He was one of the biggest names in the early college basketball coaching cycle, and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and the Wolverines would not let Dusty May get away before locking up a deal to bring him to Ann Arbor. Securing the 48-year-old May four days ahead of Louisville naming Pat Kelsey its head coach, and before the Eric Musselman-to-USC move sparked John Calipari to leave Kentucky for Arkansas, meant the Wolverines brass could sleep easier at night.
For a Michigan men’s basketball program that stands on a proud tradition, having reached the national championship game not once, but twice in the last 12 years, responding to the Juwan Howard era, which concluded with an 8-24 season that saw internal drama and a rough ending, was an immediate goal.
Entering 2025, this program is certainly on the right track, getting off to a 10-3 start, which includes wins over Xavier and Virginia Tech en route to winning the Fort Myers Tip-Off over Thanksgiving. May, who made history with Florida Atlantic in 2023 by guiding the ninth-seeded Owls to the program’s first-ever Final Four, has imprinted his style, a framework that began when he was a student manager at Indiana under Bob Knight in the late 1990s.
Off to a 2-0 start in Big Ten play with victories over then-No. 11 Wisconsin and Iowa, Michigan has put the rest of the Big Ten on notice and is making a statement that the team’s No. 9 ranking in the conference preseason poll was far too low. The Wolverines currently rank ninth nationally in the Torvik ratings system, 11th in KenPom, and 17th in the NET. Their three losses – to Wake Forest, Auburn and Oklahoma on neutral courts – came by a combined five points.
So, what’s the secret sauce for this Michigan team?
The Wolverines feature a unique frontcourt duo in Yale transfer Danny Wolf and FAU transfer Vlad Goldin. The pair of 7-footers are combining to average 26 points and 16 rebounds per game this season. Combine that with a backcourt that May says is really coming into its own, and the Wolverines can throw wrinkles at any defense.
What lies ahead? The newly-added Big Ten West Coast swing, with trips to USC and UCLA before the Wolverines return home to take on Washington.
I caught up with the Wolverines’ head coach ahead of Michigan’s FOX Primetime Hoops showdown with the Trojans at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday (watch on FOX and the FOX Sports App).
John Fanta: How would you assess where this team is at compared to where you thought you would be at this point in the season?
Dusty May: “I don’t really know where I thought we would be at this point. When we did our schedule, when you looked at it, I think we would have said we’d be happy where we are at 10-3 (and 2-0 in the Big Ten). But, probably not quite as happy because of the way we’ve lost a few of the games, with Oklahoma being a tough loss, the game against Wake Forest in which we slipped and fell down twice in the late moments, but we like where we are. I also think those heartbreaking losses have contributed to us still being really hungry and also disappointed with where we’re at because we know we left some wins on the table. So, I think it’s a little bit of both.”
Watching you play and win at Wisconsin, it felt like your team was so composed down the stretch as well. How much do you feel like an early defeat at Wake Forest helped you win those first two Big Ten games over the Badgers and Iowa?
“It’s so true, without a doubt. Until you’ve been in those situations, it’s tough to know how your guys are going to respond. But without a doubt, we do look much more comfortable now than we did then. We were a little bit too rushed and panicked earlier in the season. Especially in the Wake Forest game, we were trying to figure out who we were going to go to late in the game and guys are then trying to do too much. I think we’ve settled in now and have those roles defined.”
Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Michigan Wolverines Highlights
What would you say is something you were asking yourself about this team in the preseason, something that you were really curious about but needed to wait for games to play out, that you feel like you’ve gotten an answer on?
“I wasn’t positive we were going to be able to switch screens the way we have been able to, whether it be 1-4 or even 1-5 a lot. And even our bigger forwards and centers, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to guard 1-on-1, contain and stay in front of the basketball. These guys have exceeded expectations with that. With Danny Wolf, we caught a lot of flack when we said we were going to play him at the 4 and switch anyway, and he’s probably graded out to be our best perimeter defender to this point.”
Along those lines, when you bring Danny Wolf in, I’m sure you knew a variety of things about him. What have you learned about Danny now that you spend every single day with the kid?
