Dusty May reveals how he handles outside praise for Michigan

There is not one team in all of college basketball who is on a more dominant run than the Michigan Wolverines right now.

The Wolverines currently sit at 9-0 through nine games and have blitzed six opponents in a row since holding off TCU 67-63 in overtime on Nov. 14. Proud programs such as Auburn (102-72), Gonzaga (101-61), and Villanova (89-61) have all been demolished by Michigan over the past two-and-a-half weeks.

Due to the program’s dominant start to the season, head coach Dusty May and star player Yaxel Lendeborg have received much-deserved praise. May, who is in his second season as Michigan‘s head coach, revealed how he and his program handle outside noises following the dominant win over Villanova Tuesday night.

“I’ve been in this position before as an assistant (at Florida), but not at this level,” May said. “I just know that the outside noise is ultimately what causes teams to crumble from within, so it’s a fight daily. Our messaging is not what the outside world is messaging. What the outside world values. Every single day, we’re running into a headwind of what they’re seeing and hearing. What the young people get today and where they get their pleasure and dopamine is not what’s real. It’s not one person’s fault, because we’re all guilty of it.

“If we let that in, then we’ll become just like a lot of other teams. And there are going to be other teams that go through tough stretches that find the other side of it and they recommit to the team. As of today, we’re a good basketball team. We have a couple guys that deserve a lot of attention. Media and all the stuff that comes with it, and they’re not getting it. I’m getting too much of it, and a few of our players are getting too much of it. But that’s part of it.”

The sample size is small, but it seems as if Michigan certainly hit a home run with its hire of May from Florida Atlantic. In his first season at the helm last year, May led the Wolverines to a 27-10 record and a Sweet Sixteen appearance, the program’s first since 2022. The way that this team is playing (although it is still very early in the season), it appears as if Michigan could make a run at its first National Championship since 1989.