Having eviscerated Tennessee in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four, Michigan basketball is right where everyone thought it would be in December. But in the early goings of the 2025-26 season, the Wolverines had a lot of close calls before the expectations rose substantially. Then, the maize and blue headed to Las Vegas for the in-season tournament, and they destroyed Auburn and Gonzaga, suddenly foisting newfound hopes on the team.
Now Michigan is set to face Arizona in Indianapolis on Saturday, with a win getting the Wolverines to the national championship game, and two wins meaning that they’ve won it all. But it was a challenge to get here, because with the newfound expectations came a bunch of new challenges, head coach Dusty May says.
“I think the most difficult part is that everyone starts getting so much more attention, advice, literally everything they get more of,” May said. “It’s difficult not to make it about you because the people you’re talking to are making it about you. Everyone is having those same things going on.
“There’s just a lot of distracting information. If you’re not mature and you’re not connected as a group and you’re not willing to be held accountable by the staff and each other, then it’s not going to work. Once it creeps in, it’s almost impossible to weed it out. Our guys never let it in. Trust me, they all had different fires that were ignited by other people. They just stayed the course and stayed about each other. That’s ultimately why we’re here. You guys see it. We weren’t a super team, but these guys became super teammates.”
The Wolverines had their moments of letting their guard down. Whether it was the January loss to Wisconsin, the close calls against teams like Penn State and Northwestern, or the loss to Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament, many wondered if the maize and blue perhaps had peaked far too early. However, with a 33-point win over Tennessee, four-straight 90-plus-point games in the NCAA Tournament, and the team seemingly firing on all cylinders, those notions have been put to rest.
Even so, to get to this point required the aforementioned unselfishness that May described, but it also meant keeping their eye on the ball to get here. And even still, that’s what the team plans to do, knowing that the job’s not finished.
“This was obviously one of the goals because of the talent we had in our locker room,” May said. “There’s a slippery slope of being happy and content that we’re there, but also knowing you still have work to do for us to accomplish what could be our ultimate goal, which is to be playing on Monday. We have a sign in our locker room that says ‘April Habits.’ From day one, we’ve challenged these guys to develop championship-level habits that would allow us to win a Big Ten championship and would also allow us to turn the calendar from March until April. Now we’ve put ourselves in a position to do that.
“Tonight, tomorrow, we’ll be all about getting better. These guys have all improved so much as individuals because of the work they put into it and their intention with everything they do every single day. They’ve really helped each other.”
It’s a massive accomplishment, not only for this team, but also May to do what he’s been able to do.
Having coached FAU to the Final Four four seasons ago, May has shown he has the coaching acumen to be among the nation’s elite. While that was obvious then, there were questions about what he would do at a Big Ten school compared to surprising everyone by making the Owls the Cinderella team of the 2023 tournament.
May took over the worst Michigan basketball team in program history, a team that went 8-24, and looked about as lost as a team could. But just two short years later, it’s playing for everything. He shared what his process was and how he got these Wolverines to this point.
“We felt like once we got these guys to stay and we added the pieces that we did in the portal, that we had a chance to be good, and a lot has to go right,” May said. “But no, it was more along the lines, let’s get the guys in here that we can lose with, and if we’re not good, then we’re going to be building towards something great, and they’re going to be foundational pieces, and that’s what we did.
“And just like we have this year, we have a group that I could’ve, personally, I could’ve lost with these guys. You know, I didn’t think we would because we’re so talented, but if we did, I wouldn’t feel much less about them. You know, I would feel guilty we didn’t give them the experiences that they deserve, but for the most part, this is a group that you can lose with because of all the other attributes they bring to the table, but obviously, when you have the talent we have, you’re not going to lose much as long as they stay connected.”
Michigan will face Arizona in Indianapolis on Saturday night. Tipoff has not yet been set.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan basketball coach Dusty May on Final Four
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