“He’s even more versatile than we realized when we got him. We knew he was skilled, but I didn’t know we could legitimately play him on the perimeter with point guards guarding him and small guards on him. Then, obviously, we didn’t realize he could switch as well as he has. He’s really, really bright — and obviously, that’s shown from him coming from the Ivy League (Yale). But, he understands the game of basketball. He has book smarts and street smarts, and so his basketball IQ is off the charts.”
What’s the relationship like between him and Vlad Goldin?
“Obviously, you and I don’t know what it’s like (laughter). But I think the big guys have mutual respect for each other. They’re expected to get every rebound, they’re expected to protect the rim and all of those things that just come with being 7-feet tall in our game, so those guys have clicked from the beginning. They really enjoy the pick-and-roll combination together, and playing off of each other. And, I think those two guys and our staff were the only people who really believed we could make this work with two 7-footers on the floor at the same time in today’s game. And so, they have a real mutual respect for each other, and they know that they’re both more successful because of the other’s skill set.”
It was my favorite part of Big Ten Media Day, when you sat down and told the press that Goldin and Wolf were going to play together at the same time. There were several people questioning that and some naysayers. What made you so confident that it would work out?
“I don’t know. That’s a great question because it’s not as if we had ever done this before. I think it was just … I obviously knew Vlad and had coached him for several years with FAU before. So, I knew who he was and what he could bring to the table. And then watching Danny, and at that point we had seen him practice enough, that we knew when he kept it simple and made good decisions, it resulted in winning plays. Part of the frustration with our game is when you’re smaller, you miss a lot of things because you’re simply not big enough and you can’t see over the defense. Well, Danny can always do that.”
What’s something that America doesn’t fully appreciate about a guy who was integral to your 2023 Final Four run at FAU, Vlad Goldin?
“His unselfishness and his physicality. He loves to screen to get his teammates open. He loves doing things for his teammates. He rim runs and gets a guy an open 3, and he takes a lot of pride in those invisible plays that you don’t see on a stat sheet.”
With 2025 arriving, what is the New Year’s resolution for this Michigan team?
“Turnovers. We’re still trying to play extremely fast. It would be a lot easier to limit turnovers if we just kept the ball in one person’s hands and dribbled until we squeezed out a shot then went after it, but we’re thinking long term with our approach. We don’t want to be one-dimensional. We really think Roddy Gayle is skilled and proven. Tre Donaldson is starting to come into his own. We’ve got all the guys, and we want them all to be involved. We want to play the right way — sharing it, driving and kicking it, getting assisted baskets. But because of that, because the guys haven’t played with each other for a long period of time, we’re turning it over. If you look at our metrics, we shoot it really well. We offensive rebound really well. We do everything pretty well except turn it over, and that negates a lot of our strengths. So, we’ve been spending a lot of time how to clean up those situations and looking at passing, catching and footwork pieces to the game.”
Tre Donaldson has scored in double figures in four of the last five games. He had 18 in the two-point win over Iowa. What do you make of Tre, and what are your conversations with the Auburn transfer like?
“He’s been really good. We want him to push tempo and we need him to be a lockdown defender for us. The last week or so, he’s really coming into his own defensively with his energy and effort. He’s shooting good percentages (41%) from 3-point land, and he’s doing a lot for us. And, we’ve seen improvement in almost every game all year. He continues to play better and better. Against Western Kentucky, he didn’t have a great shooting night, but he got 11 rebounds. Typically, our guards have been really good rebounders and we’ve challenged these guys because if our guards rebound it, it makes our transition offense that much better.”
Michigan’s Tre Donaldson pulls off a WILD shammgod en route to acrobatic finish against Iowa
Roddy Gayle is shooting over 50% from the floor but around 30% from 3-point land. Are you happy with the looks that he’s getting? Where is he at?
“All summer long, we wanted to improve that part of Roddy’s game. We had him shooting a lot of catch-and-shoot 3s so he got more comfortable and got more confident in his 3-point shot. It probably kept him from attacking the rim, which he’s really good at getting downhill and getting fouled. And so now, he actually was shooting a strong percentage, but he’s had a recent stretch where he’s shot it poorly, which is reflected in his numbers. But I just think water is going to find its level. I think he’ll end up being a mid-30% 3-point shooter and if he can get to 36 or 37%, that’ll really help him and put teams in closeouts. If he takes rhythm 3s, he’s going to shoot a good percentage and we love the way he’s shot it at practice.”
