NCAA Coaching Carousel: Dusty May Leaves FAU For Michigan

Dusty May, the most coveted coach in the Coaching Carousel, will leave Florida Atlantic to replace Juwan Howard at Michigan, as first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The news was confirmed by a person with direct knowledge of the situation who was not able to speak publicly because the deal has not yet been announced.

May, who last April got 10-year contract at FAU worth more than $15 million, had also been linked to the Louisville and Vanderbilt openings.

“May became swept away with the alumni network and its fierce loyalty to the university and athletics, sources said,” Woj Tweeted. “His belief is that that will help transcend some of the inherently transactional nature of the modern NIL/transfer portal era in recruiting and player retention.”

May, 47, led FAU to the Final Four in 2023 and back to the NCAA Tournament this year, where the Owls lost to Northwestern, 77-65, on Friday in Brooklyn. He won 60 games in the last two seasons.

“If you really know Coach, you don’t really pay too much attention to the articles online,” guard Nick Boyd said ahead of the game. “I mean, if it’s his last game or whatever, we just want to make it special, so who cares.”

Following the loss to Northwestern, May was asked about his future.

“We’ll see what’s next,” he said. “We’ll get everybody back and do our individual meetings and figure out what’s next.

“But right now, I can’t speak for anyone in our locker room. We just poured our heart and soul into this team, into this run, and unfortunately for us, we didn’t get where we wanted to get to, but life goes on.”

Michigan fired Howard, a former “Fab Five” member, on March 15 after an 18-16 season in which the team was plagued by academic issues, injuries, close losses and other problems.

He went 87-72 in five seasons at his alma mater, with a Sweet 16 appearance and an Elite Eight appearance.