Dusty May hasn’t been in Ann Arbor for a year, but he’s delivered what he promised. Perhaps more impressive, he’s done it as quickly as he suggested.
On Tuesday night in Los Angeles, the Wolverines finally acquired the statement win to catapult them from KenPom darling to conference contender: a 94-75 trouncing of UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.
The sort of win that leaves fans daydreaming of March but also looking back on the past for context. It took John Beilein a 22-loss season and a year-long teardown to reach his initial signature win over UCLA over a decade ago.
You only have to go back a year to realize how much May has accomplished in a matter of months.
Almost exactly one year ago was the first time I fully accepted that the Juwan Howard era had run its course. The Wolverines had just lost (their ninth game out of 12) to Penn State at the Palestra — with Phil Martelli coaching (for Philly!) — and Dug McDaniel’s suspension was looming.
I’ve run this site through one of the best eras of Michigan basketball so that flight home from Philadelphia was the first time it had ever really dawned on me that the program was foundationally damaged. It wasn’t just that the season was doomed; I had no idea how the following seasons would be any better.
I bring all this up a year later, not to revisit old trauma, but to point out the 180-degree turnaround that May and his staff have pulled off in record time. A program broken at seemingly every level is now healthier than ever.
Dusty May inherited a program with no roster and no NIL. He raised NIL, built a roster, and hired a staff. He got off the plane, walked onto campus, and told reporters he planned to compete in year one at a point when “I’m willing to try” probably would have satisfied most.
Initially, I thought the confidence felt out of character based on the detail-oriented and calculated persona that May had shown in the past. It turns out that maybe he just had a plan.
It’s January 8th, and May’s first team — the one he recruited in just 30 days following that presser — is a legitimate Big Ten contender. They are undefeated in league play at 4-0 with three road wins. They are up to 10th on KenPom, the program’s best mark since it rode Franz Wagner’s coattails into the 2021-22 preseason before plummeting once the games began.
Time will tell where this season ends, but May has done what almost everyone would have deemed impossible. Even in the preseason, after he built his roster, the Wolverines were picked to finish 9th in the 18-team Big Ten.
This isn’t supposed to be how it works. Building a program is supposed to take time. First-year coaches don’t turn eight wins into top-15 overnight. There will inevitably be some bumps and bruises along the way, but May has made an increasingly unserious program serious again.
Michigan basketball fans can look forward to big games and dream of March. A year ago, I didn’t know what it would take to bring that feeling back.
Dusty May Promo!
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