Warde Manuel on role Indiana job had in Dusty May contract talks: 'This has nothing to do with that'

One day after Indiana confirmed Mike Woodson wouldn’t be returning as head coach next season, a former Hoosier was getting ready to coach on the other sideline. Dusty May and Michigan were coming to Bloomington, and May’s name came up immediately as a potential replacement for Woodson.

May, of course, is a former manager under the late Bob Knight before embarking on his coaching journey. That’s why his name was among the many discussed after news of Woodson’s departure came down.

However, May is staying put in Ann Arbor after agreeing to a restructured contract extension. As for the role the Indiana job had on the discussions about a new deal, Michigan AD Warde Manuel made it clear talks began before news broke about Woodson’s future and was unrelated to IU’s potential interest in May.

“I actually told Dusty when I sat and talked to him about a week ago, I said, ‘First of all, it’s been a great season. I’m proud of you. You’ve accomplished far more than I ever thought you would at this point in your tenure here,'” Manuel told reporters Friday. “But what made me mad is we started to talk about this before they went to Indiana and all that started. I want to assure you all that this has nothing to do with a reaction to that.

“This has to do with a decision, talking to President [Santa] Ono, and talking through this with my basketball administrator Doug Gnodtke, that this is what we wanted to do. It’s a great day, but I want to assure people this has nothing to do with that.”

Dusty May received ‘new contract’ at Michigan

Warde Manuel also confirmed May’s reworked contract is for five years, calling it effectively a “new” deal. His original contract with the Wolverines, signed prior to this season, was for five years at $3.75 million per year.

“It’s, really, a new contract,” Manuel said. “It’s five years. I don’t know all the stuff that’s out there, so I can’t speak to exactly what’s out there. Like I said, our lawyers have already been talking that it’s going to be done very soon. There’s not a lot to put in there – change some numbers, do some things around the contract. We haggled over that for a long time. So I think both his agent and our lawyer will get this done very quickly.”

May has quickly turned Michigan around this season, putting the Wolverines squarely in the NCAA Tournament conversation. UM came in as a No. 4 seed in On3’s James Fletcher III’s latest Bracketology on Thursday. The Wolverines were in first place in the Big Ten entering Friday’s game against Michigan State – a 75-62 loss to drop to 20-6 overall and 12-3 in conference play.