The Dallas Mavericks are introducing new head coach Dusty May, who is taking over for Jason Kidd. The Mavericks and Kidd mutually agreed to part ways after five seasons together that included a run to the NBA Finals.
May won a national championship in his second season at Michigan, but has never been a college head coach before.
The Mavericks selected one of May’s former players, Morez Johnson, Jr., with the ninth overall pick in the NBA draft last week. Two other starters were top 15 picks in the draft as well.
May previously coached at Florida Atlantic, where he reached the 2023 NCAA Final Four. May began his college coaching career as an assistant at Murray State in 2005-06. He then served on staffs at UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida before getting his first head coaching job at FAU.
He took over at Florida Atlantic in 2018 and had four consecutive seasons of finishing just over .500 — before striking gold in the 2022-23 season, going 35-4 and taking the Owls on that improbable Final Four run.
He went 25-9 at FAU the following season, then went to Michigan and brought the Wolverines back to prominence. Michigan went 27-10 two seasons ago before the run to the championship. May won the Big Ten twice in two seasons.
May’s record in his last four college seasons was 124-26, an .827 winning percentage that was third best in all of major college men’s basketball over that span behind Houston’s Kelvin Sampson (.861) and Duke’s Jon Scheyer (.832), who coach at national powers.
The Indiana native was a student manager for the Hoosiers and coach Bob Knight while he was in school there from 1996-2000. He gained experience in scouting, video operations and player development while with the Hall of Fame coach, who died in 2023.
AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Arlington, Texas, contributed to this report.