ttun basketball (Dusty May out.......)

[DZ83CK]

I see his reasoning as plausible actually.

His job skill is coaching high level basketball. Who is the more stable employer right now, college or NBA?

Coaching at the high college level right now is like working in a start up. There are good things and bad things but there is a lot of uncertainty. It could be gone in 5 years or greatly transformed.

The NBA will be the NBA in 5 years, you just have to win and you'll have a job. Also, that job will look pretty much exactly like the job looks today.

It's not like he's an owner of the start up or anything, so why take the extra risk/deal with the uncertainty?

Don't get me wrong, fuck M*chigan.... but I don't see this as some big cover up or anything. It's a boringly common example of a job hop more than likely BUT it's hurts tsun so I'm here for it.

C'mon man. I'm not on the "cover-up bus" either, but there's no chance that he will have more job security/stability in the NBA than at UM after winning the title. More money, sure, a chance for a bigger challenge, sure, but there's too much fan interest & money to be made for major college hoops to be totally disbanded or something (and a major program like UM will always make the cut in whatever future iteration of college sports there might be). Over the past decade, almost every coach whose team has won the NBA championship gets replaced after 1-2 mediocre (not necessarily losing) seasons. The better take is he can always come back to college and have his pick of jobs after he gets canned because he can't build the best team money can buy in the NBA.

 

[DZ83CK]

When a coach who has had success leaves college these days and cites "the changing landscape" as the reason why......most people think of one thing, but it's actually 2 things.

Thing 1 - you have to kiss the ass of 16, 17, 18 year olds just to get them to come to your school, you then have to kiss their ass the entire time they're at the school, the rules can seemingly change from day to day...............that's a huge chunk of your time and energy that isn't spent on a single Xs and Os thing.

Thing 2 - the only success you had at your current stop is because the rules changed, allowing you to buy all the best players and assemble a super squad........and the ability to do that could change tomorrow.


If Dusty May is complaining about the changing landscape of college basketball, he's a Thing 2 type of complainer.

Yeah, I think for sure the portal this year showed there were some deeper pockets - most notably Tennessee with Juke Harris - that took talent away that Dusty May wanted. May was able to get his pick of the litter last year, but this spring missing out on a top target in spite of trying to throw all the bags of cash he had available was a wake-up call & probably was a factor in him deciding he might as well leave rather than deal with the uneasiness of not getting the best of the best every year.

 

[Jaxbuck]

C'mon man. I'm not on the "cover-up bus" either, but there's no chance that he will have more job security/stability in the NBA than at UM after winning the title. More money, sure, a chance for a bigger challenge, sure, but there's too much fan interest & money to be made for major college hoops to be totally disbanded or something (and a major program like UM will always make the cut in whatever future iteration of college sports there might be). Over the past decade, almost every coach whose team has won the NBA championship gets replaced after 1-2 mediocre (not necessarily losing) seasons. The better take is he can always come back to college and have his pick of jobs after he gets canned because he can't build the best team money can buy in the NBA.

Leave it at more money then. I have no idea how the guy actually thinks about the job, I can just see college coaching at this moment in time to seem much more chaotic than NBA coaching to some people.

College guys have to wear a lot of hats, NBA guys likely only one or two. Some people hate that, some people don't.

If you can get paid more money to wear fewer hats, why wouldn't you?

 

[DZ83CK]

Leave it at more money then. I have no idea how the guy actually thinks about the job, I can just see college coaching at this moment in time to seem much more chaotic than NBA coaching to some people.

College guys have to wear a lot of hats, NBA guys likely only one or two. Some people hate that, some people don't.

If you can get paid more money to wear fewer hats, why wouldn't you?

Let's look at some of the NBA championship coaches over the past 10+ years.
2016: Cavs / Tyronn Lue (fired in 2018 after an 0-6 start)
2019: Raptors / Nick Nurse (fired in 2023 after team missed playoffs)
2020: Lakers / Frank Vogel (fired in 2022 after missing playoffs)
2021: Bucks / Mike Budenholzer (fired in 2023 after having the #1 seed & losing 1st round)
2023: Nuggets / Mike Malone (fired in April 2025 with 3 games left in the regular season just before his team made the playoffs)

In the NBA, the average coach nowadays gets 3 years. Dusty May was never going to get fired at UM. Even with the hassles of recruiting, at least you have real job security in college when you're a winner. Yeah, he can always go back to college, but basically you have to be willing to make two big moves to make this one.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Let's look at some of the NBA championship coaches over the past 10+ years.
2016: Cavs / Tyronn Lue (fired in 2018 after an 0-6 start)
2019: Raptors / Nick Nurse (fired in 2023 after team missed playoffs)
2020: Lakers / Frank Vogel (fired in 2022 after missing playoffs)
2021: Bucks / Mike Budenholzer (fired in 2023 after having the #1 seed & losing 1st round)
2023: Nuggets / Mike Malone (fired in April 2025 with 3 games left in the regular season just before his team made the playoffs)

In the NBA, the average coach nowadays gets 3 years. Dusty May was never going to get fired at UM. Even with the hassles of recruiting, at least you have real job security in college when you're a winner. Yeah, he can always go back to college, but basically you have to be willing to make two big moves to make this one.

So what’s the point you are trying to make?

NBA coaching is harder, more risky? May is a dumbass for leaving college? No way he did this just to job hop, there has to be something else? I’m not following you.

I see a guy who has had success at every level, sees what, in his mind, is the “right” opening to go up one more level and took it. Nothing complicated or nefarious.

Who knows? Maybe there is a trunk full of dead hookers or something. Aside from the downside for the hookers, I’d love to see that.

 

[DZ83CK]

So what’s the point you are trying to make?

NBA coaching is harder, more risky? May is a dumbass for leaving college? No way he did this just to job hop, there has to be something else? I’m not following you.

I see a guy who has had success at every level, sees what, in his mind, is the “right” opening to go up one more level and took it. Nothing complicated or nefarious.

Who knows? Maybe there is a trunk full of dead hookers or something. Aside from the downside for the hookers, I’d love to see that.

I'm saying it's definitely a riskier move to go to the NBA than to stay in college, and that makes the long-term calculus financially risky. For Dusty May, he's now basically the coaching version of a "made man" so he will be able to land on his feet in college again after the seemingly inevitable firing 2-3 years from now. So the downside is he likely has to deal with being fired and uprooting his family twice, things he wouldn't have had to do at UM, and (after his presumed firing) he will probably end up with a lower salary in college than he would have had if he stayed at UM the whole time. I don't know how much Dallas is paying him, but he'd better be paid at least double his salary at UM or else it doesn't really add up financially at all.