Dusty May's Improbable Road to Becoming a National Championship Winning Coach

When Michigan head coach Dusty May was first trying to break into coaching, he was dropping Bob Knight's name at every turn as a plug on hopes he would land a job after working for the late legendary Indiana coach as a student manager from 1996-2000.

After getting his first opportunity as an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan and working as an assistant with various college basketball programs from 2005-2017, he finally got his shot as a head coach at Florida Atlantic in the 2018-19 season and famously led the Owls to a Final Four in 2022-23.

Now, May, in just his second season at Michigan in his second job in Division I college basketball, is a national champion after the Wolverines defeated UConn by a score of 69-63 in Indianapolis on Monday night in the same state May grew up in.

Apr 6, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May watches One Shining Moment after defeating the Connecticut Huskies in the national championship of the Final Four of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images | Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

May's grattitude for the moment and for being the head coach at Michigan

Before it was reported May would be staying in Ann Arbor for the 2026-27 season and beyond, his name was being floated around for the opening at North Carolina before Michael Malone was hired by the Tar Heels.

At the time of the speculation, May was asked whether Michigan was his dream job by National Sports Talk Show Host Zach Gelb.

But considering where May started and the fact it took him almost two decades to land the head coaching job at FAU, he never could have dreamt of being even an assistant at a school like Michigan, let alone the head coach.

"My dream job was probably a really good high school in southern Indiana," May said. "I told someone the other day, if you told me I was going to be the third assistant at the University of Michigan at this stage of my career, I probably would have thought I hit the lottery. You talk about dream jobs, it probably would have been Bloomington South or Bloomington North. Bloomington North (the coach there) is an old buddy of mine from travel ball, then Bloomington South is legendary coach J.R. Holmes, whose son is John Holmes who's at Miami (OH) now. So I don't want to put any heat on those athletic directors, but those two jobs were probably my two dream jobs."

After working his way up the ladder, May landed an assistant coach job with Mike White at Florida from 2015-18. During his time with the Gators, May told Gelb he felt like he was ready to head a program and build a staff around him.

"While being at Florida, I felt like I was prepared as you can possibly be to be a Division I coach," May said. "You're never fully prepared, just like being a parent. But I do feel like we'd had the requisite success, I put in the time and effort to learn every piece of the profession. But that still guarantees nothing. I think I had maybe one interview when I was an assistant coach at Florida. And so, fortunately there was a relationship with the AD at FAU and the stars were aligned right even to get that job."

Apr 6, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach Dusty May waves to fans before cutting the net after their win against the UConn Huskies in the national championship of the Final Four of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament between the and the Michigan Wolverines at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

May's journey is one of someone who did whatever it took to get into the space of basketball and diligently worked his way up from his days as a Hoosier when he was tasked with everything under the sun—including sweeping floors, breaking down film, unloading busses and cleaning backboards.

Even though it took awhile for him to get a shot as the head man, he has certainly taken advantage of the opportunity and has ascended to be one of the top coaches in the sport.