The Michigan basketball program does have a 1989 national championship and will forever be connected to the “Fab Five” era that revolutionized college basketball, but hiring May wasn’t done to further a cultural movement – it was done to win games. May compiled a 126-69 record over six seasons at FAU. During the same time frame May was building a program in Florida, Michigan was slowly fading into obscurity.
For as fondly as Juwan Howard’s time as a player at Michigan is remembered, his tenure as coach is one fans want to forget. Michigan athletic director Warde Manual called Howard “one of the greatest Wolverines to ever be associated with our basketball program” in his statement about the program moving on.
Howard posted an 87-72 mark in five years, only making two NCAA Tournaments. Two NCAA Tournament appearances in a five-year stretch is unacceptable for Michigan. The Wolverines now go from a former player to someone other than a “Michigan man” and that feels like the right transition if the goal is to win another national championship
Putting a school like FAU on the college basketball map and winning conference and national titles in the Big Ten are completely different things, but Michigan is banking on May, still relatively young in his coaching career at 47, being up for the task.
And for people who will say most of the NIL money raised for Michigan is still going to go to football, there’s no way a coach with options like May would agree to take this job if he didn’t believe the financial resources would be there for him to compete at a
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