Dusty May was exactly what the Big Ten needed
Michigan's coach is off to the NBA, but not before helping put the Big Ten back on top of the college basketball world.
One of the least-talked about under-currents throughout this past men’s college basketball season was the bubbling resentment opposing Big Ten coaches had toward Dusty May.
May took over Michigan two years ago and was given a big budget. He used that budget to poach players from other schools. Other schools then privately fumed.
That’s the game, however. And it’s a game that May played better than anyone.
The pettiness reached the point that Big Ten coaches voted Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg, not May, as the conference’s coach of the year this past season. (May won the media’s COTY award.)
Anyone with a set of eyeballs could tell you how misguided that was. As May held court outside the locker room in the United Center during the Big Ten tournament, one of his assistants walking by shouted to the group of reporters talking to his boss: “You guys got it right.”
Michigan won the national title on April 6. Two months and 16 days later, May is off to the NBA, sources told The Inside Zone, confirming ESPN’s reporting, as the coach looks to resurrect a Dallas Mavericks organization equipped with a franchise player in Cooper Flagg, a top-10 pick in Tuesday’s draft and a front office led by championship decision-makers in Masai Ujiri and Rick Welts.
