CHICAGO — The confetti had already fallen, the Final Four hats handed out. All that was left was the ceremonial net-cutting at the United Center.
As his Wolverines climbed one by one up the ladder, head coach Dusty May stood underneath the basket, smiling as he watched the moment wash over each of the players who earned the right to extend their season. He leaned back against the basket’s stanchion as he watched his guys realize that they’re headed to Indianapolis.
May himself had made it to a Final Four before, back when he took Florida Atlantic on its Cinderella-esque run to Houston in 2023. He knows what it feels like when the realization hits. He knows that an NCAA Tournament run like this can change your life forever. And he saw the people that mattered to his players celebrate that moment, too.
“They’re playing a child’s game, I’m coaching a child’s game,” May said. “In one spot are all these people that have poured into them — their old coaches that have supported them and poured into them, their parents, who have made countless sacrifices for them to have this opportunity. It’s just rewarding to see these moments where everyone is together. … When we have a chance to share this experience, it’s just really cool to see.”
He smiled and waited a beat before continuing.
“I’d highly recommend next year’s team doing it also.”
But before May can think about next year, he’s got to focus on Saturday’s national semifinal matchup against Arizona. And then, he hopes, Monday night’s title game. Just two years after inheriting a team that won a total of eight games, May has himself a real national title contender. He actually might have the very best team in the country.
And, if that turns out to be the case, his players may have another net to cut down pretty soon.
Last offseason, assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. looked over the list of players Michigan had added from the transfer portal: Elliot Cadeau from UNC; Aday Mara from UCLA; Yaxel Lendeborg from UAB, and Morez Johnson Jr. from Illinois. Boynton was blown away; on paper, the team’s talent compilation was impressive.
But would it work? Could the Wolverines really play with three bigs on the court at once?
“Well, this wasn’t part of the original plan,” May said. “The plan was to get two bigs to replace Danny (Wolf) and Vlad (Goldin). … Then, we were able to get Aday and Morez right off the bat. I was perfectly content going into this year. I felt like we could compete to be at the level we’re on with that group without Yax. Maybe we could, maybe we couldn’t. We’ll never know.”
Because Lendeborg was also available. And he was interested in Michigan.
“When they were all on campus this summer, there were several days where I thought to myself there’s a high probability this isn’t going to work,” May said. “If you watched us play the first couple games of the regular season, I think you’d probably agree that it wasn’t working. …
“I give our guys a lot of credit. They’ve done a nice job of solving problems and putting the puzzle pieces together the right way and really respecting each other, appreciating each other’s talents, and figuring out how they could be their best while also playing next to a guy that’s really big and talented. Because, typically, that’s a recipe for disaster from a spacing standpoint.”
May’s staff had worried about the same thing. If you’re dealing with multiple players who had played the same position (center) on previous teams, new roles were going to feel strange at first. And all three had to get used to being on the court with two other bigs at the same time.
“The parts did not necessarily fit seamlessly,” Boynton said.
Assistant Akeem Miskdeen said Mara, Johnson and Lendeborg were all on top of each other. “Everyone’s diving to the rim, everyone’s playing inside the perimeter,” Miskdeen said. Michigan needed Lendeborg to play along the perimeter more. Johnson, too — at least, a little bit. And they needed to talk it out on the court, too.
Eventually, the trio did figure out its spacing. That meant that three players 6-foot-9 or taller could be on the floor at the same time, which would present immense and unique challenges for opponents.
“A lot of people accumulate talent — but when those guys got together and you watched how unselfish they were, that’s what was the difference,” Boynton said. “When we saw those guys play in practice and how they were willing to pass the ball and to communicate on defense, we felt like we had a really good shot.”
The goals began to materialize. Michigan put up a sign in its locker room that read “April Habits.” The staff wanted to challenge the players to develop championship-level habits, May said. That meant doing all the little things every day in practice to get better than they were the day before. Those habits would hopefully help Michigan win a Big Ten regular-season title (the Wolverines won outright), and it also meant hopefully enough wins in the month of March to earn the right to play into April (which the Wolverines are doing right now).
“There’s a slippery slope of being happy and content that we’re (here) but also knowing we still have work to do for us to accomplish what could be,” May said. “Our ultimate goal is to be playing on Monday.”
In Ann Arbor, Lendeborg has proven himself to be one of the very best players in the country. Mara and Johnson have both nearly doubled their production from last season (at UCLA and Illinois, respectively). The three lead the Wolverines in scoring, and together the trio accounts for 40 points, 21 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks per game.
It’s probably safe to say that the experiment of a three-headed monster has worked. It’s actually worked wonders.
Thirty-five wins to just three losses makes a compelling case on its own, let alone the way the Wolverines dominated opponents in many of those 35 wins. They’re the first team to win its first four NCAA Tournament games by double figures and score at least 90 points in each matchup.
Michigan is two wins away from the second national championship in program history and first since 1989. The Fab Five, for all the ways they changed basketball and culture during their Final Four runs, never actually won it all. John Beilein had two teams that made it all the way to Monday night — but both fell short.
The current team has incredible off-court camaraderie and on-court chemistry, which players attribute to a late-summer trip the team took last year up north to Lake Charlevoix. There, guys actually talked to each other; no one whispered behind anyone else’s back.
That’s when the coaches realized it was a group that could stay — and play — connected.
“Elliot Cadeau is the secret sauce, really connecting everybody,” Boynton said. “We got to the (Sweet 16) last year, but we didn’t have a guy like him to get us over the top. Yax, obviously, is the jack of all trades. Moritz is our toughness. People don’t have an Aday back there who can block shots and protect the rim.
“But Elliot is the one who connects it all.”
It’s the same Elliot Cadeau who struggled with his 3-point shooting and turnovers last season at North Carolina. But the point guard blossomed at Michigan with a head coach that calls him “a savant” due to his ability to see the floor and manipulate defenses. Cadeau has tallied 43 assists to just nine turnovers in Michigan’s past five games.
“He sees things that we don’t even see ourselves,” veteran guard Nimari Burnett said.
That’s why Michigan’s offensive ball movement is so crisp and clean. It’s why the Wolverines can beat you both inside and along the perimeter. In recent weeks, following the season-ending injury to backup point guard LJ Cason, Michigan has also seen Roddy Gale Jr. and Trey McKinney step into larger roles. Both have produced in big moments during the NCAA Tournament.
But the tests only get harder from here on out. Like Michigan, Arizona is one of the nation’s best teams — ranking in the nation’s top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency on KenPom.com — and a team that dominates most of its opponents with its size and prowess in the paint. The Wildcats, too, have a veteran point guard that makes the whole team go. They’ve got a likely lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft in Koa Peat. They have also been one of the nation’s elite teams all season long.
But Michigan has been up for every challenge it has faced so far. Those April Habits carried the Wolverines from November through March and into the month that matters most. They’ve brought them to the doorstep of immortality. Indianapolis is where Dusty May believed this team could go, and it’s why this team believes in him, too.
“There’s an argument to be made,” Boynton said, “that he’s the best coach in the country.”
