Matt Painter Talks About Dusty May's Success in First Season at Michigan

In today's landscape of college basketball, there's not a lot of patience. There's a lot of pressure to win immediately at a new program — which isn't the easiest thing to accomplish. Yet Michigan coach Dusty May has found a lot of success in his first year in Ann Arbor.

Michigan owns an 18-5 record this season, which includes a 10-2 mark in the Big Ten. The Wolverines are ranked in the top-20 nationally and are just a half-game out of first place in the conference standings, trailing league leader Purdue.

Prior to Tuesday's meeting between the seventh-ranked Boilermakers and Wolverines, Purdue coach Matt Painter was asked how May has been able to find success so quickly at Michigan.

He's been impressed with May's roster management approach coming from Florida Atlantic.

"I think he's got a good balance. You have (Will) Tschetter and (Nimari) Burnett from the previous year, he has (Vlad) Goldin from (FAU), so I think that helps," Painter said. "Danny Wolf is such a unique player — you just don't see that kind of size and that skill together ... there's a lot of pieces there."

Painter also talked about Tre Donaldson coming in from Auburn and Roddy Gayle Jr.'s experience in the Big Ten, previously playing at Ohio State.

May hasn't loaded up on senior talent, which would leave him searching for a plethora of guys through the transfer portal next season. Instead, he's assembled a solid roster that has plenty of balance.

That's the biggest compliment Painter gave to May regarding his first-year success in Ann Arbor.

"What I like about it is — Sam Walters comes over from Alabama as a sophomore and he signed some freshmen — so he has a balance across the board. It's not just a bunch of fourth- , fifth-year guys. He has a balance of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors," he said. "I think that's the smart way to do it. You get your impact, but you still have your development and your growth.

"That's hard to do. People think we're drafting these guys and we're not. We're recruiting. We all know who the hell to get, we just all can't get them. It makes it hard to navigate those waters."

May enjoyed a lot of success at FAU, guiding the Owls to a 126-69 record across six seasons. He led the program to a Final Four appearance in 2023. It's not entirely surprising that he's been successful at Michigan right away.

But to have a program that finished last in the league one season ago competing for a Big Ten title in the second half of the conference season? That's an impressive feat for any coach.

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