Blue By Ninety - DUSTY MAY TO THE MAVS

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Justin and Joel react to Dusty heading to the NBA and what that means for the future of Michigan Basketball

All right, welcome back to Blue By 90, presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. It is June 22nd, and we've got an emergency pod that I definitely did not expect recording this week, let alone like this year, to be honest with you. News dropped today. Dusty May is leaving Michigan to take the Mavs head coaching job. Shams and Adam Schaefter, everybody dropped the bomb here. earlier today right around what noon or something like that 11 a.m. something like that and man I got to tell you I know that a lot of people are with me and just feeling super shocked that this is happening but also it feels just like deja vu here for Michigan fans it's like every time that we have something good happen you just get a gut punch like immediately after

and now we're sitting here trying to replace our Natty head coach after he built something in 24 months of being in Ann Arbor. Yeah, this is not a podcast that we wanted to have, nor did we think we were going to have this. For a while, that was like in option with the whole North Carolina thing. But then he came out and said, hey, I'm not entertaining any other college basketball jobs, which was not a lie. That was not a lie. I don't know.

But we thought we had him. And then based on what Ward Manuel said, you know, Dusty's here for as long as he wants to be here. We were feeling really good about our position. And today is not an exciting day for the Wolverine fan base at all. You know, I wouldn't say it's one of those situations where we're mad.

Like, it's hardly mad at Dusty May. Such good guy. He did so much good for us. But just like the disappointment. You're right. Like we, we have seen this twice in a recent history where we win a national championship and the coach is gone.

And, you know, especially right now, if you want to talk about the turnover for head coaches, especially right now, you're a period of time where all of that coaching change has already happened. So all of your big name programs have acquired their coaches that were up-in-comers. It doesn't mean there's not more out there for that opportunity, but it's essentially over. Another part that kind of confuses me, the NBA draft is tomorrow. It starts tomorrow. Now, I get it.

Like, head coaches aren't quite as involved. That's more of the GM. That's his job. But still, the timing on it is not ideal. Would it ever be ideal? No, probably not. But this one especially is just out of nowhere. It just hurts.

I definitely agree with you. Like, my first reaction was not being pissed at DUS. You know, I think that at the end of the day, the NBA is the pinnacle of, you know, coaching basketball. Just like Jim Harbaugh going to the NFL, it's like winning a Super Bowl in the NFL is you can say that you've been to the top of the top. Right. And Dusty May has been to the top of the top in college basketball. Now he wants to try to go hoist an NBA finals trophy. And, you know, they've got Cooper flag there. he's 20 years old and a superstar. It's a very enticing position to have, right?

And, you know, and so it's, it's one of those tough things. Like you really wish that, you know, you wouldn't just leave right after. Like you, I know, I don't know. I'm struggling for the words already. I've had all day to think about this and still struggling. But, I mean, it's like you wanted, you, my, everybody was thinking like, all right, I reload. We can go on a 10-year run, even a five-year run in Michigan basketball and be like final four after final four after final four.

And, you know, he had already reloaded in the portal and brought on, you know, a bunch of guys. He brought back Trey McKinney and Elliot Kudow and some of these guys. And like, it just, it definitely felt like it was, you know, all right, let's go. Like, we're really building a powerhouse in Ann Arbor. and then and to your point, you made it past the coaching, the college coaching carousel, right? So, you know,

there was all the Indiana talk earlier and then North Carolina and like all this stuff. And like you somewhat locked him down with what they had talked, you know, him and War both came out and said like contract extension and all this stuff. He mentioned the college job. And that was, you know,

in hindsight, it was a pretty obvious glaring, you know, thing for him to say, I'm not taking a college job. But now you're sitting here, you know, mid late June and you're like, shit, we don't have a coach, you know, because the, I think that's like, not only does it hurt just because he's a great coach, but it hurts because now what do you, you've got this whole roster that just came back on a campus this past week. And where do you go from here? I'm sure some of those guys will jump back in the portal.

