Michigan has found its replacement for Juwan Howard in the form of Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May.
We are proud to announce that Dusty May has been named the David and Meredith Kaplan Men's Basketball Head Coach, becoming the 18th coach in the history of the program
— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) March 24, 2024
Release | https://t.co/nb2DVEBdVB#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/czxCuUzXUx
May – a heavily speculated candidate for Ohio State's own coaching vacancy prior to the promotion of Jake Diebler – takes the deal after his Owls suffered a first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament at the hands of Northwestern on Friday. Before that, May guided FAU to a stunning Final Four appearance in 2023, won roughly 82% of his games at the school across the previous two seasons and finished every year with a winning record since assuming the head coach role in 2018.
Michigan named a successor to Howard just eight days after dismissing the 2021 AP College Basketball Coach of the Year. The former Wolverine player and coach earned a five-year extension in November of that year, but saw the program slowly fall from grace on its way to a last-place finish in the Big Ten this season that included a 3-17 record in conference play and an 8-24 record overall. One of Howard's only conference wins in the 2023-24 season came against Ohio State under Chris Holtmann a month prior to the latter's own dismissal.
May takes the reins at Michigan as his second head coaching role. Prior to arriving at Florida Atlantic, May was an assistant at Eastern Michigan, Murray State, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida. May also served as a student manager under Bob Knight at his alma mater, Indiana, before moving on to video and administrative roles with the Hoosiers as well as USC before beginning his coaching career at EMU.
Given the timely hiring relative to Diebler and the bitter rivalry between the schools, the tenures of May and Diebler will inherently be compared with one another as long as each of them are coaching the Wolverines and Buckeyes.
May received a five-year contract worth $3.75 million per year from Michigan. Diebler, on the other hand, received a five-year contract with a $2.5 million per year base salary.
