The return of a successful alumnus to their alma mater is typically a joyous occasion.
But at the confluence of former IU basketball manager Dusty May’s soaring career as head coach at Michigan, and Mike Woodson’s tenuous role as head coach of the Hoosiers, things could be a bit awkward on Saturday.
Indiana hosts Michigan Saturday at 1 p.m. ET (CBS).
The 48-year-old May said this week he doesn’t notice when his name is announced during pregame introductions. But if the IU crowd is feeling frisky this weekend, the reaction to that intro might be difficult to ignore.
May has been on the Indiana head coach wish list of many fans since he took Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023. And his 17-5 overall start at Michigan, including 9-2 in the Big Ten has done nothing to quell those desires.
May isn’t just coming back Indiana University, where he worked under Bob Knight as a manager (1996-2000) and later Mike Davis as a staff member (2002-2005). He’s coming home. His mother still lives in Bloomington.
“We get a ticket allotment as a group, and I have no more tickets (for Saturday). We take care of immediate family and immediate family only,” May said with a smile earlier this week, noting his wife is handling the requests as his phone has seen a significant uptick in incoming text messages.
May was born in Terre Haute and grew up in Solsberry, Ind., less than 20 miles from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. You’ve probably read his story, how cutting IU basketball team physician Larry Rink’s grass led to that manager role under Knight.
He’s trying to compartmentalize it all.
But it won’t be easy.
“Without a doubt, it’s just another game,” May said this week. “I’m sure that when we go there (Assembly Hall) to practice, you’re walking into a place where you spent 50 hours a week as an undergraduate, a practice rebounder for guys, whatever the case. And then I worked there as a staffer.”
It won’t be May’s first time back in the building on the opposing sideline. He was an assistant for Eastern Michigan in 2005 and coached that year in a game played in Bloomington. And May has been there for games through the years when he’s had a chance to be home visiting family over the holidays.
But it would have been difficult for May or anyone else to imagine the scene on Saturday.
After all, he had fairly modest ambitions when he caught a break and took that manager role under Knight.
“When I went to Indiana, even for the first year or two I wanted to be a high school basketball coach. That’s why I went there. I thought if I learn from Coach Knight, if I have Coach Knight on my résumé, I could maybe get one of these high school jobs in my mid-twenties in Indiana. That was my dream,” May said this week.
During his time at IU, May said he realized he could coach at the college level. And now, he’s regarded as one of the hottest names in the sport.
On Saturday he’ll be surrounded by thousands of friends, family members and fellow IU alumni as he leads the Wolverines from the south end of the scorer’s table. And many of them would like nothing more than to see May coach on the north end next year.
That might seem insensitive to say, but it’s the reality of the moment.
Yeah, it’s going to be a very unique situation.
And yeah, May is just trying to compartmentalize everything.
“I’m going there to try to win a freaking basketball game, and that’s it,” he said.
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