Michigan fans might have just felt the ground beneath their feet shift a bit as breaking news just hit in Ann Arbor. Months after winning a National Championship with the Wolverines, head coach Dusty May is now leaving Michigan and heading to the NBA as the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, as reported by Pete Thamel, Adam Schefter, and multiple sports insiders.
May spent just two seasons at Michigan, winning the first basketball title for the Wolverines since 1989 with an entire starting lineup made up of Transfer Portal players. Now, May, who just two years ago was coaching the FAU Owls, will make his way to the big leagues of the NBA.
NEWS: Michigan coach Dusty May is finalizing a deal to take the Dallas Mavericks head coaching job, sources tell @PeteThamel, @shams and me. May led Michigan basketball to the national title in April. The allure of coaching Cooper Flagg as a linchpin piece helped draw him. pic.twitter.com/OfHGnRvY6o
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 22, 2026
Sources say that the allure of coaching Cooper Flagg, who played for Duke just a season ago, helped land him in Dallas. The Mavericks were not the only NBA team looking at May as a possible replacement for their franchise, as multiple NBA teams took interest in the National Championship-winning coach.
Michigan basketball could go from best to worst with Dusty May news
Michigan will now be on the hunt for a new head coach, and it could not come at a worse time, as the coaching market is nearly barren, leaving the Wolverines in a tough spot. Not only does May's exit affect who will be the next head coach, but Michigan players now have a 15-day transfer portal window that will open five days after a new coach is announced.
May lost his entire frontcourt to the NBA Draft, but players like Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney chose to stick around for another season with May in hopes of winning another title together. May also brought in three top transfers from the class with J.P. Estrella, Moustapha Thiam, and Jalen Reed. All three players could choose to stay or enter the portal again, giving other teams another chance at landing their commitments.
Not only do transfer portal players have a choice to stay or go, but recruits who have already committed could choose to test the waters with other programs as well. So, with May's exit, Michigan now goes from potentially winning another title in back-to-back seasons to potentially losing its entire roster.
The good things for Michigan with May leaving now are that rosters for a lot of teams are full already, or don't have the money to pay elite players like Caduea, Estrella, and Thiam. So, these players could be stuck in Ann Arbor with no place to go and now no head coach as of right now.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel will now have his work cut out for him in the middle of the summer, scrambling to find a new head coach. After the Sherrone Moore scandal, May was the biggest trophy for Manuel, and now that trophy is off to the NBA, and he needs to find a replacement that fans can live with.
Times are suddenly rough in Ann Arbor as the future of Michigan basketball suddenly feels very unknown.
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