Dusty May Is Ready To Build Up Michigan Basketball

New Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May has been described as a program builder who just needs some time.

Michigan Basketball Introduces Dusty May / Luke Hales/GettyImages

University of Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel introduced new basketball coach Dusty May early on Tuesday afternoon marking the official start of a new era in U-M hoops. May took the to podium, thanked his family, the people at FAU and others before explaining how he felt about the program he is now in charge of.

"Michigan is a special place because everyone is pulling in the same direction," May said. "Our goal across the board — and thank you head coaches, assistant coaches, athletes for being here today — we have a goal to develop young people and compete for championships, and that goal will never change. But this is one place that, everywhere you go, and I didn't know it until I lived in this state — the pride, respect and admiration for that Block M, for the brand of Michigan, I've never been at another university that had as much pride as every alum, student, whoever I come across has in this place. That's very, very unique."

Michigan is a special place, but the basketball program is in rough shape right now. May has been billed as an elite program builder, but he has a lot of work cut out for himself. Luckily, he has a vision for his team and his roster, and plans to get it off the ground immediately.

"By preference, I enjoy the younger players and having continuity, building, growing together, and therefore, the lifelong relationships that I feel like I have with almost every player I've ever coached," May explained. "It's modern athletics, though, the portal will be a valuable asset every year. We'll use it. Our goal has always been to find the best players we can find and help them be the best they can be. So I don't have an answer. We're going to find the best players for Michigan, whether it's international, whether it's high school, from school, junior college, or portal, we'll be on the hunt for the best players that fit us and want to be a part of this storied program."

He also has a vision for what basketball at Michigan will look like moving forward.

"If we ever walk the ball up the floor, if we're not at least jogging or moving at a solid pace, then the guys will hear from me. It needs to be free-flowing. They don't want the defense to ever get set," May outlined. "We shoot probably too many 3s. We finish at the rim, we play modern basketball. We do use analytics, use the metrics, but we try to find the best way for us to play that usually centers around what do your best players do well? And then what do the other guys bring for skill set? And then you mold them, but fast-paced, energetic guys that want to share the ball, playing together, all five guys are connected on both sides of the ball. It's more like jazz, we're playing off of each other, reading each other.

"So I can't say we're going to shoot a ton of 3s this year, because I haven't seen a roster yet. But they are worth more so we'll shoot a lot of them. And defensively, we try to be a little bit different. We try to be as disruptive as we can with our personnel. And we've always taken a lot of pride and trying to play a little bit different than everyone else than the groupthink just so you're not preparing for us every single day in your own gym. But what it looks like to the detail, I don't know yet. But I do know what I want it to look like at the end of the day. And it's fast. There's a lot of action. Very, very few stoppages. And hopefully, we're scoring a lot of points."

Right now, May is saying all of the right things, but make no mistake, he's got a lot of work to do. As of right now, there are only four scholarship players on Michigan's roster. He'll first have to find players, then he'll have to teach them his style and then he'll have to implement it all while building a staff, a culture and ultimately, a winning tradition. He seems like the man for the job, but time will certainly tell.