INDIANAPOLIS — North Carolina’s next men’s basketball coach will not be Dusty May.
The Michigan coach has removed himself from the search, according to multiple sources familiar with the process. ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported the news Sunday. May is in the midst of a national title run with Michigan, which will play for the national championship against UConn on Monday night. On Friday, before his Michigan team beat Arizona in Saturday’s national semifinals, May declined to entertain a question about the UNC job.
“I’m never going to comment on any job that I don’t have,” he said. “I think it’s well documented how happy I am at Michigan.
“Obviously my private life, my personal life, my family, their happiness is very important. Yeah, I love it at Michigan, but you’ll never hear me comment on any other job unless Michigan lets me go and then I’ll comment on every job.”
Michigan making the championship game alone would have made it hard for May to consider leaving, though it would not have been unprecedented. Roy Williams was once in the same position and left Kansas for UNC a week after losing in the national title game to Syracuse in 2003 and telling CBS reporter Bonnie Bernstein, “I could give a s— about North Carolina right now.”
May’s current contract runs through 2030 with a $7 million buyout if he were to leave before April 30, 2026. With his success through two seasons — a 63-13 record, Big Ten tournament and regular-season titles and, potentially, the program’s first national title since 1989 — it’s hard to believe that May will consider another college job.
The 49-year-old is set up to have Michigan positioned as one of the prominent programs for years to come. The Wolverines could return a top-five roster with contributors Elliot Cadeau, Trey McKenney, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara potentially back, along with the current second-best recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite, highlighted by five-star guard Brandon McCoy Jr., who committed on Sunday. Johnson and Mara could both potentially leave for the NBA, but May has proven to be one of the best roster builders in his two years at Michigan.
May is the second Final Four coach this week to remove himself from the search. Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd did the same on Friday when he agreed to a five-year, $37.5 million extension with the Wildcats. Lloyd and May were believed to be two of UNC’s top targets.
Multiple program and industry sources familiar with UNC’s search said Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan remains one of the Tar Heels’ top remaining candidates. But one potential complication to hiring Donovan, 60, is his desire to finish the regular season with Chicago. The Bulls’ season ends April 13 — five days after the transfer portal opens. That would seemingly put North Carolina at a disadvantage in terms of building next season’s roster, although one industry source added that Donovan has at least reached out to potential staffers who might join him in Chapel Hill, and who could monitor the portal before Donovan officially accepts any offer.
Beyond Donovan, some of the Tar Heels’ other remaining candidates (in no particular order) are Vanderbilt’s Mark Byington, Iowa’s Ben McCollum and former Denver Nuggets coach Mike Malone, who is currently an ESPN analyst and coaching free agent.