Michigan’s Dusty May finalizing deal to coach Mavericks

Dusty May was finalizing a deal to become the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, a move that would pull the 49-year-old out of Ann Arbor only months after he guided Michigan to a national championship. The hire landed as a sharp reset for a franchise that parted with Jason Kidd on May 19 and then moved quickly under new basketball chief Masai Ujiri.

The appeal is bigger than a simple coaching search. Dallas is reaching for a coach with a proven college pedigree, a reputation for teaching, and the credibility of having just delivered Michigan its first NCAA title since 1989. May’s Wolverines beat UConn 69-63 on April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, capping a two-year run that ended with a 64-13 record in Ann Arbor and a 190-82 mark across his major-college head coaching career.

May’s résumé gives Dallas multiple reasons to bet on him. Before replacing Juwan Howard at Michigan in 2024, he turned Florida Atlantic into a national story, taking the Owls to the 2023 Final Four and a program-best 35-4 season. His college record includes 126-69 at Florida Atlantic and 64-13 at Michigan, numbers that suggest both sustained development and rapid team building, two traits the Mavericks appear to value as they try to stabilize the organization around a new leadership structure.

The move is also unusual. One report framed May as the first college coach to jump directly to the NBA since John Beilein took the Cleveland Cavaliers job in 2019. Another pointed out that the last coach to leave immediately after winning a national title was Larry Brown, who departed Kansas for the San Antonio Spurs after the 1988 championship. That backdrop underscores how rare Dallas’ swing is, and how willing the franchise seems to be in searching outside the usual NBA coaching circle.

Ujiri’s arrival has changed the tone of the search. Named president and alternate governor on May 4, he inherited a team that just changed coaches and now appears ready to hand a college tactician a mandate that is as organizational as it is tactical. The assignment would not only involve game plans and player development, but also reshaping a locker room and restoring direction after a turbulent stretch.

Reaction was immediate in Michigan, where supporters flooded social media with shock and disappointment at the prospect of losing a coach who had just delivered a title. In Dallas, the choice signals something more deliberate: a franchise using a college champion to help define its next era.