Basketball

RETVRN? [Bryan Fuller]

I don't think this is a real thing. Jeff Goodman asserted that May had received assurances that admissions wasn't going to be as much of a problem for him as it was for Juwan Howard, something that Sam Webb said he had not heard. My assumption is that this is a game of telephone several persons downwind of this conversation:

Sources say Beilein sat in on the first hour or so of the meeting between Manuel and May, answering a number of basketball specific questions about how he built his program, how he recruited, and how he dealt with admissions. It was a meaningful assist.

I doubt there has been a conversation between Santa Ono and the dean of LS&A about letting guys into school, unfortunately.

Staffers. Potential names from 24/7's Davis Moseley:

Two of those names will be familiar. Adam Howard is a grad assistant at Indiana currently who knows May well; Indiana fans are bizarrely upset at the prospect of losing him because they credit him with a lot of the recruiting grunt work. Bill Armstrong is a wild name: he was the associate head coach at LSU until Will Wade got sent to Bolivia by the NCAA. He's cooling his heels at Link Academy—the school Tarris Reed was at—this year. If that came to fruition that would be your recruiting guy, I'd imagine. I'm skeptical it does.

[After THE JUMP: portal time]

1 hour and 58 minutes

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1. The Hiring of Dusty May

Starts at 1:00

Brian let Seth out of his basement where he works on the UFRs so he’s off exploring the world somewhere (France). Michigan hired Dusty May as the 18th head men’s basketball coach, and the news was dropped in the middle of a hockey championship game. The rumor was that John Beilein played a big part in getting May. Good job, Warde Manuel! This hire was sniped from Louisville, who thought they could hire him this weekend. Whatever happened to Louisville? Dusty May really turned around Florida Atlantic basketball, which was basically a non-existent program before Dusty. He’s had a great track record everywhere he’s been. Dusty May is able to keep his players, even after a Final Four run. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

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]

a new coach arrives

you could watch some basketball today 

The Devil said he's not taking any more Michigan basketball for football championship trades. It's like when he stopped letting Ohio State fans sell their souls for wins against Michigan; the value's not the same for you people.

quiet so far

Nerd!

"Just because you have low sperm count doesn't mean you don't love your wife."

and off we go

that's all, folks

is the culture of the #129 team in Kenpom bad 

don't cry because it's over, cry because it happened