BOCA RATON (AP) — Dusty May is going to Michigan, returning to his Big Ten roots and leaving Florida Atlantic after six seasons highlighted by a Final Four run that thrust him into the national spotlight a year ago.
Michigan President Santa Ono announced the hiring on Saturday night in a social media post. May and the Wolverines were in the process of finalizing details of what was expected to be a five-year contract, according to a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Michigan had yet to announce the terms of the deal.
“I am thrilled to welcome Dusty May to the University of Michigan as our new head basketball coach,” Ono wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
FAU players were on campus for a team meeting Sunday morning with May and athletic director Brian White.
Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May talks to an official during the first round of the NCAA tournament.
May will replace Juwan Howard, a former Michigan star who was fired after five seasons with the Wolverines. Howard went 82-67 with two NCAA Tournament appearances, but the Wolverines went 8-24 this season — the school’s worst record since 1960-61.
Barely 24 hours after FAU’s season was done, Michigan put its turnaround task in May’s hands.
The speculation about May’s future started long before now — it really has been a constant for more than a year. He was touted as a rising coaching candidate last season after a 20-game winning streak thrust FAU into the national spotlight for the first time. And then the NCAA run to the Final Four, where the Owls were a bounce away from making it to the national championship game against Connecticut, only further validated the sense that May was ready for the biggest of big time.
FAU did what it could last year to keep May, signing him shortly after the Final Four run to a 10-year extension. He earned $1.25 million in base salary this season, plus an additional $25,000 for making the NCAA Tournament. FAU is due a $1 million buyout now that May has decided to leave.
May got questions about his future for the last several weeks, including when FAU lost to Northwestern on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tourney. His stance never wavered: His plan was to listen to those who called, then decide what was best.
And Michigan evidently made him the offer that he couldn’t decline.
“College basketball is very fluid. Just click on Twitter to see,” May said after FAU’s loss on Friday. “No idea what’s next for anybody in our locker room. I love it at FAU. I love coaching these guys, and that’s it.”
May went 126-69 in his six years at Florida Atlantic, finishing with winning records in each of those seasons — and seeing the victories really pile up in the last two years. The Owls went 35-4 last season on their way to the Final Four and finished this season at 25-9.
That’s 60 wins in the last two years; entering Sunday, the only Division I men’s programs with more victories in that span were Houston (64) and defending national champion UConn (63). FAU has the fifth-best record of all Division I men’s teams in that stretch at 60-13, behind only Houston (64-8), Purdue (59-10), UConn (63-11) and Charleston (58-12).
May had that sort of success at a school with a $33 million budget for the entire athletic department. Michigan’s planned athletics budget for this academic year is $215 million.
FAU’s home record over the past two years of 30-1 tied Drake for the best at the Division I men’s level, with all those games being sellouts in Boca Raton — such a hot ticket that students would line up for hours to get into some of those contests, something that the school hadn’t seen before.
Countless “firsts” in FAU basketball history came on May’s watch, such as first NCAA Tournament win, first 25-win season, first AP Top 25 appearance and first Final Four. FAU had exactly one season with 20 wins before May came along; the Owls have three now, after he was able to lure big-time talent to Boca Raton and play in a 3,000-seat arena that doubles as the practice court, a place where the orange paint is chipped off many of the rims and without many of the amenities that top programs can boast.
Put another way: May had more winning seasons at FAU (six) than the school had in its first 25 years of Division I play before he arrived combined (five).
FAU was May’s first stop as a head coach. He was previously an assistant at Florida, Louisiana Tech, UAB, Murray State and Eastern Michigan, started his coaching career as an administrative assistant and video coordinator at USC — and before all that, graduated from Indiana where he was a manager under Bob Knight.
And now he goes back to the Big Ten, only in maize and blue.
By TIM REYNOLDS/Associated Press
Reynolds is the national basketball writer for The Associated Press. He’s based in Miami, has covered the Heat since 2003 and has covered every Winter and Summer Olympics since 2002.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
