Mavericks lure Dusty May from Michigan to coach Cooper Flagg

The Dallas Mavericks are hiring Dusty May away from Michigan to be their next head coach, sources confirmed to DLLS Sports on Monday.

May becomes the first college head coach to jump straight to the NBA since John Beilein left Michigan for Cleveland in 2019, and the first to leave immediately after winning a national title since Larry Brown departed Kansas in 1988. The last NCAA champion to make the leap at all was Florida’s Billy Donovan in 2015.

May, 49, arrives in Dallas only months after cutting down the nets, having led the Wolverines to the 2026 national championship, their first since 1989, behind a 37-3 season. He had reportedly ruled out other college jobs this offseason, and during Michigan’s title parade in April, the school announced he’d agreed to a new deal to stay for “many years to come.” He agreed to a contact extension with Michigan, but the contract was never signed.

A Bob Knight student manager at Indiana in the late 1990s, May spent more than a decade as an assistant at stops like Eastern Michigan, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida before landing his first head job at Florida Atlantic in 2018, at age 41. Five years later he took ninth-seeded FAU to the 2023 Final Four. Over his last four seasons as a college head coach he went 124-26, which can be likened to Brad Stevens’ Butler-to-Boston leap in 2013.

The Mavericks parted ways with Jason Kidd after hiring new president and alternate governor Masai Ujiri. Kidd was had multiple years and about $40 million left on his contract.

According to a league source, May was an “NBA-centered” college coach who ran Michigan like a pro team. The Wolverines’ starting five average age was about 22 years old, with no starter younger than 20 and multiple 23-year-olds in the lineup.

He inherits a rebuild centered on a 19-year-old. May will rebuild with reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg, who averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks while shooting 46.8% from the field, 29.5% from 3-point range and 82.7% from the free-throw line. The team also employs 9-time all-star Kyrie Irving, who missed the entire 2025-26 season.

May has never coached in the NBA. But Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz are betting that a coach who builds winners quickly is exactly what Dallas needs.