Dusty May cut down the nets in Indianapolis on Monday night, and it was a rough evening for at least one Ohio State beat writer. Two years ago, when Michigan hired May away from Florida Atlantic, Dave Biddle of Bucknuts was certain Ohio State had gotten away with something.
“OSU dodged a bullet with Dusty May,” Biddle wrote. “Not sure if Jake Diebler will be great, but May’s claim to fame is a lucky postseason run last year. You had never heard of him before that. And don’t forget, FAU got to play 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in the 2nd round.”
May’s Wolverines beat UConn 69-63 at Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday night, ending the Big Ten’s 26-year drought and giving Michigan its first title since 1989. When the internet (Reddit) found Biddle’s post, his reaction to Michigan being atop of the college basketball world only made things worse.
“Hats off to Michigan and my boy Dusty May (yeah, I know),” he wrote. “Very impressive. Wasn’t hoping it would be you guys, but nice work ending the Big Ten’s streak of not winning a natty in hoops. See you in the sport I really care about in November.”
See you in the sport I really care about in November.
That last sentence is the entire Ohio State basketball experience summarized in one line. It’s exactly what Mark Titus was describing three weeks ago after the Buckeyes blew a five-point second-half lead and lost to TCU on a buzzer-beater in the first round.
“Ohio State basketball fans are the worst fans in the world,” Titus said. “They watch football all year. They don’t even pay attention to the basketball program. They parachute in around late January or early February, look up the rankings, and if we’re not ranked in the Top 10, they’re just like ‘everything sucks, fire everybody, this is terrible.'”
Biddle didn’t say it quite that directly, but “see you in November” gets the idea across just fine.
Getting back to his original post, the skepticism about May was always a little thin to begin with. This was a coach who had just taken a program that had never won anything to the Final Four, who had gone 126-69 against competition that included legitimate high-major teams, and who had done it all without the resources that Ohio State could have handed him on day one.
But even setting May’s résumé aside, the more damning indictment isn’t about Michigan at all. It’s about what Ohio State chose to do with the same opportunity. The Buckeyes fired Chris Holtmann after six disappointing seasons, handed him a buyout, and then — faced with an opening at one of the most resource-rich programs in the Big Ten, at a moment when John Calipari had reportedly reached out about the position — chose to promote Jake Diebler, an assistant off Holtmann’s own staff. After going 17-15 in his first season at the helm, Diebler went 21-13 this Year 2, lost to a nine-seed on a buzzer-beater in the first round, and has yet to win a single NCAA Tournament game as a head coach. The Buckeyes haven’t reached the second weekend in 13 consecutive years.
Michigan went 37-3, became the first team in tournament history to score 90 points in each of its first five games, and finished the job Monday night by knocking off the program that had won two of the previous three national championships. They did it in just May’s second season, with a roster he built through the transfer portal, a roster Gus Johnson suggested Ohio State couldn’t have put together anyway because they’d given all the money to Ryan Day.
See you in November.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.