you have to go find a coach or you promote from within. Now you're asking all those questions. And it's a very similar situation that football was going through just a few months ago with Kyle Whittingham too, of like poor old last second coaching hire. Like, holy shit. It just feels like it's groundhog day. Yeah, it really does. And there's like so many logistics behind this that are to be discussed.

like so once we hire a head coach they open up the portal for 15 days and guys get to come and go and there's probably going to be more going you know say let's say they they bring the coach from st louis right maybe he brings a couple of his guys in but you're right like we just reloaded this team and felt good about it because dusty may knows how to do it are we going to have that team anymore i have no idea. And then, you know, the thing that frustrates me in all of this is so after the season, so Dusty May already had a five-year contract with Michigan. And obviously he wins a national championship. There's going to be some renegotiation in that contract, which they had agreed to. They said, Ward said, you know, we're going to renegotiate this. Obviously give him more money.

Right. But they never signed anything. They didn't sign anything, put anything down. on paper and i'm not saying that would have stopped him but now michigan gets five million dollars because he goes to the mabs it's i don't know it there's a lot to it you could you know pick and choose what you want to fight against and fight for or whatnot but ultimately at the end of the day we lost us damee and it is incredibly unfortunate we'll probably we'll know more right when he hits the media and he speaks to the media when he goes uh goes to dallas but it's frustrating he doesn't has a heck of a roster to work with down there. And I get it. And you said it. You know, he's won the most prestigious warden college basketball. And why not go and try to win it in the NBA

with, you know, the top players in the world. You can't blame him. The way that the news was broke to me was through Dave Portnoy. I saw it on Instagram. And he was like, Dusty May is gone. And I hadn't seen any other headlines aside from that. And I was like, wait, What? Is this a joke? I looked it up. There was nothing. And then, I mean, 10 minutes later, of course, it was everywhere. But even Dave Portnoy, the guy who seems to be the most critical of anything ever was not upset by it. He was like, listen, like, I get it. We obviously know he's not a bad guy. He loved Michigan for the time that he was here. He was only here for two years. But, yeah, what, like my assumption is our interim head coach, obviously comes from within.

that's just how it normally goes. And do we stay there? I don't know. Do we go to St. Louis? I don't know. You could speculate anything and everything at this point. It's just, it stinks for sure. It's even, in my opinion, it's too early to even think about who the next coach is

because everyone's just trying to figure out what's happening right now. Yeah. And so I think, yeah, to your point, like, I think a gut reaction of a lot of Michigan fans is like fire ward manual and blah blah blah and like i understand that because of the track record of losing really good coaches and um it is unfortunate obviously and like to your point on the contract that is ward's job to go get that contract signed and in the fact that it never got signed is i i don't there there are a lot of questions that i'd like answered with that of like why that is the case because he could sign that contract and still go to the NBA right

I'm sure that that's, you know, there's still a buyout clause and whatever else. But like, you can't just let your coach go through the entire summer without signing a new contract, you know. Right. I mean, your head coach is getting in the portal the day after winning the national championship. We can't get, we can't offer this guy more money and put that on paper and sign it. Exactly. Like you said, like, who's to say he probably still would leave to go to the MABs after that contract. But at that point in time, we're not speculating, hey, why wasn't the contract signed?

it's just like, hey, he wanted to go to the NBA. Right. You know. But I think that, I mean, here's the, the, I think the rebuttal to that where I'm going to defend Ward for a second is like, at the end of the day, he's getting paid $5 million at Michigan. Even if you paid him seven, he's going to make 10 to 12 at the maps. And it's the NBA, the National Basketball Association. So I don't know that there's anything you could. could have done regardless of having contract signed or whatever.

