Whatever critics Dusty still had May have just been permanently silenced

INDIANAPOLIS — Dusty May quietly built up a record of 66-56 over four years at Florida Atlantic University from 2018 to 2022.

Taking the Owls to two secondary-level postseason tournaments, it was fair to question whether the former Bob Knight manager during his time as an undergrad at Indiana would be able to translate a then-largely unknown skill set to a higher level.

Then 2023 happened.

FAU, a No. 9 seed in the East regional, shocked the college basketball universe with a run out of nowhere to the Final Four. And had Lamont Butler not hit a jumper at the buzzer, May would have led the Owls to the national championship game against Dan Hurley and UConn. You’ll hear those names again later in this column. Still, while the eyes of the sport opened upon Boca Raton, some naysayers remained.

FAU got lucky, they said. FDU beating Purdue opened up the bracket. The Cinderella run wouldn’t have happened if the Boilermakers didn’t lose, they argued.

How did May follow up a generational 35-win campaign? With another 25 victories and second straight NCAA Tournament berth. The Owls lost in the first round to Northwestern, but the point was largely made. Dusty was largely accepted as a hell of a basketball coach, and parlayed his success into becoming Juwan Howard’s successor at the University of Michigan. While the general reaction to May’s hire in Ann Arbor was exceedingly positive, rightfully so, a small crowd of skeptics refused to vacate its premises.

Michigan’s a different animal, they said. What worked in Conference USA and the American would never work as well in the Big Ten.

“Michigan could have done so much better,” one particular media type posited. “Warde Manuel (Michigan’s athletic director) will realize this four years from now when he’s once again in the market for a new coach.”

If a Sweet 16 appearance and a 27-win season in year one amid the maize and blue didn’t coax whoever still doubted May out of the rocks they had crawled under, this season left no doubt. This season proved it impossible to question whether Dusty had the juice or the chops to succeed at a high-major level.

Thirty-seven wins. A national championship, Michigan’s first since 1989, going through the most consistent winner in the sport this decade to get it, putting down Dan Hurley and UConn to do so.

That guy who said May would get fired in year four? Yeah, he’s a freaking idiot. You know how I know?

Because that idiot is me.

Far too often for my own good, I get too stubborn in my twisted thoughts and defend my opinions passionately, no matter how off-base they can be. It makes me a target for the inevitable “told you” more often than it should, but if you can poke fun of yourself enough and own your mistakes, you’re better off for it in the long run. And right here, right now, in this moment, it shouldn’t have taken a national championship against the program I’ve covered more this season than anyone else for me to be truly sold on Dusty May as a talent evaluator and basketball coach. But perfect, I am not.

In fact, I had similar thoughts two decades ago about Brad Stevens at Butler, thoughts that needed my in-person meeting with Brad at Atlantic 10 media day back in 2012 for me to do the 180 and come all the way around. Coincidentally, spending the past weekend around Dusty and Michigan at the Final Four allowed me to see just how Brad Stevens-esque May is. And that is definitely not a bad thing.

“We just try to create an environment that will prepare our players to play well in games,” May said Sunday when asked about what his players glean from practices. “Our practices are designed to challenge them, to make them think, figure out solutions on their own, to lean on their teammates when things aren’t going well.”

“We feel like if we don’t play well in games, it’s because of our poor planning in the weight room, conditioning, individual workouts, team workouts, whatever the case. I think that’s one of the reasons we play with a level of looseness at the biggest moments, because we feel like we’ve either won or lost these games a long time ago.”

If that’s not a line out of the Gospel according to Brad, I don’t know what is.

But what I do know is Dusty May is writing his own book of how to succeed in college basketball and develop minds just as strong as the talent he coaches. It shouldn’t have taken this long to realize, but again, nobody is perfect.

So rather than question whether or not he can do it at a high level, the best advice in this moment is to heed the lyrics of Michigan’s classic fight song, “The Victors.” That’s a tune that gets played every Saturday in the fall over here since this writer is a Michigan football fan, so here goes, with a modified cadence:

Hail to the Victor valiant. Hail to the conquering hero.

Hail, hail, to Dusty May. A leader, and, for the next year with a national championship trophy in tow, the best.