Sources: Michigan’s Dusty May finalizing deal to coach Mavericks

Michigan coach Dusty May is finalizing a deal to take the Dallas Mavericks‘head teaching job, sources instructed ESPN, an axis-shifting transfer that considerably alters the school and NBA landscapes.

May, 49, led Michigan basketball to the nationwide title in 2026. He’ll coach a franchise with Cooper Flagg as a lynchpin participant. The Mavericks fired Jason Kidd after a 26-56 season final 12 months.

May led Michigan to a 64-13 report over two seasons in Ann Arbor. In his earlier job, he led Florida Atlantic to back-to-back NCAA tournaments, together with the 2023 Final Four. He had dominated out different faculty jobs this offseason, however the NBA has at all times been intriguing to May.

He’s the primary faculty head coach to take an NBA job since former Michigan coach John Beilein took the Cleveland Cavaliers job in 2019. The final to go away faculty instantly after successful a nationwide title was Kansas‘Larry Brown in 1988. Florida‘s Billy Donovan was the newest NCAA title-winning coach to go away for the NBA in 2015.

The transfer places May answerable for the Mavericks’ subsequent era, which is being crafted round Flagg, the NBA’s Rookie of the Year final season after main Dallas by scoring 21.0 factors per recreation. The transfer places Michigan in a sudden state of flux after the Wolverines’ dominant run to the NCAA title. Michigan appeared nicely positioned to repeat, as ESPN’s Jeff Borzello ranked Michigan No. 3 in his early Top 25 rankings.

May’s departure implies that Michigan’s gamers can discover their future choices, as below NCAA guidelines a 15-day switch window will open 5 days after a brand new head coach is employed or publicly introduced.

Michigan is working towards hiring present assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. as interim coach, per sources. Boynton brings head teaching expertise from Oklahoma State and can try to maintain a gifted roster in place.

That roster consists of Final Four Most Outstanding Player Elliot Cadeaugifted rising sophomore Trey McKenney and a brand new crop of gifted transfers that features JP Star, Moustapha Thiam and Jalen Reed.

The Mavericks parted methods with Kidd quickly after hiring new president and alternate governor Masai Ujiri to run the franchise’s basketball operations division regardless of owing Kidd greater than $40 million over the remaining 4 years on his contract.

The Mavs went 205-205 in 5 seasons below Kidd, highlighted by Dallas’ runs to the 2022 Western Conference finals and 2024 NBA Finals. However, the Mavs did not make the playoffs the previous two seasons after the beautiful, controversial commerce of famous person Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025, a transfer that finally resulted within the firing of normal supervisor Nico Harrison in November.

League sources instructed ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that Dallas additionally gauged the curiosity of duke‘s Jon Scheyer, who coached Flagg throughout his lone season in faculty, as they looked for Kidd’s substitute. That course of additionally included interviews with a number of NBA assistant coaches, however the Mavs prioritized recruiting May.

The arc of May’s rise has been comparable to that of the Boston Celtics‘Brad Stevens, who parlayed two nationwide title recreation appearances at Butler to the Celtics’ head teaching job in July 2013.

May emerged as one of many sport’s promising younger coaches after main No. 9-seed FAU of Conference USA to the 2023 Final Four. The Owls misplaced a one-point recreation to San Diego State within the Final Four. May authored spectacular back-to-back seasons of 35-4 and 25-9 whereas at FAU.

In his final 4 seasons as a head coach in faculty, he went 124-26. In 2025, Michigan misplaced to No. 1 seed Auburn within the Sweet 16.

Over that point, May’s fame blossomed, each as a tactical coach in video games and a coach who understands roster development and what gamers work collectively on the ground. That consists of outsized lineups, as Michigan turned the antidote for the small-ball revolution in faculty basketball by successfully enjoying a number of huge males.

During Michigan’s championship parade in April, athletic director Warde Manuel introduced May had agreed to a brand new deal that will maintain him at Michigan for “many years to come.” That deal wasn’t signed on the time of Manuel’s proclamation, and no deal announcement emerged within the subsequent months.

May is a former Indiana basketball supervisor who grinded his manner up the teaching ladder, together with a cease at USC as a video coordinator and assistant jobs at Eastern Michigan, Murray State, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida.

That hopscotching across the nation led him to the pinnacle job at FAU in 2018.