Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- Once-proud Indiana has been stuck in a basketball purgatory of its own making, still looking for a coach to lead them back.
- They missed their chance to nab Dusty May, who had previously impressed as a student manager under Bob Knight at Indiana.
- This choice now looms large as their rival, Michigan, thrives under the leadership of a coach who once seemed destined to return to his alma mater.
Michigan's brilliant run through the NCAA Tournament was a touchstone for the Big Ten, which can finally reclaim the national championship in basketball. The architect of the Wolverines, head coach Dusty May, has an opportunity to build Michigan into a basketball super power over the coming years.
May is surging up the ranks of elite college basketball coaches after adding Monday's championship to his unprecedented Final Four run with Florida Atlantic in 2023. That first run with the Owls put May on the radar for power conference schools, but May wisely opted to run it back with FAU as they got to the NCAA Tournament again in 2024.
That hiring cycle saw May nearly go to Louisville before Michigan swooped in to hire him as their replacement for Juwan Howard. While the Cardinals are definitely experiencing FOMO right now, it appears that May made the correct decision as he cited his comfort within the Big Ten's footprint as a primary factor.
This all stems back to May's time at Indiana, where he was a student manager under Bob Knight before graduating in 2000. There had been speculation that the Hoosiers would try to bring May home after they fired Mike Woodson in 2025 but May opted to stay at Michigan, leading Indiana to pivot to Darian DeVries instead.
DeVries has a chance to do good things at Indiana based on his strong track record at Drake but he missed the NCAA Tournament this year with a collapse down the stretch. It is fair for Hoosiers fans to feel burned by their administration for letting a potential May homecoming slip through their fingers.
Why Indiana didn't hire Dusty May in 2024
Indiana was staring at a tough decision in that infamous 2024 hiring cycle with another former alum, Mike Woodson, at the helm. Woodson finished his third year 19-14, missing the dance entirely, but had won a combined 44 games in his first two seasons with back-to-back tournament appearances.
The administration made the choice to give Woodson a fourth year only to move on after he went 19-13 and missed March Madness again. While it is reasonable that the Hoosiers didn't want to embarrass Woodson by firing him after three years, the fact that they pivoted so quickly to DeVries suggests they may have been better off ripping the band-aid sooner.
The well-oiled machine that May has built at Michigan is exactly what Indiana needed to bring their program back into the national spotlight as a true blue blood. Now the Hoosiers have to live with the fact that one of their own is building an arch-rival into a national powerhouse because they opted to ride with Woodson one year too long.