Who gives this team its charisma?
“It’s really Tre Donaldson and Danny Wolf. Those two are probably the most vocal guys. We’ve got a really steady group. Nimari Burnett has been a godsend for us. Will Tschetter is our emotional leader. If you take him out of practice, everything feels differently because of the energy and juice he brings. We stress it, but we have a real cumulative effort in everything we do. We’re balanced in scoring, other than Danny’s (Wolf) double-digit rebounds, we’re balanced in rebounding, we’re balanced in assists and I think our guys share the leadership role as well. So, I do think we’re unique because we’re not leaning on one or two guys to do something outside of Will Tschetter, who’s definitely bringing super-caffeinated energy to everything he does.”
When you took this job, you obviously knew certain things about Michigan and its pedigree. But I’m sure you’ve learned some things in the actual seat as the head coach of this program that you didn’t know previously. What have you learned about Michigan, the community, and the program that perhaps you didn’t understand when you were on the outside?
“Just how much pride there is in the basketball program, especially with the former players and the following that we have. You think of this place at first as a football school — but Michigan Basketball is a huge deal. They want us to win. They want us to play a certain way and at a certain intensity rate. There are expectations here. I don’t think people realize it, but we’ve sold out our last four games and, in college basketball now, it’s getting harder and harder to sell every ticket for a number of reasons. So, I didn’t realize the people would be back as quickly as they’ve been back. And I don’t think people realize how recent the success was as well, with Coach [John] Beilein going to multiple national championship games and Final Fours, and Coach [Juwan] Howard’s first season. There was a heck of a run of success not long ago.”
You resume Big Ten play by going on the league’s new West Coast trip with a trek to USC on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, FOX) before taking on UCLA on Tuesday. Will you do anything differently for this trip, and how do you prepare for that kind of unique travel? What’s your mindset heading into Los Angeles?
“I’ve read that traveling back east can result in some jet lag, but to be honest, we don’t have a lot of control. We’re going to play on the 4th and the 7th [of January], and we’re going to head out early to get acclimated to the time change because it’s break on campus. As far as coming back, we start classes on Jan. 8, and we play the night of the 7th, so we don’t have a choice but to head right back after the UCLA game, as opposed to staying the night and coming back the next morning. We haven’t dove into it that much other than we’re going out early for a number of reasons — being on break, the weather and some team bonding. Plus, we’ll get used to the time zone. For the most part, though, no. Our staff has studied that stuff and most of this staff was a part of wild travel in mid-major leagues. We did all this travel through planes, trains and automobiles. I was in the WAC at Louisiana Tech and we had Hawaii in our league as well as Utah State, San Jose State and Fresno State. I’ve seen some crazy trips.”
What do you make of Eric Musselman’s USC team?
“They’re old and versatile. I think they’re finding themselves now with the rotations and who they’re going to play through. With Desmond Claude being a leader, and when they get Terrance Williams [broken wrist, has missed last four games] back, he’s going to really help them, too. They’ve got good size. They’ve got positional versatility and you just know Coach Musselman is going to figure it out. You’re going against a fighter when he’s on the other side of a matchup. They’ve had a long layoff for close to two weeks, so who knows what the heck we’re going to see as far as offense and defense? It’s going to be a challenge, especially now. It feels like with the pre-conference schedule done, even though we played two Big Ten games in early December, it didn’t feel like it until now.”
How well do you know Eric Musselman?
“There’s some CBA connections with Coach Mike Davis. For years, when Eric’s kids were little, when Mike was at Indiana or UAB, I’d be working his camps and Muss would call Coach Davis. I was sending Muss shirts for his kids from camp. I don’t know him well, but I respect the heck out of him.”
Last but not least: Define the Big Ten and what do you think of this 18-team conference?
“Well, the coaching is sensational. We’ve already faced Greg Gard and Fran McCaffrey — and those guys take advantage of every mistake you make. They have a great plan and they play to their strengths. I just think that every single night, you have to be prepared to be in a one-possession game and figure out a way to win because it’s competitive from top to bottom.”
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
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