You know, if you get that job, an NBA job, but the 20-year-old superstar, like one of the best college basketball players who come through in the past few years, like, it's, I don't know that there's going to be anything that's going to make you turn down that job. I mean, they fired Jason Kidd and he still had $40 million on his contract. The money is not an issue for the NBA. So, yeah, like, they're going to be throwing out more money.

towards their coaches than NBA money is crazy like it does not it actually doesn't make sense because when you compare it to like NFL NHL like it's literally incomparable like yeah fringe guys make like a hundred million dollars it's crazy so and then you know the other thing that I wanted to point out and like this is where it's hard to keep a coach in college too is I can almost guarantee you that since winning the national championship, Dusty May has not had a day, a single day off of not going to a donor dinner, going to a recruiting pitch, doing, you know, all these things, like hosting a transfer portal guy.

Like he is, I'm sure, just worked, you know, his ass off. And I'm not saying that he's trying to like go do less. But we'd all be lying if it wasn't like enticing to be like, hey, man, I can work. I can make more money and have less stress on myself. Like as a 49 year old man, that's with a family. That's like a, you know, you've got to be able to tell your wife like, hey, I can come home to you at night and like we can go live in Dallas. Like that's not a, you know, I think there's like a world where he loved Michigan,

loved what happened here. And still that is a really enticing thing at the same time, you know. And I think we should also acknowledge that like, yes, it is an inconvary. convenient time for him to leave. But knowing that, it must have been something that the stars lined perfectly for him. Because why else would he leave at this point in time? It's not like he didn't have offers to go to other places. Like there's no shot. And so obviously, like we have to extend some grace to Dusty May here because he wouldn't just leave because now he's deciding, oh, you know what, I don't want to be at Michigan anymore. Like he got an offer.

that he obviously could not refuse. Like, all in all, that, that's just the truth. You can't, you can't be frustrated with the guy who decides to do that. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, but he'd left because it was an offer he couldn't refuse. And I think we have to be able to appreciate that a little bit as well. And I think this is, like, if he would have left to go to Indiana or go to North Carolina, that would have stuck a lot, right? because as a Michigan, as Michigan guys here, we want to imagine that Michigan's the pinnacle and

everything, right? And I think there's an argument for Michigan to be the best job in a lot of different places. You have all the resources. You can get paid a lot of money. You have, you know, the fan bases behind you, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But it wasn't that. It was like there's just, this is just a different thing. And so the other thing I wanted, I wanted say to, too, I think that us as Michigan fans do think that, like, Michigan's the end-all be-all. The arrogance gets us a little bit of like, why would you ever want to leave this place? You know, and I, you know, you think about like, let's be honest, I don't think Dusty ever had Michigan in his brain until, you know,

2021 or whatever at FAU. And it's like, you know, all of a sudden he starts talking to me. Michigan. And it's like, wow, you know. So I'd love to think that like everyone has Michigan on their mind at all times, but it's just not the case. And so as much as he probably did enjoy it and loved Michigan while he's here, this, I hate to say this, but is Michigan like a stepping stone to the NBA? You know, like, I don't think it's a stepping stone in college, but I do think that like some people just see it as like a spot along the way. way, you know, to then going to win an NBA finals.

Right. Yeah, 100%. Something that I was also thinking about with him going to the NBA, obviously draft starting tomorrow, do we see any former Wolverines now go to the Mavs? We always have three guys who are potentially going to go in the first round. That would be kind of cool to see them reunite. Obviously, it's a little trickier just with the size of roster.

but that would be cool to see. Well, it's funny. It's funny you say that because our friend, Jess, Spate, called me today after everything went down and I was like, okay, what is he calling to like talk through it? Do we need to just have a venting session or what? And he's like, no, I'm actually with Marez right now. They were shooting like a draft day thing for his production company. and they were shooting when the news dropped.

And so Merez, like, they got it all live. He's, like, cutting up the video. We're going to put it out on Blue By 90 at some point here in the next, like, 24 hours. But Marez got the call. And here's where I think, like, fans versus players, the perspective is so different. Obviously, we as Michigan fans are sad that we don't have Dasty Mae. Merez, I think, is like, pumped for his coach. Like, holy shit, he got the next big job and, like, getting big payday and, like, you know, all that.

