How Dusty May became Michigan basketball's ultimate connector
INDIANAPOLIS − Will Tschetter is a big-time fisherman, but this time he needed Dusty May's help.
Four Michigan basketball players − Tschetter, Oscar Goodman, Charlie May and Harrison Hochberg − had all agreed to do a polar plunge in the depths of the winter cold in January, and the U-M coach agreed to let them use his land. Behind his house is a pond, completely frozen over, so Tschetter used an ice auger to carve out a hole large enough for the 6-foot-8 hoopers to jump in.
But Dusty May didn't just let them use the waterhole – he jumped in with them, before everybody went sprinting back to the coach's hot tub in the back of his house.
It was just one of the "random little things" that make May unique for a college basketball coach.
What else?
"I think his connections," Goodman said.
It's fitting, really, that Goodman used the word connections. May preaches about the importance of "connectors" on any basketball team − guys like Tschetter and Roddy Gayle Jr., who don't necessarily pop on the stat sheet but jump off the screen when watching film.
May has always been a connector. After a stint as a student manager at Indiana, he got his feet wet in the college hoops coaching world as a video analyst at USC under Henry Bibby, after IU assistant coaches Mike Davis and John Trealor told Bibby, "We've got a guy for you," according to May.
He was just looking for a place to help – a place to be a glue guy, ready to show he was happy to do the grunt work.
Since those days, May has never lost his work ethic or love of the sport. He listens to hoops podcasts on double-speed for maximum efficiency. He has contacts in the NBA, picks the mind of college coaches and constantly seeks out ways to get better.
Given all that, and the arc of his career, from IU to USC to EMU to Florida to Michigan, it shouldn't be a surprise he has 1-seed Michigan (35-3) near the pinnacle of the sport, ready to play fellow 1-seed Arizona (36-2) in the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, April 4 (8:49 p.m., TBS).
What is surprising is how he has time to do it all.
Point guard and 'The sons'
May's son Charlie (one of the polar-plungers) is a player for the Wolverines, while another son, Eli, is a U-M student manager. (The eldest May son, Jack, played for Florida from 2020-24.)
But he has a group of four others he refers to as "the sons" on the team: Winters Grady, Ricky Liburd, Harrison Hochberg and Malick Kordel.
That was a quartet buried down the depth chart early this season, some redshirting by choice, others by circumstance. But May, never the shining star during his rise through the ranks, doesn't overlook anybody on his roster.
So, after they served as a scout team in practices, simulating what the Wolverines were set to see in an upcoming opponent, May gave them their turn to play in Michigan's offense, with one twist – he would be the point guard. But still the coach – while on the court, he's explaining what he looks for in movement and flow.
"Nimari [Burnett] and I would sit there after practice ... and it was like the best part of our day," Tschetter said. "Just to watch him spearhead [the offense], celebrating every pass and throwing [alley]-oops to Malick and things like that.
"Just running them through general actions, teaching guys how to play our style of offense. I just feel like that's him. He just loves, loves, loves anything basketball and for him to go out and do that with our guys, it was the highlight of our day going to watch that."
Liburd has yet to appear in a game for the Wolverines in 2025-26. He jokes with teammates while media is in the locker room in recent weeks, but he's hardly the most outgoing player. Yet when talking about May, why Liburd OK'd a redshirt a year ago and May's interest in Liburd's development, his face lit up as he described May as a "vocal" leader on the court.
"I always knew his development was great," Liburd said. "But actually having him at point guard, playing five-on-five with the managers, that actually simulates the game and what we're doing, it really helps me out a lot."
'Took me under his wing'
May, who stays late after practice with the players at the end of the bench rotation, was also at the forefront of recruiting the nation's top transfer player in the offseason.
Yaxel Lendeborg had a major decision to make, choosing between the NBA and another year of college. While other coaches tried to woo him by "pretty much just waving money around in my face," May took a different approach.
"He was telling me the truth, he wasn't telling me what I wanted to hear," Lendeborg said. "He said the team is going to be good regardless, if I join it was going to be great. That was really refreshing to hear."
But what sold Lendeborg was what happened at the NBA combine in Chicago. May attended largely to watch and support his departing bigs, Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin. But even after their workouts were finished, Lendeborg remembers, May remained in that gym until he was done.
It wasn't for show or optics − May wanted to know exactly the type of player he might be getting and was willing to put in the time, even with the distinct possibility of losing Lendeborg to the 2025 NBA Draft before he ever wore maize and blue.
"It was great to see him care that much for a player that isn't even his yet," Lendeborg said. "And man, us not talking about money not one time, it made everything feel way more genuine."
The bond only grew when Lendeborg arrived in Ann Arbor.
Even with an abbreviated high school career, the 6-foot-9 forward was no stranger to basketball, having spent three years at a JuCo in Arizona (which he left as the NJCAA's all-time leading rebounder), and two at UAB (where he established his star bona fides in leading the Blazers to the 2025 NCAA Tournament).
But his hoops education hit the next level with May, who taught him how to train, practice and prepare like a pro.
They spent hours watching film, May showing him specifics of facilitating an offense and working within the flow. He has let Lendeborg be his authentic self – one that's admittedly goofy – while gently prodding him to grow as a player and practice with purpose.
Most importantly, he listened to Lendeborg during times he was in his own head, shepherding him into the player he is today: Perhaps this year's tournament's most dominant player.
"He took me in under his wing, man," Lendeborg said. "Just translating my whole game into a different way into more NBA style and type of basketball. Especially, with all the bad stuff going on with me and my mental, he's been that guy pretty much there for me, pretty much switching from coach mode to dad mode, which has been great."
'The consistency'
Mike Boynton Jr. has been a head coach in the Big 12; his time at Oklahoma State saw him teaching 2021 No. 1 overall pick in Cade Cunningham. He knows the demands of a coach at the highest level.
But all season, he has watched May mold these Wolverines into their current form, featuring selflessness, focus, confidence. May has done it, Boynton observed, while not playing favorites, or kowtowing to an alpha. Instead, May has maitained an underlying steadiness to keep his team at ease, dating back all the way to the summer.
"I think it's just the consistency everyday," Boynton said. "He's the same every day. He has tremendous vision, but I think it's also the next step − and this is where I struggled − but the implementation, the message to everybody in the program, from your best players ... guys who don't play as much all the way to the student managers.
"His communication and consistency with everybody is what sets him apart."
Michigan already has more wins this seaso than in any other in program history. But the Wolverines are two games away from their ultimate goal: a national championship. As U-M cut down the United Center nets in Chicago last week as a reward for its Final Four berth, May stood with his back against the stanchion, watching his Wolverines take turns climbing the ladder.
The celebration that day, he said, revealed what he relished most: Eeverybody, including families and support staff, getting to share the joy after the journey.
It's the natural result of how he sets the tone and how his example pushes others to flourish in their roles.
"He's got tremendous basketball acumen, his work ethic is second to none," Boynton said. "But his ability to get people to be really good in their job, allow them to, empower them to be really good, from players to coaches, is what I think makes him the best."
Dusty − the true connector.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Dusty May became Michigan basketball's ultimate connector
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