CHICAGO – Dusty May’s youngest son wanted to keep playing basketball. Just like his dad once did.
Eli May had it all planned out. He was going to walk-on at South Florida, just like his eldest brother, Jack, did at Florida, and middle brother, Charlie, at UCF.
But then Michigan called two years ago. That’s when dad came up with another idea, similar to the one he plotted for himself 30 years earlier. Eli May could join his father’s new program as a student manager, just like Dusty May had given up his uniform at Division II Oakland City University to become a student manager under former coach Bob Knight at Indiana after one semester.
“I didn’t necessarily want to take this path,” Eli May admitted earlier this week, and yet it now offers a fascinating glimpse into the mindset and demeanor his father employed to course-correct No. 1 seed Michigan so rapidly, with a chance to make the Final Four in his second season on the job with a win over No. 6 seed Tennessee in the Elite Eight on Sunday, March 29 at United Center.
The student managers traveling with Michigan are among the only holdovers in the program from the previous regime. There are five of them in Chicago this week for the Midwest Region of the 2026 NCAA Tournament in addition to Eli May, each of whom started under former Michigan coach Juwan Howard. Most of them hope this leads to a career in basketball just as it did for Dusty May.
They arrive at practice and workouts before all the players, and rebound for them at whatever hour of the day they want to get shots up. They cut up game film for coaches and jump in with the scout team during practice. They keep stats and track opponents’ play calls during games. They also pick up towels and trash, drive coaches to the airport, make lunch runs and photocopies, and perform any other odd task that needs to be done around the program.
None of them get paid, and yet no Division-I basketball team can run without them. This is what Dusty May had in mind when he suggested Eli think about joining the family in Ann Arbor rather than go to USF.
“It’s obviously tough to give up playing the game and being on a team wearing a jersey,” Dusty May told USA TODAY Sports. “But I just thought as far as his long-term development, all the things our managers learn, problem-solving, they learn people skills. They learn to function. We try to give them a lot of responsibility because we know if they’re ever going to make it in coaching … they have to have the experience of doing meaningful work. Our managers have helped him become much more responsible.”
Those managers were also a little skeptical at first, still reeling from a tumultuous final season under Howard in which Michigan stumbled to one of the worst records in program history (8-24).
They are used to the coach’s son being around. Howard’s sons played for Michigan. Charlie May, meanwhile, became a walk-on at Michigan when his father was hired. The son of Michigan women’s basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico is also a graduate assistant for the men’s team this year.
Eli May, now a sophomore, arrived on campus the summer before the 2024-25 season when there weren’t many student managers around to help the players. He had no idea what he was doing and none of the other student managers talked to him much at first, unsure how to approach the coach’s son who wasn’t a player. He eventually won them over, partly because he had no choice.
“Once you commit to something in our family,” Charlie May explained, “it’s go deal with it.”
“I’m technically in charge of him and he never complains,” student manager Sam Saraceno said. “Eli is doing grunt work a lot of people wouldn’t do. That’s how you could tell it was different.”
The student managers weren’t treated poorly before Dusty May came to Michigan, they all emphasized. They just feel seen more because May used to be one of them.
They notice how he still picks up trash from the floor around the practice facility, and lugs water jugs back to the supply closet after practice. They relish when the 5-10 May spots student manager Ryan Levine six points in 1-on-1 games and proceeds to take him into the post for bucket after bucket. They value being included.
“If you were to ask any of us why we do this, the main answer that would come through is the love for the game and the want to be part of something bigger than ourselves,” student manager Cameron Gordon said. “You don’t become a student manager if you don’t have those developments, so while (May) is not a student manager anymore, that’s very authentically who he is and you see it in little things he’s said to us.”
But for the longest time, May didn’t want his youngest son to pursue coaching. He’d always be pitching ideas, Eli said. Become an athletic director, or a front office type, or even a ref. Anything but the grind May put his family through rising up the coaching ladder.
So when May first approached Eli about being a student manager two years ago, he also mentioned perhaps there would be an opportunity to join the program as a walk-on once Charlie moved on. It was the carrot that convinced Eli to give it a try.
But just like dad, he might never put on another jersey again.
“I’d seen the managers from the outside, but I’d never been inside a program and seen it. What they’ve learned, how they go about their business, it made me want to be a manager more than anything,” Eli May said. “I feel like it’s a much better path to becoming a coach eventually.”