So I think that. And then to your point, he's like, holy shit, maybe he'll pick me now in the first round and I can go play for him. So, you know, they love their coach. There's no doubt. And I'm sure they would have loved to see him stay at Michigan and win another Natty and, like, go do all that. But I think they're also, like, good for you, coach. Like go get that bag, go, you know, that's like the, I don't, business side of it, I guess you could say, but just like the different side from like players to fans and stuff like that too.

Yeah, it is that side of things, the Morez Johnson side of things is something that a lot of people don't see because, yeah, he's probably thrilled, not only for his coach to quote unquote go get his money, but have the opportunity to play for him again and know that the door is open. there because Dusty knows Morez. He knows how he plays, how he could fit into the system if he could or he couldn't. Like, not to make this about football and myself, but I remember when I got cut from the Cardinals and Coach Harbaugh was at the Chargers,

I was like, hey, you know, that might be a little bit of an in for me. That would be nice. Now, obviously, that didn't happen, but that was for different reasons. We got our hardball mentioned it. I like that. Yeah, we always have to. We always have to. But, yeah,

there's so much to. it. I'll be interested to see that clip. That's cool. I forgot that Jess was doing that. But yeah, he is with Mores doing the draft day stuff. But, I mean, congrats to Dusty. You got to give him his flowers. Okay. I have a question for you. Like, I think this is an interesting conundrum of like five, 10 years down the road. Like, what's the Dusty Meg legacy now at Michigan, right? Where you brought a Natty for the first time in 30 years, right? But then you were only here for two years.

They were a hell of a two years. Don't get me wrong, you know, but it's like, I think there's a little bit of like, I'm curious as to how history will see this legacy, you know, just because it was such a short stint. And like, it was like you blow up onto the scene and then just like leave before anybody he could even really like know what what to think of it all yeah i think the way that that will go let's say he is unbelievably successful in the NBA wins the championship wins it all dusty may as a coach

will be a phenomenal and elite coach he already is but and then michigan will be part of his journey right they'll note you know national championship michigan in two years of being there as a Michigan fan, you will also have that to relate to Dusty May. He is a phenomenal coach and he was here. He was part of Michigan. Is he, you know, a quote unquote like Michigan man? I don't know. Like that's that's up for you to decide. Two years is not a long time. But the amount of success that he experienced in those two years and what he did for the university in those two years is pretty substantial. Like back to Coach Harbaugh, here we go. But it took coach. He's hardball five years to beat Ohio State, right?

And it took dusty two years to win a national championship. Like, he is the elite of the elite. Does he go down in the Michigan history books of all-time great coaches? Yeah, you know, to an extent. Yeah. But he did what nobody, what pretty much nobody else has done, you know. Right. So I don't know.

Like, what does legacy look like in terms of tenure? Like how long do you have to be at a school to be a legend, right? How long is that? I don't know. I mean, I think that's for a lot of people to decide. I also think that the, it's good. What will determine how we see him is the next two years or something too. If this program gets left in the dust and we're in bad shape, then fans will be like,

oh, Dusty left us high and dry. People say that about Jim Harbaugh still. You know, like, wow, he really screwed us by. He, you know, raided the closet, took all of his assistant coaches and left us with nothing, blah, blah, blah. And if Michigan bounces back and whether it's Mike Boynton or the St. Louis coach or whoever, and like we keep this roster intact and Dusty May is maybe a part of that, make some phone calls, to be like, hey, I believe in this next coach and you should stay. And then they go and, you know, win the big 10 again or like they make another sweet 16 lead eight.

