This is the time of the year when it’s considered “dead” for college basketball overall. Rosters are finalized, or almost finalized, and the talking heads discuss who they like and don’t like.
Well, as sports fans, we know that these things are just about year-round nowadays. Today, on June 22, the sport of college basketball got flipped upside down in the middle of summer.
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Dusty May has agreed to become the Dallas Mavericks head coach, leaving Michigan after two years and a national title in Ann Arbor.
It was inevitable that May would end up at the NBA level at some point, but he made that jump at an unfortunate time for the Michigan athletic department. They will have to search around quickly and likely hire from within to get their next leader.
One name that has already been brought up is a name that Kentucky fans are very familiar with. Other than hiring from within, there is one name that has popped up, which is someone who was planning to take this year off from coaching and get back into coaching next cycle, Billy Donovan.
The first two names to show up as the possible replacement for the Wolverines are Mike Boynton Jr., who has been an assistant coach under Dusty May, and Billy Donovan, previously with the Chicago Bulls.
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Kentucky fans just want to win, no matter who the head coach is or how it’s done, but the name of Billy Donovan is almost a haunting name at this point because of the occasions that BBN wanted to get Donovan as the next Kentucky head coach. It has never lined up perfectly or worked out for the pairing of Donovan and Kentucky. The original connection between the two stems from his first job in the coaching world, which was at Kentucky from 1989 to 1994.
These things will likely move quickly, so we will know who will lead the Wolverines this next season here in the coming days or weeks.
The other reason this move impacts Kentucky is the 15th roster spot for Kentucky. When a coach leaves a school, the NCAA allows a 15-day period for athletes to leave the school and go elsewhere, if they choose. Michigan has a roster with a lot of talent on it, so we will see if any of them jump ship, and Kentucky could pursue as a final spot.
Nikola Kusturica is a name that most of BBN went from not knowing to knowing a ton about because we thought he was a Wildcat, back to not really caring about him too much. One of the primary reasons for the roller coaster of emotions with this recruitment is because of Dusty May and Michigan. Michigan had been recruiting Kusturica, and some even reported that Michigan was a school that was “negatively recruiting against Kentucky”.
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Now, it seems that Michigan will still try to land the future star, along with UCLA, and a few others, but this could have an impact on Kentucky and the recruitment with Kusturica in the end.
