Dusty May says the right thing when it comes to Michigan basketball rivalries
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The thing that makes college sports better than their professional counterparts is that the rivalries are much more heated and more intense. There’s a lot more pride on the line with college allegiances than that in the pros, so getting a head coach who understands his school’s rivalries is of paramount importance.
New Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May has had quite a few stops ranging from his time as a player to throughout his coaching career, so he’s seen his share. He was a student manager at Indiana under Bobby Knight before getting his coaching start at Eastern Michigan — just seven miles down the road from Ann Arbor in Ypsilanti. He’s coached at Florida under Mike White, so he knows both rivalries as well as this region — both from his time in Bloomington as well as being an Illinois native.
Though he’s had something of a whirlwind — coaching FAU in the NCAA Tournament on Friday before accepting the Michigan job on Saturday — May doesn’t need to acclimatize to who the Wolverines’ rivals are in Ohio State and Michigan State.
WolverinesWire asked him on Tuesday at his introductory press conference what he knows about Michigan’s rivalries and he dropped one line that indicates he’s well aware of how things work up in Ann Arbor.
“I grew up in Big Ten country — you’re well aware of the rivalries,” May said. “And I became really, really close with a few guys that played football at the school down south. And Cris Carter lived in a neighborhood next door he works at FAU now. So I’m very, very familiar with the rivalries.”
The most Michigan thing ever is to not mention Michigan State while acknowledging Ohio State as ‘the school down south.’ Whether that was already in May’s vernacular or he learned that upon taking the job is unclear, but he already seems to have a good first grasp on what the maize and blue are all about in respect to the schools Michigan loathes.