Like then you're like, okay, I'm fine with that. But if you just completely go in the dumps right away, then everyone's like, shit, you left us just with nothing. And now, you know, I don't know that you're not going to be able to, it's not like you're not going to be able to celebrate the Natty. But there's a little sour taste in your mouth, you know, of how that all went. down and you you have to listen we have to talk about it if we hire boyton is this a situation because we know uh his previous tender right he's a Oklahoma State is that right and he was 119 right so right around 50% win rate not great but so if we say but we see Dusty may talk about him in the media says you know he he sees all the

blind spots that Dusty May can't see, right? We know that he says that. We know he's a good coach. Are we going to be upset and then relate this to a previous situation of the Sharon Moore being the head coach? Like, is that we're going to equate this to? I don't think we should. Yeah. But ultimately, then there's a pressure on Boynton, right? If he's the head coach, there's a pressure to win. And if you don't win, then you are the equivalent of the Sharon Moore higher. And I don't think we should go down that path, but there's no doubt that people will. And like, listen, we're in a tough spot. We've talked about it already.

The coaching carousel has finished. And now it's like, okay, where do we go from here? Obviously, Michigan football landed an absolute whale in Whittingham. Can Michigan basketball do the same thing? Only time will tell. I would say that that was a unicorn situation. You had a guy that was like, you know, he's like somehow, being forced out at his old place after 20 plus years of like pretty damn good success all

things considered. And you, you kind of somehow the perfect storm brought you the perfect guy there in a time of absolute distress where, you know, so again, you got to give Ward his credit on that. And now, you know, he's in another just absolute like terrible situation. Yeah. I say this all the time when I talk about Ward manuals, like, listen, you can be really critical of him and I've been critical of him at times. And I think there's times where he's struggled or maybe not done the right thing or whatever.

But also, you couldn't pay me enough to have that job. You literally could not pay me enough. I think he makes like $2 million a year. You could go on Wall Street, make $2 million for the head of a, think about the university. or the athletic department, they've got 900 student athletes and 400 employees. Think about being the president and CEO of that type of business, you know, somewhere else. And like, you're making more than $2 million with a lot less stress in not public facing stuff. You know, he's putting out fires for a living as of recently.

Yeah, I don't envy him in his position. And it's very easy to be critical of him just based on what has happened. But, you know, hindsight is always 2020. Like if, if Dusty May stays and the contract gets signed in two weeks, Dusty May's here, nobody's saying a word. They're their patent board manual on the back because he's kept them. We already were, you know, we already were patent him on the back because they had come to a verbal agreement of, you know, we're going to increase your contract, extended even.

And you'll be here. Now we're not in that situation. so people want to point the finger. But yeah, you, nobody wants to be Ward Manual. Nobody wants to be in that spot where, like, you're right. Like, people want to go professional. They want to coach professionally. That's not everybody.

But Michigan is the spot to do that because we send a lot of guys there. Therefore, the NBA can trust the coaches in our system and want to bring those coaches on. It's a whole big thing. but I mean only time will tell as to what happens who we bring in. There's going to be special. The other group that I wanted to mention are our friends at Champion Circle. And I just feel for them because, I mean, since Champion Circle was formed in 2022, that's not that long ago.

This will now be the sixth coach between football and men's basketball. Yeah, that's crazy. That's averaging over a coach a year, a new coach per year. Yeah. It's just, it's crazy. And, you know, to try, let's be honest, raising funds and managing things in the NIL era is hard enough if you just keep your coaches, let alone having to fundraise while you have new, you know, coaches, new programs, new staffs trying to get, you know, like get acquainted with. with all of them, you know, learn their system.

