The slogan is right, you know that? We really do grow basketball in Indiana. But what we grow, it doesn’t always stay here in Indiana. It germinates, spreads, flourishes in other parts of the country as well, from UCLA to Duke to Boston to Michigan and now to Texas, where the latest, hottest Indiana basketball export – former Michigan coach Dusty May – has been named coach of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
Wait, what did I call him? Former Michigan coach Dusty May…
Nah. Forget that noise. I mean, yes, he is the former Michigan coach. But that’s not who he is. It’s not where he came from.
He’s from Bloomfield. That’s in southwest Indiana.
News: Dusty May leaves Michigan basketball for NBA Dallas Mavericks
May played at Eastern Greene High against the likes of Martinsville, alma mater of John Wooden (class of 1928), a Purdue All-American who went on to lead UCLA to 10 national titles. And against Bedford North Lawrence, which produced Damon Bailey (class of 1990), who had had a prominent role in 1986 in one of the great books of our time, basketball or otherwise: “A Season on the Brink.”
And in 1986, Damon Bailey was in the eighth grade.
Basketball is different here, but leave it to Dusty May to write – to continue writing – one of the most unlikely stories of them all. It started at Eastern Greene High, just down the road from Oolitic, a small town with a tiny high school that closed in 1974, but a school whose name you know because of its appearance against Hickory High in one of the great movies of our time, basketball or otherwise, also in 1986.
You remember:
“Hoosiers.”
This is who we are in Indiana, home of basketball greatness – of literature and silver screen, of Olympic gold medals and NCAA championships – and Dusty May is the latest rising basketball legend from our state. But let’s be honest: Is he the last?
The world is changing before our eyes, being ripped out from under our feet. John Wooden is long gone. So is Bob Knight. Gene Keady is still here, bless him, and he gave us the humble superstar coach that is Purdue’s Matt Painter, but who’s next? Indiana University has become a football school, for crying out loud, and while that’s not a complaint – thank you, #iufb coach Curt Cignetti – it shows how fast the world moves, how we can get swept along in its currents.
Will there be another Wooden, another Knight, another Mike Krzyzewski or (yes) Dusty May? Hard to imagine another Brad Stevens walking through that door. Stevens, the Boston Celtics’ coach from 2013-21 and president since 2021, is from Zionsville, then DePauw, then Butler, the little school that could – and did – reach back-to-back NCAA title games in 2010 and ‘11.
Doyel in 2018: Brad Stevens shutters LeBron, Boston beats Cavs, Stevens’ star rises
You know that story. The analogy isn’t perfect, but in 2010 (and ’11) Butler came as close as anyone since 1979 (remember Indiana State?) to becoming the college version of the 1954 Milan basketball team, which emerged from the single-class Indiana high school boys basketball tournament to win the title at Hinkle Fieldhouse, of all places.
The only school that has since challenged Larry Bird’s 1979 ISU Sycamores and Brad Stevens’ 2011 Butler Bulldogs as a preposterous NCAA heavyweight was FAU in 2023, when it reached the Final Four just a few years after back-to-back seasons of 9-20 and 8-25.
Remember the coach of those 2023 FAU Owls?
Dusty May.
Doyel in 2023: Ex-IU student-manager Dusty May is coaching’s next big star
Doyel in 2020: Graduates of the Bob Knight finishing school rule the sports world
Then he goes to Michigan, inherits an 8-24 team in 2024 and two years later leads the Wolverines to the 2026 NCAA title. May is the sturdiest branch left on the Bob Knight coaching tree, which includes former Army player (and IU assistant) Mike Krzyzewski and his five NCAA titles at Duke, and former Army assistant Bill Parcells (true story) and his two Super Bowls with the New York Giants.
Knight’s coaching tree has been equal parts strong and strange, Isiah Thomas and Chris Beard, Mike Woodson and Dave Bliss, Steve Alford and Mike Davis and Coach K and The Big Tuna (Parcells). And what about all these former #iubb student-managers making their mark? One, Ryan Carr, is now the general manager for IU basketball coach Darian DeVries. Another, Lawrence Frank, is GM of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Another, Dusty May, is the best of the bunch today and the best coach Bob Knight has produced outside of Mike Krzyzewski. Well, the best basketball coach outside of Coach K. Bill Parcells belongs up there somewhere.
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Where will the next great one come from? Our state has sent coaching legends to (and from) IU and Purdue and Butler – and even one from Indiana State. What, did you think we’d forget 1998 NBA coach of the year Larry Bird? Or Notre Dame’s Digger Phelps?
Can’t forget these people. Can’t believe these names.
Can’t accept that this historic, inexplicable run of all-time great coaches will end with Dusty May.
Where do we go from here, Indiana? Who’s got next, and is his name P.J. Thompson?
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Doyel: Dusty May to NBA is one of most unlikely success stories from our historic state
Reporting by Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
