Michigan assistant Justin Joyner: 'The bar is really, really high ... we're here to cut down nets'

Michigan Wolverines basketball assistant coach Justin Joyner left his job as the associate head coach under Randy Bennett at Saint Mary’s to join head man Dusty May ahead of his first season at the helm in Ann Arbor. Joyner spent the last seven years at Saint Mary’s, rising from director of basketball operations (2017-18) to assistant coach (2018-22) to associate head coach (2022-24), and he said Michigan was one of the few places he would’ve left for to work another assistant job.

“With Coach May and just this institution as a whole, it was going to take a real alignment,” Joyner said of the possibility of him leaving his former program while on the ‘Defend The Block’ podcast with host Brian Boesch. “And I felt that from our first conversation. Coach called me, I think it was Saturday midday. We started talking, and I really felt a real alignment in how we see this coaching mission and this leadership mission, in terms of impacting the lives of young men for the better and trying to bring out the most in them.

“Obviously as we do that, we’re trying to win games at a very high level. Personally, I’ve always had a very, very high bar for myself, and I understand that Michigan is a place that the bar is super high. For me to come to a place like Michigan and work with a guy like Dusty, I had to know that we were going to set a high bar for our program. We saw this thing the same way, and I think we aligned in that regard.”

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Joyner, who said he was in the mix for multiple head-coaching jobs this offseason, hadn’t met May before the hiring process, but they had mutual connections within the profession. Joyner had studied May over the last two years — “his leadership tactics and how he sees the coaching mission” — and was impressed from afar.

“Just the way the school is built, the academic landscape, the institution as a whole, the athletic department and just the focus and the singular focus on being great,” Joyner said. “It was always aligned with how Michigan was seen. That first conversation, I knew it was a guy I could really see myself going to war with and working for.”

‘I refuse to coach people that aren’t good’

The Concord, Calif., native and former UC Santa Barbara three-time captain is known as a high-level recruiter, having reeled in guard Aidan Mahaney, who transferred to UConn this offseason, and other talented players while at Saint Mary’s.

“The biggest thing is maximization,” Joyner said of his mission as a coach. “Our goal as coaches, as mentors, as leaders is to get the most out of young men.

My thing has always been, if we can recruit really, really good players and then get the most out of those players — obviously they have to fit the traits of our program — but if we can find really, really good players and we can get the most out of these young men, we’re going to be successful and they’re going to be successful. And that’s the true alignment we’re looking for.

“That was always the deal. Coach Bennett has done a great job of recruiting really good players and developing really, really good players.

“And that’s the goal, but I think you win with good people. It always starts with good people. I told Coach May on our first conversation that I refused to work with people that aren’t good and I refuse to coach people that aren’t good — and we aligned that way.”

‘We’re here to cut down nets’

Joyner was asked what type of players the Michigan staff is looking for, and he expanded on what it takes to be successful in the culture that the group is building.

“The first thing is going to be good people,” Joyner noted. “This staff is filled with really, really good people, and I’ve learned that in my short time here. We want really good people, we want smart people — you win with smart. And then talent. There’s always going to be a base of talent. You’re going to have a very, very talented player to win at a high level. But we also want smart, we want tough, we want talent that is willing to be unselfish and be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

The blueprint was set by May and his staff at Florida Atlantic, the Michigan assistant continued.

“If you look at Coach May’s teams at FAU, they had really, really good teams,” Joyner stated. “But one of the reasons I’ve been drawn to Coach May is how his teams played and how they shared the ball and how they looked out for each other on the floor and how they were a true team.

“And I think when you take a mid-major program like FAU and you get them to the Final Four, you don’t do that without maximizing those players and maximizing that team.

“I’m excited to be a part of that here, but we’re looking for guys that are unselfish, guys that are willing to be a part of something bigger than themselves and ultimately understand that the bar is really, really high at the University of Michigan, and we’re here to cut down nets.”