They do something a little bit differently. Like, that is just insane. And so I, you know, the fact that recruiting is even going remotely well in both of those is really kind of a miracle right now when you think about all the things that are going on. So, yeah, I'm, I'm very thankful that I, not the one that's over there. You know, the phone, I can't imagine. Jared's phone where it's like the news drops and it's probably one of those things where like you get so many spam calls that you literally can't the phone can't function um you know because

everybody wants to know what's going on and why it's happening and I think like he dusty was up with that crew and champion circle at that true north north golf outing literally not this past weekend but the weekend prior that was seven days ago you know and so and it. And, and, he was there with donors and talking with, you know, everybody, you know, so like, I'd have to imagine everybody is pretty shocked at what's happening. And now you have to go figure out how to talk to every donor and say, nope, we've got a plan and we've got, here's what's going to happen. But respect to Dusty May for that because these contract negotiations with the Mavericks did not start yesterday. They have been talking for a while, and yet he still goes out, goes to those events

and breaches Michigan, Michigan, Michigan, like he was going to be here the whole time. And maybe he wasn't sure, right? They have to come to an agreement on a certain contract. But you have to respect that. And then a question that, you know, for the listener and even for you, Justin, is would you rather, now this is one of those way too early questions. Right. Would you rather hire somebody inside, of the university that knows Dusty May's system, knows how they operate, will essentially, you know, kind of translate that same thing, but then bring their own stuff, or would you rather bring somebody from entirely outside from a smaller school who's seen success there, is not guaranteed to experience the same success at Michigan? Which one would you rather go with?

It's so tough. I mean, I think that everyone is going to look at what just happened with football with hiring within and be like, we can't do that again, you know. And like, I don't, it's, it's not Apple's the Apple situation right there. You know, I think that if you do go to what, if you go with Mike Boyan, he's got seven years, I believe, or something similar of, of head coaching experience. Now, it wasn't like he was super, super successful as a head coach. but as you know experience matters a lot and just being the head guy whether it's in a successful or unsuccessful program is very very helpful and you know i'm also going to say michigan situation

versus oklahoma states not apples to apples right how many Oklahoma state has not been some you know wagon of a of a men's basketball program let alone athletic department program you know like So I think it's the point, sorry, to the point of hiring from within, let's keep in mind that we hired Sharon Moore at a period of time where there was plenty of controversy already going on inside of Michigan football. Okay. There has been no controversy inside of Michigan basketball. So not exactly equal. I get why we go there. I go there. Hey, don't hire from inside.

We know this. We've done this. We've been here before. situations are different. It still doesn't really make the question any easier, but something to think about. Well, I think that that's again, it goes back to like, you couldn't pay me enough to be Ward Manuel making that decision because it could come down to a coin flip, literally, right? It's like you could end up with two really good candidates for this or, you know, and one of them, like you could hire from within Mike Boynton and Dusty's giving you every recommendation

for him and yada yada like all that and it still might not work out you know and then same thing with an outside hire right it's like you could say oh well dusty was the guy at a small school and we took the chance on him and it worked out we won an addie let's go do the same thing maybe it doesn't work out you go get to st louis guy and he's not what everybody thought he was you know like that's where it's you know i look at pro sports and the NFL and NBA, whatever, those guys spend how many hours and hours and hours evaluating talent, whether it be the GM, the coach, the players, all that, and they screw up and swing and miss all the time. Honestly, more often than not, they swing and miss. And there's just so many

variables to how, like, success comes, right? And why somebody's successful or not successful. And so I think that's where it's like there's no right answer, you know. The Sharon thing is always funny to me because everyone now hindsight 2020 is like, oh, well, obviously he had no experience. Why would we do that? But then when it happened, it was like every single person on planet Earth was like, yeah, he just beat Ohio State, you know, did all this for us. He's the guy.

Right. It's like it's all easy to say after the fact. Yeah, hindsight's always 20-20. Another name to throw in the loop is Phil Martelli Jr. from VCU. His dad previously coached in Michigan under Jawan Howard. Maybe Jawan Howard makes a return. Maybe he makes a return. I saw Arsenal Big Cat say, you got to move backward to go forward.

So I don't know. I did laugh at that. I mean, it's funny to think about now. Honestly, isn't it, the Juan era seems like a lifetime ago at this point? It really does. And it was only what, 20, 22, 21, something like that. Like, it really was not that long ago. But yeah, man, I mean, it just crazy.

