Gary Parish (3:00)

I imagine it hasn't always been that way where you're coaching against an opponent and you're thinking in terms on some level of is this somebody I could, I could have in my program someday? You've now been doing this long enough where you've been a part of the sport where you really just prioritize high school prospects and try to develop them over time. Now it's a little bit of plug and play through the transfer portal. How much has it changed your approach just to everything that has to do.

Dusty May (3:27)

With your job, it's just changed approach that you just have to watch more basketball to have a feel. Because when guys go into the portal, you have to quick strike or a lot of them already know where they're going. But you have to be ready to go and you have to be decisive in your evaluation. So it's different. The transfer portal is not new. There were a lot of schools using it before and I've coached a lot of really good players that sat out a year and used that advantageously to make themselves better. But the immediate eligibility just everyone's on a one year contract essentially. And so you have to stay flexible and liquid and more importantly, you have to invest in your own guys. Because I think retention is going to be paramount going forward for us.

Gary Parish (4:08)

Do you have a preferred route going into homes, recruiting high school players, getting to know the parents, developing over years or at the end of every season, let's just go find the best college basketball players we can find to get them to Ann Arbor. Do you prefer one way or the other?

Dusty May (4:24)

I think we've signed or in the process of signing, we will sign five to ten freshmen in a two year window. And, and so I think that that shows how we really feel about it. I think the transfer portals is how we once looked at junior college players when I was at UAB and Louisiana Tech and fau that if it's an immediate plug and play and they have an opportunity to bring success from day one. Then we want to plug those guys in. But obviously when you're bringing in sophomores, we can't recruit juniors. So when you're bringing in a player that's been in college two years, their expectations are going to be to be at least in the rotation. They're not coming in to be a take your time and develop guy like a high school player might be at times. So it's different in every situation. We want to build roster through high school players but if we need, our job is also to win. The goal is to win and win championships. So we are going to have to plug and play with the portal every year.

Gary Parish (5:13)

Another guy you bring in, Elliot Caddo from North Carolina, obviously a big name heralded recruit. He's played at one of the blue blood programs. Since you've had him on campus, what have you learned about him?

Dusty May (5:24)

Well, he's an elite competitor. He matches our competitive spirit as a program. He makes his teammates better every day. His ability to get us easy shots, to generate easy baskets to P tempo, he's, he's, he's feisty, he's scrappy, he fits us and we think the situation around him will allow him to play at his best.

Gary Parish (5:43)

I don't know if you follow the candid coaches series that we do@cbssports.com but your name came up a lot this year. We asked more than 100 college coaches eight different questions and when we asked them who's the best Xs and O's coach in the country and also who's the next guy who's going to win his first national championship? You were in the top eight vote getters in both of those questions. What if anything does that mean to you?

Dusty May (6:11)

I don't think it means that when you draw something up, your players can execute and make the basket and make you look good as a coach. You know I have a lot of respect for our profession so I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't make you feel good when your peers who you respect the hell out of say nice things about you, but it doesn't really matter. You know, I just honored to be a part of this profession.

Gary Parish (6:32)

I read a story couple days ago at I believe it was masonbrew.com about how throughout your success at FAU and now Michigan, you've done it in a variety of ways but haven't really had a lot of lop threats and yet that has changed the season with the class that you've enrolled. What will fans notice differently about your offense as it pertains to that?

Dusty May (6:56)

Well, just our ability to put pressure on the rim, above the rim is going to be a welcome addition to how we play. With Adai, Mara, Malik, Cordell, Mares, Johnson are three that. We've probably had more dunks in the first week of practice than we had all year last year, and we were built differently as well. But just that ability to cause an overreaction with dunks. Dunks aren't just two points, in our opinion. They cause an overreaction defensively, they ignite the spirit of a building. So we think that's really going to be able to ignite our defense and also just allow us to get better.

Gary Parish (7:29)

Threes as well every year until it happens again. People are going to point out that the Big Ten has not won a national championship since 2000. Is that something that matters to you?

Dusty May (7:40)

Absolutely. I'm a Big Ten guy. I take a lot of pride in this conference and so, yeah, if we're not in it, I'm going to be rooting for a Big Ten team to be and to win a national championship, but hopefully it's us.

Gary Parish (7:51)

Well, that's interesting because I got into a conversation with Matt Norlander on the I Own College Basketball podcast about this specifically because in the sec there does seem to be like everybody hates each other, but big picture, they start rooting for each other in, you know, baseball, NCAA tournaments, basketball, NCAA tournaments, even a college football playoff. The SEC chant is, is always there. Do you think that's similar in the Big Ten? I know you say that if you're not in it, you would root for another Big Ten school, whether it's Purdue or Michigan State or Indiana. Be careful, by the way, I don't want to get you in trouble with your fans, but do you think that's.

Jack Archer Advertiser (8:27)

That's common?

Gary Parish (8:28)

Do you think most coaches would root for the other people in their league if they're not involved anymore?

Dusty May (8:32)

You know, coming up in Conference USA Conference, I think the camaraderie is different. I think we were all truly rooting for each other at our level. It's probably guys are recruiting more for their cliques or whoever they are closest with in the business. So I wouldn't say it's as unanimous as it would be at different levels, but I think there's certainly some of that in our league. I actually had to text our athletic director Ward, manual last year. There's a situation where I felt like an Ohio State win would be good for the Big Ten in football. And I said, am I allowed to root for Ohio State for three hours? I can't remember his response, but we had a good laugh about it.

Gary Parish (9:07)

I bet I could guess. Last thing before I get you out of here. There's a lot of expectations connected to your basketball team this season. You're expected to be good. What does success look like to you?

Dusty May (9:18)

You know Gary, we play such a tough schedule and a lot's being made of the Dukes and the Villanovas and all those guys on our schedule, the Players Era tournament. But we play McNeese State, we play Middle Tennessee State, we play some really good non power four conference teams that could challenge us. So every night we're going to have, we're going to be battle tested. We're going to have to have great stamina to it make through that in the Big Ten travel and Big Ten season. So I don't really look that far. We have championship aspirations. I'm not going to shy away from that. But we have so much work to do and the journey so long that that's it. Just win championships. We have three opportunities. Big Ten, Big Ten tournament and ncaa.

Gary Parish (9:55)

It's good to see you on this morning. I appreciate your time.

Dusty May (9:57)

Thanks G.P. appreciate it. Paramount Pod.

Paramount Plus Announcer (10:11)

Now streaming on Paramount plus in 2020 a lip syncing. Nobody took over the Internet.

Gary Parish (10:17)

What's up guys? For new joiners, it's your boy Whitey.

Paramount Plus Announcer (10:19)

And also your mom.

Dusty May (10:22)

I've been lusting after William White, who's younger than my son.

Gary Parish (10:25)

I feel like a lot of my fans needed to feel young again, like gain a spark back.

Dusty May (10:29)

I've probably given him anywhere from 100 to $200,000.

Paramount Plus Announcer (10:34)

Thirst trap. The fame, the fantasy, the fallout. Now streaming on Paramount plus.