Knock on Calipari’s Door Launched May’s 20-Year Climb to Michigan Lore

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In a tale as high rising as the pinnacle of the Memphis Pyramid, Arkansas coach John Calipari was truly instrumental in the start of another high-profile coach's career.

That's right, Michigan Wolverines coach Dusty May, who became an overnight success three years ago when Johnell Davis, Alijah Martin, and Vladislav Goldin helped Florida Atlantic to an unprecedented Final Four run, got his start under Calipari in Memphis back in 2000.

May received his start in the college game as a student manager at Indiana under Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight. What the footnotes don't include is the short blip of time when he served under Calipari as a volunteer graduate assistant in Memphis with a part-time job at FedEx to make ends meet.

That's the level of sacrifice old school coaches made who were hungry to succeed in their profession. Most will do anything they can to win, oftentimes pushing limitations on themselves just to take that next step in the careers.

Knight was instrumental in creating the next wave of college basketball coaches with legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski at the very top of the list. There's quite a few who have also experienced various levels of success at all levels of basketball including Chris Beard, Mike Woodson, Steve Alford, Dave Bliss, Lawrence Frank, and former Arkansas assistant Keith Smart.

He pushed everyone around him to their limits, which probably proved instrumental in May's pursuit of a polarizing college basketball career. Knight encouraged everyone associated with his Hoosiers' program to find a place to get their start in the college game and that's exactly what they did.

Michigan coach Dusty May swings the net after winning the NCAA national championship against Connecticut at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Monday, April 6, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A recollection of events from May's long-time friend and fellow Indiana student manager, Joe Pasternack (head coach at UC Santa Barbara), revealed much more about May's start to his coaching career than he's ever really let on.

Instead of highlighting a career start at USC as the program's video coordinator, Pasternack added his colleague heard rumblings of a potential opportunity in the MidSouth under a brand new coach bouncing back into the college game following a failed tenure with the NBA's New Jersey Nets.

May showed up at the 2000 Final Four in Indianapolis with Pasternack, Dan Block and Matthew Babrick (now a successful J.P. Morgan Wealth Management director) looking to network with coaches also in town to hopefully land a coaching job out of college.

As fate would have it, May's first opportunity took a leap of faith in himself, so he decided to borrow a car and make the seven hour trip to Memphis to knock on the office door of Calipari to ask for a job.

"John Calipari had just gotten to Memphis and we heard maybe he had an opening," Pasternack told 247Sports. "Dusty was about to graduate with no job lined up, no real prospects, and he was desperate. We talked about it and said, 'Just go.' So he got in the car and drove all the way to Memphis to see if he could convince Calipari to hire him. And it worked. He got the job."

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos coach Joe Pasternack talks to his team during practice before the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena. | Michael Ciaglo-Imagn Images

Maybe May's connection to Calipari is a forgotten part of his story he doesn’t often share, but memories from friends live forever.

"I just thought he was a new coach, coming back from the NBA, and he would need warm bodies to help," May told 247Sports on Sunday. "So I just said, 'I'm going to work for you.'

"I went home, borrowed a friend's minivan and drove to Memphis through the night and was sitting in front of Cal's office on Monday," May said. "And he said, 'I have a lot going on today. I don't have five minutes for you. I don't have two minutes for you.' And I said, 'How about tomorrow?' He said, 'Sure.' So I got a room at a Quality Inn in Memphis, watched Michigan State in the national championship game, and got up the next morning and was waiting for the first person to come to the office."

Friends have a way of keeping you honest, sharing memories that connect the dots, and tying up loose ends to get the full picture.

Now, May's stint in Memphis probably lasted a short season, given he went West for a gig at USC which led to a couple of NCAA Tournament appearances from 2001 and 2002. That drive led him back home to Indiana in the same capacity in 2002 before getting his first assistant gig under Mike Davis in 2004.

His career ascent continued with an assistant role at Eastern Michigan to serving in a key capacity at Louisiana Tech and Florida under Mike White. May continued to thrive as he parlayed a 15-year journey from little-known staffer into his first big job on the beaches of Boca Raton at Florida Atlantic and took the program to unprecedented heights with three of the Owls' four best seasons.

From coaching just to get a t-shirt at Memphis to serving as a glorified administrative assistant, persistence was key in May’s rise to college basketball lore. It all started with a desire to make a strong impression on Calipari, and it worked.

As the late radio voice of Paul Harvey used to say, "And now you know, the rest of the story."

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