In a Monday morning shocker, ESPN was the first to report that Dusty May is leaving Michigan to become the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. The 49-year-old May led the Wolverines to the 2026 national championship in his second season in Ann Arbor.
May will replace Jason Kidd, who was fired on May 19. Ironically, he becomes the first college coach to leave for the NBA since 2019 when John Beilein left Michigan for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
May worked under Mike White at both Louisiana Tech and Florida before landing his first head-coaching gig at Florida Atlantic in 2018. In his fifth season at FAU, he led the Owls to a 35-4 record and a stunning run to the Final Four.
FAU nearly played for the national title, but it lost a 72-71 decision vs. San Diego St. in the national semifinals on Lamont Butler’s buzzer-beating jumper. May turned down multiple offers from other schools to stay in Boca Raton with most of his roster returning for the 2023-24 campaign.
However, FAU was eliminated in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament in an overtime loss to Northwestern. Two days later, May was announced as the new HC at Michigan.
May led the Wolverines to a 27-10 record and a Sweet 16 appearance in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. They defeated UC San Diego and Texas A&M to advance to advance to the South Region semifinals before losing to Auburn in Atlanta.
Michigan raced out to a 14-0 record last year before losing at home to Wisconsin, but it responded with an 11-game winning streak. After losing 68-63 vs. Duke in Washington D.C., the Wolverines won their next six games until dropping an 80-72 decision vs. Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament finals.
Michigan enjoyed a dominant NCAA Tournament run, winning its first five games by margins of 21, 23, 13, 33 and 18 points. The Wolverines beat UConn 69-63 in the finals to cut the nets down.
May went 64-13 (83.1%) at Michigan and has a 190-82 overall record (69.9%) in eight seasons as a college HC.
Michigan players will now have a 15-day window that begins in five days to explore transfer opportunities. Therefore, Michigan AD Warde Manuel will have to get to work fast on his search for a new HC.
Per 247Sports, Michigan has the nation’s #2 overall recruiting class and the #12 transfer-specific group. There are nine new players, including three four-star transfers. The incoming class of freshmen includes five-star prospect Brandon McCoy Jr., a point guard who is ranked as the country’s #10 overall player and the #2 PG.
The transfers include center Moustapha Thiam (Cincinnati), power forward Jalen Reed (LSU) and power forward J.P. Estrella (Tennessee). The Wolverines have guards Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney returning from last year’s squad. Cadeau was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
If Michigan chooses to promote from within, the most likely option is former Oklahoma St. HC Mike Boynton, who coached the Cowboys to a 119-109 record (52.2%) from 2017-24.
If not, would Billy Donovan consider returning to college? There were reports linking him to the North Carolina job after Hubert Davis was fired in March, but that didn’t happen.
FanDuel has Michigan with 12/1 odds to win the 2027 NCAA Tournament. Those are tied for the third-shortest odds on the board behind only Florida (+600 or 6/1) and Duke (7/1).