Dusty May Leaves for the NBA: What His Departure Means for Michigan State and the Big Ten

A shocking decision rained down on college basketball Monday morning when reigning national champion Michigan head coach Dusty May announced he was accepting the Dallas Mavericks head coaching position in the NBA.

The move comes deep into the college basketball offseason but at a relatively early point in the NBA offseason.

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This is one of the more shocking coaching moves in recent basketball history. For Michigan fans, it creates a massive amount of hysteria. However, for Michigan State and much of the rest of the Big Ten, it’s almost like the big, bad wolf has left town, leaving all the little piggies breathing a sigh of relief.

It’s no secret that Dusty May came to Michigan and immediately turned the program around. He pieced together a team full of players that many programs passed on, put them all on the same floor, and transformed them into NBA-caliber talent and, ultimately, a national championship team.

Before 2026, Tom Izzo held the crown as the best coach in the Big Ten. The conference’s most recent national championship belonged to Izzo and Michigan State all the way back in 2000.

Twenty-six seasons later, the Big Ten finally climbed back to the top of the mountain with Michigan’s championship victory over UConn.

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Then the transfer portal season arrived, and it looked like May was building a defending champion that could be even stronger than the team that won it all. Landing some of the top players available, Michigan appeared to be addressing every need on its roster.

The question that started to emerge, however, was whether May would be able to continue building one-and-done championship contenders through the portal year after year. It was a question that loomed large in East Lansing because it was the complete opposite of how Tom Izzo has traditionally built his teams.

Still, Izzo hadn’t won a national championship in 26 years, while May captured one almost immediately after arriving at Michigan.

The debate over whether Izzo was doing things…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dusty-may-leaves-nba-departure-160905572.html

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Publish date : 2026-06-22 16:09:00

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