I have been a lifelong University
of Michigan basketball fan. When I was a
student there, they had won the national championship in 1989, where I had a
front row seat as a member of the basketball band to see Rumeal Robinson’s hit his game winning free throws to beat Seton Hall.
But since then, it had been 37 years without a national title, and the passionate
U-M fan base was aching for another championship. U-M had gotten close a couple times, in 1992
and 1993 with the Fab Five, and again in 2013 and 2018 with John Beilein’s
gutsy teams, but we just couldn’t summit the mountain. That was until Dusty May was hired in 2024,
after U-M’s worst season in their history, finishing with a dismal 8-24 record. His two-year turnaround to a 37-3 national
champion will go down as one of coaching’s greatest accomplishments. This post will highlight a few of his
leadership lessons that you can apply to your businesses.
Who is Dusty May?
The 49-year-old coach’s history with college basketball went all the way back to 1996, when he was a 19-year-old student manager for the legendary Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers. He worked his way up through the coaching ranks from Eastern Michigan to Murray State, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida, before getting his first head coaching gig at FAU, where he lead the Owls to an unexpected Final Four in 2023 as a significant underdog. Dusty May was officially the hot up-and-coming coach, and Michigan wasted no time in hiring him in 2024 to replace Juwan Howard.
Why He Was So Successful?
There were several reasons Dusty May was so successful as a coach. First of all, he was a wicked smart student of the game, understanding how to put high level schemes, game plans and side-line coaching adjustments in place. Second, he knew how to assemble unlikely rosters of under-appreciated players that he saw promise in through the transfer portal, and get them to succeed and gel in a short period of time. Third, he got his players to believe in a “Team Before Self” mentality, which is hard to do with a bunch of elite basketball players that had previously thrived in the individual limelight at their previous schools. And lastly, his calm/consistent demeanor, and treating his players as “family”, endeared him to his players. Let’s dive into each of these traits at a deeper level.
Crafting The Right Strategy Matters
Dusty knew that competing in the Big Ten against some of the best teams in college basketball (sending 5 teams to the Elite Eight) required him to have a better strategy to win. And in crafting the best strategy, Dusty was a pro and breaking down the film on his competitors, finding their weaknesses and leaning into those to create his advantages. That allowed his team not only to win, but to win big by an average margin of 18 points during his championship season (and by an average of 22 points during the NCAA Tournament when it mattered most). Michigan finished their regular season with a record of 19-1 during Big Ten play, a record four-game advantage over the second place teams with a 15-5 record. And they didn’t lose a single game on their opponent’s court, which is so hard to do with home court advantages. How well thought-out are your business strategies and how well researched are you on your competitors?
Get The Right Players That Fit Your Desired Strategy
You don’t normally see a basketball team with more than one 7 footer on the roster. But Dusty’s rosters typically have multiple big men on the floor at the same time. And these “giants” were not only great at rebounding, blocking shots and scoring inside, most of them are also good when shooting from three-point range. His centers were basically playing like guards, flying around the court with an ease not typically associated with big men. Dusty knew that basketball is a game of inches, and those extra inches in height and wing span, would matter come tournament time. Do you have the best, most-versatile team members filling your employee rosters to give your business that extra “inside edge”?
But it just wasn’t setting the right strategy of using a lot of versatile big men, it was also picking who those exact big men were. His transfer players like Vlad Goldin, Danny Wolf, Morez Johnson and Aday Mara were good players on their previous teams, but not all-star great players. He saw “diamonds in the rough” that he believed he could coach up into all-star players, and sure enough Goldin and Wolf were drafted into the NBA last year, and Johnson and Mara were drafted to the NBA this year. And players that were criticized for underperforming, like Elliot Cadeau at UNC, were now most valuable players of the NCAA Tournament under Dusty May’s tutelage. How good are you at developing your employees and turning them into all-stars for your business?
Put the Team First, Before the Individual
Yaxel Lendeborg, the Big Ten Player of the Year and consensus First Team All-American, only averaged 15 points a game this season. He could have easily been like any of his fellow All-American’s averaging 20-25 points per game. But Dusty May emphasized to his players, that the team results were more important than any individual statistics. That extra pass to an open team mate, may hurt your personal scoring stats, but it could help seal a victory. And all this team cared about was winning in a self-less way, which is why 8 different players lead the team in scoring this year. Opponents never could predict which one of them would be the star of the night, which was really hard to defend against. That was a very special group of players that listened to their coaches and led Michigan and became their most-accomplished team in history. What are you doing in your organization to promote team work and getting the staff to act as one unified group committed to winning?
Calm and Steady Wins the Race
When you would see Dusty May on the sideline, you would never even think he was coaching in the middle of a game. The expression on his faced was calm and collected. He never let himself get wrapped up in the high and low emotions of the game. It was all business following his proven playbook. And his players followed suit; they appreciated his style of leadership and they knew the “ship” was in good hands with Dusty at the helm. And they applied that same calm approach in their style of play. They just knew every team member had each other’s back and they would figure out how to win, regardless of the opponent they were playing. And the bigger the stage, the better they performed, often blowing out some of the best teams in the country. How do you think your staff is responding to your vision and leadership style?
Closing Thoughts
Dusty May knew what the goal was from day one of this season—win a national championship or bust with the talent he had around the table. He instilled an “April Habits” mindset from day one of the pre-season practices, knowing that the work they put into over the course of the year would propel them to championship heights in the Final Four in April. He was even seen on the sideline of the first Final Four game between Connecticut and Illinois, scouting those two teams, when you would have guessed he would have been in the locker room with his team getting ready for their big game which would follow. But when a reporter asked him about him not being with the team, he calmly responded, “nothing I would tell them in the next hour would change the result of the game—the results of tonight’s game would be decided months earlier in the work they put in leading up to tonight.” He knew they were prepared, he knew they would win in the Final Four and he was getting a step ahead to ensure they would win on championship night. I hope you are all putting in that same level of work and discipline in your businesses.
Now, if you can figure out how to get Dusty May back to Michigan after the Dallas Mavericks stole him as head coach last month, that would be great! Hopefully, the new U-M head coach, Mike Boynton, a Dusty May assistant, continues in Dusty’s winning ways. Go Blue!
For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.
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