About a week removed from the Michigan Wolverines winning a national championship, Dusty May agreed to a deal to coach the Wolverines well into the future.
While that, hopefully, guarantees an extended period of winning and success for Michigan basketball, one thing is for certain: The Michigan athletic director and alumni believe they have found the guy who will make Wolverine basketball a force in the Big Ten for years to come.
Future is bright for Michigan basketball
Alas! The future is bright.
For a majority of the year, the nation had its eyes on Arizona or Duke or anyone not named Michigan. The college basketball world falls in love with star players and glitzy coaches, not teams that embody the word, team. And with the transfer portal the way that it is, the window for winning gets smaller and smaller everywhere. So, the growing sense is to piece a team together and hope for the best. While the Wolverines also benefited from the portal, it never appeared that it was just a bunch of players trying to get to the finish line. It felt like a group of players who genuinely wanted to build a legacy for Michigan basketball. And build a legacy, they did.
What Dusty May proved is that while a team can have star players and exceptional talent, what is most important is that a team can come together and have the same mindset throughout the whole season. The Wolverines never lacked for defensive intensity or cohesiveness. Even in their losses, they could have been one play away from winning. This team just played basketball, to the best of their ability, no matter the environment.
In the national championship against UCONN, facing some adversity early, the Michigan Wolverines never looked out of sorts or like the moment was too big. And while the coaching styles are drastically different in a lot of ways, the biggest difference between Dusty May and Dan Hurley was that one coach seemed measured and within control. As the leader of a basketball team, May just exemplified a coach who knew what the moment held. As if, together you can win plenty, and separately, you really don't win anything.
The Michigan Wolverines may not have been the glitziest team or the loudest, but at the end of the college basketball season, they were the best.
Signing Dusty May to a more extended deal was a wise choice for many reasons, but the most important reason is to guarantee that Michigan basketball gets a seat at the table with the rest of the blue bloods for years to come.
Even if they have to claw and scrape to keep their seat.