ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In a few days, Dusty May will walk onto the practice floor for the first time as Michigan’s head coach and address a team that, up until now, was more of a concept than a reality.
With a new coaching staff and at least nine new players, the Wolverines are still in the orientation phase. That was apparent earlier this week as Vladislav Goldin, the 7-foot-1 center who followed May from Florida Atlantic, made his way through the back hallways of Michigan’s basketball facility, ducking his head to fit through the doorways.
May’s roster overhaul has drawn strong reviews, with Michigan checking in at No. 17 in The Athletic’s latest 2024-25 Top 25 rankings. Before the Wolverines take the floor for their first practice, May sat down with The Athletic to discuss his goals for the summer, Michigan’s last open scholarship and what he has learned about NIL at Michigan.
This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
When you walk into that gym for the first time with those guys all together, what do you think your message is going to be for them?
It’s a great question because the daily messaging is very important. (The message is) just that this is the start of a journey and we all need each other to be successful. We’re all going to change a lot through this process. We’re making sure that we’re teaching them the things that are the most important, which is the response to a mistake, showing empathy towards a teammate and learning how to communicate with each other better or more.
What does a successful summer look like for you? What do you want to get out of it?
We have a checklist. We’re going to look back and say, “We got this done. We accomplished this. We’re much better at this. We have this ready to go. We have a good foundation here.” It’s kind of like the lesson plan with a teacher. We put up things we need to get better at. Let’s use our imagination and our creativity and include the guys in how we need to get there, but this is what it needs to look like.
You have one scholarship open. I know you can’t talk names, but just in general, when you looked at the roster, was there anything you pinpointed and said, “If we could add a little more that, it would help us?”
I think the question mark is just late shot clock. Do we have enough guys that, if the ball finds them, they’re going to create a great shot for them or their teammates? As a coach, you always want a little more of this and a little more of that. You’re greedy. I love our size. I think we have good shooters. I think we have really capable defenders. I think just the individual playmakers is probably the one thing I wish we had a little bit more of.
You hired Matt Aldred from Furman as strength and conditioning coach. He’s got an interesting bio, coming from England with a sports science background. Tell me a bit about his approach.
He’s a very forward thinker. He’s curious. He’s starving to get better. Matt and I worked together when he was an assistant strength coach at Florida, working with one of the best in college basketball in Preston Greene. When I was calling and working on our search, he was a name that kept coming up from other people, very respected people in the business, as one of the up-and-coming stars.
I love the fact that he played a different sport. (Note: Aldred played collegiate soccer at West Florida and club soccer in England and the U.S.) We learn so much from each other through different sports. Yesterday, he and I were in the weight room and he was trying to kill me. (Laughs) We were talking about ball-screen coverage, and he made a couple skill acquisition points that made sense to me as a basketball coach. I can’t believe I’ve been coaching 25 years and I’d never thought of that. It seemed so simple, and I think it will really help a couple guys on our team.
I always want to get out of the groupthink. I think we can learn a lot from people that have different backgrounds and had different experiences. He’s been in a sport that’s very relatable to basketball. If you look at Steve Nash and a lot of soccer players, they usually have great hip mobility. They’re lighter on their feet. Like hockey, they see the play ahead and know where to look.
In terms of strength and conditioning, are there things for you or for him that you think are especially important in terms of developing the kind of team you want to have?
He’s going to tailor the specific program in its own unique way for each guy. He has probably as much impact on our culture and environment and daily habits as anyone. You have to push through some fatigue. You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. He doesn’t just study the movements and strength and conditioning. He’s studying leadership and how to relate to the modern athlete better. These guys are going through things that college athletes have never been through before.
You said in your introductory press conference that you spent 25 to 30 percent of your time on NIL at FAU. Has it been the same so far at Michigan?
That was probably a bit of an exaggeration, other than last year. As a whole I didn’t, but last year it might have been a little more. But yeah, I spend a good portion of my day developing relationships, trying to connect people to our program and make them feel like they’re a part of this. We also have to be able to give people that want to help a unique experience.
Calls, texts, lunches, dinners, breakfasts — whatever the case, we’re always trying to include people in our program that have a willingness to help.
It’s so hard to sort fact from fiction in the NIL world when you hear, “This school is doing this,” or “This player got this.” What’s your read on where Michigan is in that landscape relative to where you want to be?
I don’t know. I think probably the SEC embraced NIL a little earlier than some. If we’re behind or other Big Ten teams are behind, it’s not that people aren’t trying. It’s just that the foundation wasn’t laid as early as it was in some other places.
There are a lot of opportunities for our guys. As far as getting all this upfront money like some other schools, it’s probably not going to happen like that, but I think with our brand, our alumni base, the support of our administration and the work of the Champions Circle (collective), I think we’re going to be really competitive in that space going forward.
I don’t know how closely you’ve followed the House settlement and the conversation about revenue-sharing and what that might look like. Have those conversations happened internally in terms of how any of that might impact your program going forward?
There’s been several conversations, but no one has any idea of what’s really going to happen. There’s still some very important decisions to be made that impact every sport on a college campus. I personally agree with what several ADs have said recently. At times we have a spending problem. As the coach of our program, we’re very conscientious of spending the university’s money like it’s our own and not wasting it, but also making sure that our guys have everything they need to be at their absolute best. No one really knows where this is going to be in a year, three years, five years because it could continue to turn based on the courts.
You’re a podcast guy. What’s the current podcast?
My all-time favorite is probably Basketball Immersion with Chris Oliver and the Slappin’ Glass guys. Those are two that I really never miss an episode of. The Tim Ferriss Show — I listened to every episode for about a year and then got away from it, but I’m starting to circle back. A donor and friend of the program recommended Acquired this week about Starbucks and Howard Schultz. Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History — that’s one of my favorites.
(Photo: Junfu Han / USA Today)