The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1544538
MAY 2026 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 19 "I'm surprised he won a title in two years, but what I saw in him is how he talked about building a team and putting people in the right place and connect- ing with people," Manuel recalled of his interview with May two years ago. "You can see it in the way this team plays for each other. He has shown all of that in the last two years. "But I didn't expect that we would have the turnaround and the season we did and win the Big Ten Tournament. And then this year I felt — because of the way Dusty talked about it — that it was a special group of kids at the beginning of the year." THE FOUNDATION But as May has said repeatedly, this title isn't the end … it's only the be- ginning. He didn't come to Michigan to win one championship and put his feet on his desk and relax while watching clips of his team's dominant run. He saw potential for the Wolverines to win consistently in the new climate, under- standing what John Beilein did when he turned the program around nearly 20 years earlier — that Michigan was a sleeping giant. Having started his coaching career at Eastern Michigan as a No. 3 assistant, May and his wife, Anna, had come to appreciate the area. They also got an up-close look at the power of the Mich- igan brand, and it stuck with him when he had to decide his next move. "First and foremost, my wife was al- ways a big fan of Ann Arbor, the quality of life and everything that goes with the University of Michigan," May said. "My family has always been a very important part of any decision that I've made, es- pecially when you drag them around like I did chasing this dream. "[Michigan presented] the opportu- nity to attract the best, high-achieving people that have a desire to be around the brightest students, the best profes- sors, the alumni base who's connected. Michigan is really unique. "In recruiting, we say we have the academic profile of Stanford with the passion of SEC football for our athletic department as a whole, and usually those two things aren't merged." He's proud those two aspects are in "great alignment" at Michigan, he added, and it helped that he had two college-aged kids he wanted to receive great educations, too. His middle son, Charlie, was a walk-on basketball player this season, his youngest, Eli, a team manager, and both will leave Ann Arbor with U-M degrees. May quipped he'd have gone any- where there was a ball and a team to coach, insisting he thought "making it big" meant a coaching job at a big high school close to his hometown. "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." Instead, he worked his way up the ranks, from the third assistant at East- ern Michigan, eventually to the assis- tant coach at Florida, and then head coach at Florida Atlantic. He became the hottest commodity in America when he took FAU to the Final Four three years ago, and he didn't flinch when Michigan came calling after its disastrous season under Howard. Some coaches shy away from leaning on their predecessors for anything when they take a new job. May, though, made Howard his first call, looking for build- ing blocks on the current roster. When Howard assured him Nimari Burnett, Will Tschetter, Tarris Reed Jr., and Ter- rance Williams III were high-character guys he could win with, he set out to keep the ones he could. Reed got away to UConn when big men Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf joined the team last year, and he and May wished each other well. Williams ended up at USC. But Burnett and Tschetter would become the soul of a team that would hang four banners in two years under May. "We kept those guys because we be- lieved in who they are as people first and foremost," May said. "That was a tough season for Michigan basketball, and there were a handful of guys that we couldn't recruit for various reasons and a handful that we thought might fit our culture as far as work ethic, talent. "Nimari and Will were both guys that dove in from Day 1 and wanted Michigan to be back in this position. It was that simple. There was never a conversation as far as shots or position. Both of those guys have taken a major sacrifice for this group." ❱ May, on building his program "I would say we look more at personality traits. There's a baseline of talent for us to recruit you at Michigan, but we also try to recruit guys that are unselfish who enjoy passing the ball, that love to compete or love to hoop."