Michigan basketball's big pitch man to Dusty May: Ex-coach John Beilein

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Dusty May was introduced as Michigan basketball's new head coach on Tuesday, but his hiring was far from a sure thing for much of the two weeks after athletic director Warde Manuel fired former head coach Juwan Howard.

An 8-24 season — the most losses in 107 years of program history convinced Manuel that Howard was no longer the right man for the job after five seasons.

So who was?

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A search began immediately. The university hired a firm to trim down the candidates while Manuel put together his own list.

One notable name: John Beilein, Howard's predecessor who'd led the Wolverines to a pair of national championship games before departing for an unsuccessful gig with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers.

Manuel said Tuesday at the introduction of May, formerly of Florida Atlantic, that he'd had Beilein "in the back of my mind."

But instead of hiring the College Basketball Hall of Fame coach, Manuel used him as a sounding board and advisor.

The two met for 1½ hours via Zoom last Tuesday, then spent another two hours the next day going through the previously identified candidates. Manuel told Beilein he'd centered on one name: May.

Beilein was not only pleased, he offered to drive from where he was — Naples, Florida — to Fort Lauderdale to meet with Manuel, the search committee and May. Manuel thought the approximately 110-mile drive from one coast of Florida to the other was a fantastic idea, as he wanted someone who could talk ball and who knew what it was like to win in Ann Arbor.

"Coaches will listen to AD's when we talk about administration, how we talk about how someone is as a person," Manuel joked Tuesday. "They don't listen to me when I talk about basketball: 'Here's what you need to do.' But him and John? They know the language. ... His basketball questions can be better answered by him.

"So it was a great service for John to volunteer."

Manuel and May connected quickly, though they joked Tuesday that the entire process felt like "speed dating."

But the more questions they asked, they more they felt aligned. May said he understands the limitations of U-M's admissions process (especially how credits transfer), but he also claimed no one will be off-limits in recruiting.

Instead, his staff — which he has yet to announce or give an exact timeline for hiring but will come with a positive energy — will have to make sure it does its own homework. That will start immediately, as May begins building a team that's positioned for the now and the future.

With a little help from the past via Beilein.