Almost exactly one year to the day from the night that Dusty May agreed to coach Michigan, he delivered an unforgettable victory.
In just a year, May accomplished the unthinkable. He took the Wolverines from worst in the Big Ten to the Sweet 16. Saturday’s comeback over Texas A&M was a program win and a culture win—something that isn’t supposed to be possible in the transfer portal era or in this short of time.
Program wins are supposed to take years to achieve —callouses, highs, lows, and blood, sweat, and tears. But that’s exactly what this win was. It wasn’t X’s and O’s or schemes and scouting, it was a product of the team and culture that May and his staff built in just a matter of weeks.
It was proof that trust, guidance, and a little luck can lead to something special, even in the age of the transfer portal.
“We didn’t know what this season would look like, but we knew we had some special guys with big hearts and big brains,” May said afterward on the podium. “So it’s a choppy part of the year, but this group stayed together and did it together the entire way. What a cohesive group, what a resilient group. Like I said yesterday, I’m just proud to be on their team.”
Something is fitting about two of the Wolverines who almost got lost along the way this season stepping up to deliver the most significant moments on the biggest stage.
Not many outside of the Michigan locker room kept their faith in Roddy Gayle Jr., certainly not the hordes of “fans” on social media who nominated him as the team’s scapegoat, but he delivered a legacy game: 26 points on 7-of-14 (4-6 3-point) shooting and walked off the court to his teammates chanting his name.
Freshman guard LJ Cason fell out of the rotation in January. Plenty of freshmen would have shut things down and let their eyes wander. Instead, he played his way back into it in the rotation, delivering a game-changing 11 points off the bench.
This roster isn’t perfect. Future ones will have different players and play different styles, but this team’s belief in each other and themselves is May’s program now. It’s Michigan’s program, a foundation that felt so far away 365 days ago.
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