Dusty May faces new challenges after title win
· Yahoo Sports
When Dusty May was hired to succeed Juwan Howard as the Michigan basketball head coach, he promised that Crisler Center would be full and that the team would contend and be exciting. Coming off an 8-24 campaign in 2022-23, it felt like a bold promise that would take time to deliver upon, even with May's confidence at the time. However, he didn't just deliver, he succeeded where no Wolverines basketball coach had other than Steve Fisher in an interim status.
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May's maize and blue won the national championship this past season, defying self-made lofty expectations. And while that was his own expectation, it changed things for him in ways he didn't think of, he told Brad Galli.
"It certainly changed the day-to-day even more than I ever dreamed or anticipated," May said. "We're still adjusting to the demands outside of coaching on our time, our family's time. But they're all good problems. These are first-world problems. But at some point, we'll have to really circle the wagons and get back to coaching our team."
The Wolverines lose a lot of talent from that national championship team and will be working with four new starters this upcoming season, with Elliot Cadeau being the sole holdover. Sixth man Trey McKenney will now enter the starting lineup, and there are three transfers -- JP Estrella, Moustapha Thiam, and Jalen Reed -- who will supplement with Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, Morez Johnson Jr., and Nimari Burnett all departing.
May feels like this upcoming team will have what it takes to contend, but it's going to take some work -- even with other talented players such as former five-star Brandon McCoy Jr. -- joining the fold.
"Well, the challenge of putting the team together and also figuring out what our weaknesses are going to be and what are going to be the issues, so we can address them in the summer when things aren't quite as stressful as they are during the year," May said. "We're going to be a lot younger than we were last year, so our teaching is going to be different. We're going to have to adjust our practice schedule and our weightlifting input, but it's exciting to have a different type of challenge.
"We have a lot of talent coming in. We have guys who are very capable of doing what the last group did as individuals, and so now it'll just be a matter of them doing it and doing it as well together."
Even with the change of being the defending national champion, it doesn't change how May approaches the game.
The way he looks at it, everything has to remain the same, in that it requires attention to detail, embracing the minutiae of the quotidian, and going to work. These Wolverines cannot rest on their laurels if they want what they want, and May says that the goals remain the same, even with the accomplishments of the 2025-26 campaign.
"I get frustrated that you hear so many people talk about being process-oriented, and then you watch them, how they move, and you listen to what they say, and very little of it is process-oriented," May said. "And we take a lot of pride in that of doing good work, of getting to the next thing. And so I think just naturally being programmed to always be looking forward and not really ever look into the rear view, except for what you can learn from the past.
"And so it's not necessarily always a great attribute, but it's how we do what we do. It's just it's always looking towards the next thing and preparing for that. And obviously, when you're in that moment, the next big thing would be the Final Four in Detroit."
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Dusty May eyes repeat after Michigan title win