You want to know what really makes me laugh a lot, though? There were multiple official accounts of men's college basketball programs, Twitter accounts, Instagram accounts, that were trying to troll Michigan saying their coach is not leaving, you know, or it was Duke did this and Purdue of all places did this. And I'm sitting here like, listen, at the end of the day, you still have this. There's still a banner that's hanging in Chrysler saying 2026 men's national champs. And Purdue of all people with zero Natty's and underwhelming in every single post. season to try and like troll is insane to me.

And then Duke also like at the end of the day, Duke's obviously like one of if not the powerhouse, you know, of a long time college basketball. But you haven't won at all. When you're the, when you have basically five star after five star after five star and you still don't win it all all the time,

like you can't say shit when Dusty did it just four months ago. Yeah. And for all you Duke fans out there, the Maverich just signed the Michigan head coach to coach your best player. So it's nice to have people thinking about you. It's not always great. It's not always great things. Purdue, we'll give you a golf clap for your big 10 tournament championship. But ultimately, you know, at the end of March, early April, that matters. And Michigan did pretty good job there. And Dusty made it too. So it's nice to have people thinking about you and you're right. We do have a banner on the rafters. And, you know, when we come to your arena, we don't really see one of those. So you make your decision on who's had more success.

Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So I'm, I've been struggling all day. I've been trying to choose like, hey, you know, we still got that natty though. I've been trying to just talk myself off the ledge like that all day long of like, everything's going to be fine. We got our Natty. Because I think there's that, like, you know, hypothetical question that people always ask, too, is like, you win a championship, but X, Y, Z happens, right?

And it's like, for Michigan, you win a championship, but your head coach leaves within two months. And it happened twice in two years. Yeah. And so, like, I think at the end of the day, you know, you want your chance. championships. It's just so hard for me because it took so long for both these programs to get back to the top. It takes forever. I mean, thinking about you guys with football, like how many times you're this close to be in there and it doesn't happen. And then you finally do it and you're like, holy shit, it just, it feels like a lifetime of just like climbing up the mountain.

climbing up the mountain you you've weathered everything you make it there and then you just tumble down the other side of the mountain immediately and like i i think that's just the hard hard part for me of like you know it's for basketball it's 30 plus years of waiting for football you know 20 plus years of waiting right it's like 30 plus yeah it basically um so i it's just a it just sucks this whole thing It sucks, bro. It sucks. It sucks. It's a, you know, it's a blessing and a curse, right? It's a blessing that people want to be here. But also the curse for that it turns into the stepping stone for the professional level. Obviously, we know the last Michigan head coach to leave to go to the NBA was John Beline, who went to the Cavs, hoping for a little bit more success on Dusty May's front. I think it'd be good. Younger, younger coach, be able to relate to the players. I don't know. It's hard to say because John Beline, was, is a legend in Michigan, and obviously known for his ability to connect with the guys and lead at a really high level.

Dusty May, we've said over and over the same things about him. I think his, you know, Dusty May is big on the mind game of basketball and was really good about that. So if we could bring in another coach that was, put a lot of emphasis on the mind game, just like they do on the court, X's and O's part of the game,

think that would be huge for us as well. Yeah. No, 100%. I think that now it's like, I don't know who you go. I don't, this is where I will say when you're the AD, you just have to have a short list of coaches at all times. Like, it does not matter what, even if things are going swimmingly and you think that this guy is going to be here forever and he tells you that and blah, blah, blah, blah. You just have to be prepared for these situations because you just never. know what's going to happen. Right.

