It began on an airport tarmac in New York two years ago, when Dusty May’s cellphone rang. It was his agent relaying a message from the Michigan athletic director. He wanted to meet. Soon. Like, how about 8 a.m. the next day?

“I was exhausted,” said May, recalling the moment. “I told him I can’t do it. I’m not gonna get home until 3 a.m.”

May’s Florida Atlantic team had just suffered a crushing first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Northwestern. He called it the low point of his career, one year after taking the Owls to the 2023 Final Four, where the little school from Boca Raton lost a heartbreaker to San Diego State.

Now it was 12 months later, past midnight and the plane was delayed, and Warde Manuel wanted to talk about the Michigan job. Manuel called May’s agent back. How about noon?

“I said no, I’ve gotta process everything,” May said. “Two minutes later, the phone rings and my agent said, how about 5 or 6 p.m.?”

May and Manuel met in Fort Lauderdale the following day, talked for hours and launched a series of events that took May from there to here. To the top rung of the ladder on the Lucas Oil Stadium floor, to the Michigan locker room where he joined the raucous water-spray celebration.

It took a confluence of unusual circumstances, but it wasn’t happenstance. With May, not much happens by accident. It was purposeful and immediate, and May was hired by UM the next day.

“I believed in Warde’s vision, I believed in his support,” May said. “It seems like a million years ago now, but I’m grateful for the opportunity he gave me.”

Manuel is grateful he took it, and Michigan fans are elated to be back among the college basketball elite. The Wolverines just crafted a historically dominant season, rolling to a 37-3 record and beating opponents by astounding margins. With star Yaxel Lendeborg hampered by knee and ankle injuries, they held off Connecticut, 69-63, to capture the school’s second basketball national championship.

By all accounts, including his own, May, 49, is here to stay. This doesn’t look like a one-shot run, not in this era of portal purchases, where resources and resourcefulness rule. May and Michigan are mutually equipped to handle it. May needed a bigger job to show what he could do, and Michigan needed the right coach to show what it could invest.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” May said as Monday night turned to Tuesday. “You watch this as a kid, staying up for ‘One Shining Moment,’ and that’s been a tough task for me over the years.”

It’s been a tough task for Michigan, too, which has experienced basketball success and controversy, but not continuity. From the 1989 championship under interim Steve Fisher, to the Fab Five, whose enormous impact wasn’t reflected in national titles, losing in the final game back-to-back years, to John Beilein’s stirring 12-year run that also included two championship game defeats, and finally to Juwan Howard’s rise and fall.

Pieces fit for Dusty May, Michigan

If the current money-market system is sustainable, then May’s system should be sustainable. He has the ideal mix of a traditional basketball background — first as a student manager for Indiana legend Bob Knight — and new-age curiosity. He ignored the skepticism and played two big men transfers, Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf, together in his first season at UM. It worked so well, he attracted others, which is how he ended up with the destructive defensive frontline of 6-9 Lendeborg, 6-9 Morez Johnson Jr. and 7-3 Aday Mara.

May’s transfer portal usage might lessen somewhat now that he’s established a foundation and can bring in top high school talent. The Wolverines’ six-player incoming class includes five-star Brandon McCoy Jr. and is ranked fifth in the country, according to Rivals.com. UM’s backcourt of Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney should be back, and Johnson Jr. and Aday will wait on their NBA options before deciding.

The traits that May seeks — selflessness, instinctive passing skills — aren’t easily identifiable, but they’re non-negotiable. May and his staff can be selective, now that the Wolverines have shown what they can do with five transfer starters, four chosen by May.

By the end, the eight-man rotation was a mixture of holdovers and newcomers, virtually indistinguishable from each other. Lendeborg was the wild card — in talent and exuberance — and even he seemed amazed at how masterfully May made him fit, from powering in the paint to running the point.

“We knew we had the talent, we had the depth, it was just about getting the chemistry,” said Lendeborg on the court in Indianapolis, confetti stuck to his hair. “By the time (May) is done, he’s gonna be one of the best ever, gonna be in the Half of Fame. I believe that wholeheartedly.”

May’s smiling, pleasant demeanor belies his competitive fervor. He has an edge, sometimes passive-aggressive, sometimes aggressive-aggressive. He rarely gets riled with officials or players. The photo of him lounging in front of the Michigan State student section before the game in East Lansing, as profanity rained upon him, is May’s persona, in framed form. When he and Tom Izzo publicly differed on Jeremy Fears Jr.’s fouling techniques, May mostly brushed it off.

He doesn’t seem overly interested in how others view him or his team’s playing style. The offense is fast-paced and explosive, the defense is aggressive and intense. The Wolverines scored 90-plus points in their first five Tournament games, but when Connecticut brought the physicality, Michigan more than matched it.

During the month of UM’s tournament runs, May calmly explained his use of the transfer portal — he inherited a barren roster and had few options — and his coaching/recruiting philosophies.

“I would say we look more at personality traits,” May said. “There's a baseline of talent for us to recruit you at Michigan, but we also try to recruit guys that are unselfish, that enjoy passing the ball, that either love to compete or love to hoop. I think passing is a great barometer of basketball IQ.”

Mara went from a gangly youngster to a defensive menace who turned 21 precisely as “One Shining Moment” began to play at midnight Monday. Mara’s deft passing developed into a lethal weapon, and May’s innovation and positive motivation paid off.

May here to stay

So how did May get here, and why will he stay? He’s a Midwest guy, born into the Indiana basketball culture and work ethic. He cut tobacco, baled hay and worked in turkey barns. His journey took him to seven programs and several positions, including his first assistant coaching job in 2005 at Eastern Michigan, where he got to watch UM from a short distance. May said he and his wife, Anna, love Ann Arbor. One of his three sons, Charlie, plays on the team, and another, Eli, is a manager.

So it wasn’t a hard sell for Manuel back in 2024, but it had to be an aggressive sell because other programs — notably Louisville — were interested in May. Manuel moved quickly to fire Howard and identify his candidate. He enlisted Beilein’s help to explain to May that, yes, Michigan was serious about basketball.

Last week, as April turned toward May and North Carolina was poking around for its next coach, Manuel and May talked again, further cementing the relationship.

“I never take anybody for granted,” said Manuel, who’s working on another adjustment to May’s contract. “From the moment we first talked, we connected. Give him all the credit for putting this team together.”

Michigan saw rich potential in May, and May saw rich potential in Michigan, which had the resources to be much more than a football school. May found the right place, and in two years with a 64-13 record, has helped make it the right place, winning in a unique way with a unique team.

"It's not common for the guys to go through the journey we did," May said amid the celebration Monday night. "And now we turn the page to Detroit."

Detroit is the site of next year’s Final Four, and May knows the way. It would be another difficult trek, but at least it’s a shorter journey, and a long way from a dark airport tarmac.

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