The Search
Michigan was dead silent until May was announced during a hockey game I was very mad about. This was a surprise to the basketball world, which widely expected May to get hired by Louisville—historically a top-20 job. John Beilein reportedly met with May, along with Warde Manuel, and was able to sell him on Michigan relative to a very good program.
This space has had a lot of Warde Manuel complaints over the last few years but I have to give it up here: they picked up the leading candidate of the cycle almost immediately after he was available and snaked the guy out from under Louisville. A+.
Now, about that candidate:
Background
Well, if you were looking for the exact opposite of a guy who had a 17-year NBA career, this is it: May's college career is 404 File Not Found. He was a student manager under Bobby Knight at Indiana, then went into various analyst roles his first few years after college before landing an assistant gig at Eastern Michigan. He quickly climbed the ladder, going from EMU to Murray State to UAB to Louisiana Tech. There he was retained by Mike White after he took over for Kerry Rupp and quickly became his right hand; he followed White to Florida.
May jumped to FAU after three years, and it's encouraging that his departure seemed to have a deleterious effect on White's tenure. After an NIT year one, Florida went to the Elite Eight in year two, finishing second in the SEC at 14-4. In year three they were 11-7 in the league and a six seed. Those teams ranked 5th and 22nd in Kenpom, respectively.
White's teams slowly deteriorated after May left. White never had a top 25 team again; after May left they went 26, 32, 41, and 59 before White was shown the door.
[After THE JUMP: resume, recruiting, analytics, the near future]
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