ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Two months in, there’s still a lot to learn about Dusty May and the basketball program he wants to build at Michigan.
What’s clear so far is that May isn’t writing off his first season as a loss. He took the job believing a one-year turnaround was possible, and he sounded even more convinced now that Michigan’s staff and roster are mostly in place.
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“There won’t be a night that we walk on the court this season where we say, ‘Hey, we need to do this in preparation for later,'” May said last week. “We’ll have expectations that we set foot on the court to win every single night.”
Here are five things we’ve learned about May and Michigan so far.
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The value of fresh ideas
In assembling his staff, May hired a few familiar faces from his time at Florida Atlantic, including general manager Kyle Church, director of player development Drew Williamson and assistant coach Akeem Miskdeen, who coached with May at FAU from 2018 to 2021 before a stint at Georgia. May also made a point to look outside of his immediate circle for coaches who could fill in gaps and bring differing perspectives.
“I didn’t really want to work with my friends,” May said. “I want guys that are going to, number one, complement me and my weaknesses, guys that are going to challenge me and the players every day to get better, that have new ideas.”
One of May’s assistant coaching spots went to Mike Boynton, who spent the past seven years running his own program at Oklahoma State. Another went to Justin Joyner, who spent those seven years at Saint Mary’s, first as the director of basketball operations and eventually as associate head coach under Randy Bennett.
Joyner landed on May’s radar because of his acumen as a defensive coach. The Gaels were No. 96 in adjusted defensive efficiency in 2020, according to KenPom, and finished in the top 15 every year since then. May’s brand of basketball is fast-paced and free-flowing, a stylistic change from what Joyner experienced at Saint Mary’s. Their goal at Michigan is to create the best of both worlds.
“What’s hardest to guard is the unpredictable,” Joyner said. “Me being on the defensive side of the ball, being able to coach our guys with an offense like that in practice every day, I think it’s going to help me as a defensive coach.”
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More on Michigan’s defense
Michigan was in dire need of a defensive overhaul after allowing 1.14 points per possession last season, which ranked No. 345 out of 362 Division I teams. The roster May assembled during the past few weeks is bigger and longer, with a lockdown perimeter defender in North Texas transfer Rubin Jones and a 7-foot rim protector in Vlad Goldin.
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“I think we have a lot of guys that can keep the ball in front on the perimeter, which means you don’t have to put two on the ball in certain areas,” Joyner said. “I think we have guys that can press up on the ball and get through pick-and-roll, and then we have rim protection with Vlad.”
Limiting opponents’ 3-point attempts was one of the keys to Joyner’s success at Saint Mary’s, as the Gaels ranked in the top 10 nationally three of the past four seasons in that category. Combined with Goldin’s presence around the basket, Michigan should have the personnel to force opponents into more low-percentage shots.
“Ultimately, defensively, it’s a lot about, ‘What are you willing to give up?'” Joyner said. “If we’re good at taking away 3s, taking away rim drives and making people live in the midrange, we should be good defensively.”
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Closing with NIL
According to May, some of the players he recruited left NIL money on the table to sign with Michigan. The school that offers the biggest payday isn’t always the best fit, but in a perfect world, May would like Michigan’s NIL offerings to be competitive with the best in college basketball.
“I would love our guys to be taken care of as much as any players in the country,” May said. “Right now, that’s probably not feasible.”
May estimated NIL occupied 25 to 30 percent of his time at FAU, and he hasn’t shied away from it at Michigan. He said he has been in regular contact with the Michigan supporters who run the Champions Circle collective, sometimes daily, to talk about bringing in more funds for NIL.
“Our success is tied to their success, and I think their success is probably tied to our success as well,” May said.
Players looking for a big NIL number from the outset generally weren’t the ones Michigan had on its shortlist, Miskdeen said. Michigan had a mutual comfort level with the players who came for campus visits, which typically start with dinner on Friday night and a tour of the facility the next morning. If all goes well, the NIL conversation happens at the end of the visit, when the coaches sit down with the players and their families to talk in-depth about the player’s role in the program.
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“We hope that comes up last,” Miskdeen said. “Usually for the recruits we’ve gotten, it’s come up after they were on the verge of making a decision.”
What May wants in point guard
Shoot-first point guards were en vogue for a while, May said, but that turned into “shoot first, second and third.” May sees basketball trending back toward point guards who look to create shots for their teammates rather than looking for their own. That was part of the appeal in recruiting Auburn transfer Tre Donaldson, who wasn’t a prolific scorer but had one of the best per-minute assist rates in the SEC.
“When we reflect on the guys we’ve coached and the best teams we’ve been a part of, it usually starts with pass-first guards,” May said. “With that, there’s a trust that it will come back to them and the ball will find them later on.”
May is looking for a quarterback on the court, be it the point guard or the center. When May’s offense is flowing, the ball should be moving and not sticking in anybody’s hands. May likes to have multiple ballhandlers on the floor, and the point guard’s role is to make sure the ball is getting to the right spots.
“We don’t need anyone to put the ball under their arm at halfcourt every possession and start a set,” May said. “Then we’re not very efficient, and the defense is set. Hopefully, we have several playmakers on the court, and because of guys’ self-awareness and awareness of who they’re playing with, the ball will find the right guys.”
On Michigan’s new strength coach
Michigan announced one final piece of May’s staff Monday with the hiring of head strength coach Matt Aldred, who spent the past six years as head of strength and conditioning at Furman. Aldred and May previously worked together at Florida during the 2017-18 season.
Aldred, a native of Eastbourne, England, has worked as an adjunct kinesiology professor and collaborated on sports science research at Furman, co-authoring a paper that used force-plate data to monitor players’ jump performance throughout a season.
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“Matt only bolsters the goal of creating a staff of great teachers and genuine people who can help our players away from the game,” May said in a release. “I met Matt six years ago and have always been impressed with him. His forward thinking, work at Furman and academic teachings make him a unique coach who will enhance our strength and conditioning program.”
Aldred fills a job previously held by Jon Sanderson, who was a common denominator during two Final Four runs under John Beilein and a Big Ten championship under Juwan Howard. Sanderson’s 15-year tenure came to an acrimonious end following a verbal confrontation with Howard in December. Sanderson didn’t work with the men’s basketball program for the remainder of the season and resigned in March.
(Top photo: Junfu Han / USA Today)
