Dusty May leading proud Wolverines program: 'Michigan basketball is a huge deal'

He was one of the biggest names in the early college basketball coaching cycle, and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and the Wolverines would not let Dusty May get away before locking up a deal to bring him to Ann Arbor. Securing the 48-year-old May four days ahead of Louisville naming Pat Kelsey its head coach, and before the Eric Musselman-to-USC move sparked John Calipari to leave Kentucky for Arkansas, meant the Wolverines brass could sleep easier at night.

For a Michigan men's basketball program that stands on a proud tradition, having reached the national championship game not once, but twice in the last 12 years, responding to the Juwan Howard era, which concluded with an 8-24 season that saw internal drama and a rough ending, was an immediate goal.

Entering 2025, this program is certainly on the right track, getting off to a 10-3 start, which includes wins over Xavier and Virginia Tech en route to winning the Fort Myers Tip-Off over Thanksgiving. May, who made history with Florida Atlantic in 2023 by guiding the ninth-seeded Owls to the program's first-ever Final Four, has imprinted his style, a framework that began when he was a student manager at Indiana under Bob Knight in the late 1990s. 

Off to a 2-0 start in Big Ten play with victories over then-No. 11 Wisconsin and Iowa, Michigan has put the rest of the Big Ten on notice and is making a statement that the team's No. 9 ranking in the conference preseason poll was far too low. The Wolverines currently rank ninth nationally in the Torvik ratings system, 11th in KenPom, and 17th in the NET. Their three losses – to Wake Forest, Auburn and Oklahoma on neutral courts – came by a combined five points.

So, what's the secret sauce for this Michigan team?

The