday. FAU finished 25-9 this season, its first in the American Athletic Conference.