So, yeah, I mean, now Michigan basketball and Michigan football heading into the fall in winter with two new head coaches, both of them for the third time in four years. Golly. It's just, and some of it's for bad reasons, some of it's for good reasons. You know, it's a wild situation. But it does. you know, there's just going to be a lot of new faces here in Ann Arbor. And I think the, as we said, the big thing for the next, you know, month essentially is like,

what is this roster going to look like now, let alone who the head coach is. But it's like, okay, you have J.P. Estrella is coming in. You know, you have Mustafa Thiam coming in, like all these guys. It's like he made a promise to them like, hey, let's, you know, come to Ann Arbor. we're going to try to win another national championship. Now, what are they thinking? Like, my guess is they enter, even if they have an intention to stay at Michigan,

they're all just going to enter the portal so that they can have, you know, leverage in terms of a contract. And Michigan's got to fundraise more. And I'll tell you what, knowing the champion circle guys, that happening for football costs them a lot of money because they had to pay guys that,

they just had to pay guys more to stay because they were able to, you know, their agents were able to leverage it. And unfortunately, that is the state of college athletics right now. It's like basically you can, as an agent, just hold that over the program's head basically in all year round. Yeah. I don't know. I think we can deem this the year of the unknowns at this point. There's a lot up in the air.

And there's going to be a lot of movement here in the, in the coming days. And, well, like I said, we'll have more whenever Dusty hits the media after he signs with them. Hopefully some clarity on, you know, the decision. We'll see kind of how that works out sometimes. It's very media-trained response, excited to be here in Dallas and coach these guys move forward. And then they cut the interview and say, okay. Yeah.

But I don't know. We'll see. I think knowing, yeah, knowing Dusty, I think that he's going to say, great, things about Michigan for the rest of his life. Yeah. Right. Like I think that A, he's just like a good person that's never going to like throw somebody under the bus. Like he didn't do that at any school that he's been at, right? And B, I think that he genuinely does have really good memories of his time here. So I think that I think that he's not going to be the guy that's like, if anything, I wouldn't doubt that, you know, even a couple of years down the road, he's still,

you know, helping Michigan in some fashion, you know, in terms of like, he'll make a phone call for somebody or, you know, help with a recruiting pitch or whatever else. So I think that I, or at least that's what I hope. But yeah, yeah, I think that I'm going to, I'm just happy that I went to Indy and happy that I had a great time, watched us kick the shit out of Arizona in the final four, watch us beat Dan Hurley, you know, in the national championship. And, you know, I'm thinking too about just like, dude, how much fun was it to watch Yax and Rez and Trey and Roddy Gale and Mara?

Like, dude, I have, I mean, this, this like January through April was one of the more fun times ever to be a Michigan fan of just watching this team, obliterate people and have a blast doing it. And so, again, I'm trying to just choose to be happy. So, that's where we got to go. Yeah. So, all right. Well, thanks for jumping on, Joel.

Emergency Pod. Thank you to all of you for listening here. I hope you're all out there choosing to be happy to instead of throwing things at the wall or something. But pour yourself, listen, pour yourself a glass of Woodson whiskey, you know, and turn on the natty highlights or something like that and just enjoy it why they can because, as you said, we're in a period of unknown right now. So thank you to Feldman Chevrolet of Highland.

Also, we will be there this Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with Bryce Underwood, Savion, Heider, the brand new freshman running back. Rod Moore, Blake Frazier, and actually, JJ Buchanan is going to join us there as well. So we're adding to people. Yep. So yeah, you're going to have your tight end there. I love it. It's going to be a great day.

We had 250 plus people sign up within like two hours when we dropped that. I know Felben's got some really good deals going on on Saturday. And then they're also, dude, Last year, they grilled out for us. I know they're doing it again. They made some great burgers that I had about four of them. And so, yeah, it's going to be an awesome day. We've even got a little, the MGO brew art is going to be there for some coffee.

So it'll be a really fun day. Joel and I will be doing a live pod with the rest of the squad here. So come on out to Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. And, yeah, for us, you can follow us on Blue by 90. Oh shit, I forgot. I've been, my brain is not working. But we're on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. We're everywhere.

We appreciate you. Go blue. Go blue.