Dusty May officially removes himself from UNC coaching search

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Michigan head coach Dusty May gestures on the court in the first half of their Final Four game against Arizona at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday, April 4, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

This evening it was reported that Michigan head coach will not pursue the job opening at UNC. This was announced by ESPN’s Pete Thamel via X:

Sources: Dusty May has informed Michigan officials that he’s not pursuing any college basketball jobs, per me and @jeffborzello. May had been an initial target at North Carolina, but that never materialized because of Michigan advancing in the NCAA Tournament. pic.twitter.com/RM1Q2yFYNf

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 5, 2026

UNC’s coaching search has had three names mentioned the most: Tommy Lloyd, Dusty May, and Billy Donovan. Lloyd announced a couple of days ago that he accepted an extension with Arizona, and will now report to the school President instead of his AD. Billy Donovan is currently finishing up the NBA regular season, and he stated that he did not want to make decisions about his future until the season is over. And now there is May, who has come out and said that he will not pursue any college basketball jobs, which while that is another sting in UNC’s plans, it is also worth noting that he specifically said “college basketball jobs.” Interesting choice of words.

Regardless, UNC has now one less candidate on its list. While it is unclear whether or not the school is showing any signs of panic, anxiousness among fans will likely ramp up in the coming days. Billy Donovan will presumably become the top target, but there are a couple of big things that came out in a report from the Chicago Sun-Times that would indicate that the Bulls are actually interested in making legitimate changes within the organization that could entice Donovan to stick around. More on that tomorrow morning.

Donovan aside, there are a handful of names floating around still, but how true it is that they are legitimate candidates is unclear. Mark Byington, Ben McCollum, TJ Otzelberger, and Scott Drew are names that have come up over the last 24 hours, and one has to imagine there are some candidates that haven’t been named yet. We’ll see what new information is released as the week progresses.

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