Dusty May saves faltering Michigan program and returns Wolverines to prominence with Sweet 16 berth

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Basketball fans around the country are learning what those in Michigan and Florida already know.

Dusty May is a good basketball coach.

A year ago, the Wolverines fired Juwan Howard after going 8-24 — the most losses in school history — and finishing last in the Big Ten at 3-17. Not only were they 14 games behind conference-champion Purdue, they were four games behind 12th place Maryland and Rutgers.

Somehow, a new coach surrounded by new players has created one of the most surprising one-year turnarounds in college basketball history. Michigan went 14-6 in Big Ten play before winning the conference tournament and advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.

“I think we have a group of competitors,” May said on his weekly radio show. “I heard this years ago — and I don’t know where I heard it from or where I read it — but competitors figure out a way to win because they want to win.

“Sometimes, that’s early in the season, and sometimes, you don’t really have that until the very end, and then you just catch fire and it just keeps growing and growing and growing — because it didn’t happen too early, but it happened at just the right time.”

May came from Florida Atlantic, where he had led the Owls to the 2022 Final Four, and experts figured he would face a lengthy rebuilding process. None of his starters began their careers in Ann Arbor, and he had an unbalanced lineup that featured a pair of seven-footers in Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf.

Not everything has gone perfectly, but May thinks that has also shown the way his team has come together.

“To be honest, the things that really stand out are the guys that haven’t had the season that they’d hoped for or we expected — to see how much their teammates continued to believe in them,” he said. “In this climate when you don’t have deep, personal connections and years of equity and 100s of hours of work like teams used to back in the day, it would be easy to almost root for guys to not do well because you could benefit from it.”

Along the way, May has turned Goldin and Wolf into a unique asset. Offensively, Wolf serves as a playmaker — he's second on the team in assists with 131 — while Goldin is more of a traditional low-post big guy. They help the Wolverines average 11.1 offensive rebounds per game, and have combined for 29.8 points and 16.8 rebounds a night.

Those two help the Wolverines survive without a great 3-point shooter. No one is even averaging two triples a game, and Nimari Burnett (40.4%) is the only player making four out of 10 from beyond the arc.

They shot 27.3% (9 for 33) on threes in the Big Ten championship game, but held Wisconsin to 22.1% overall in a 59-53 victory. In their first NCAA Tournament game, UC San Diego only shot 38.7% in a three-point loss, and Texas only managed 38.0% in a 12-point defeat.

“We obviously have a lot of work to do, and we’re far, far from content," May said. "But I do think that we’re moving in the right direction. We’re following the beacon.”

No. 5 seed Michigan plays No. 1 overall seed Auburn on Friday night. If the Wolverines win, they could set up one of the biggest basketball matchups in school history — a possible Elite 8 showdown with Michigan State.

The second-seeded Spartans, who beat the Wolverines in both regular-season matchups, play No. 6 seed Mississippi on Friday night in Atlanta ahead of the Wolverines' game.

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