There's something special going on in Detroit, and Michigan's Dusty May got in on the fun: Exclusive interview

Wearing a No. 24 Detroit Tigers jersey with his brand-new Old English D hat, Michigan Wolverines basketball head coach Dusty May took the field Sunday at Comerica Park.

A confident May was ready to toe the slab and throw out the ceremonial pitch before the Tigers’ regular-season finale against the Chicago White Sox.

May threw a ceremonial first pitch once before, one-hopping his toss to the plate at a Miami Marlins game.

“I did this last year and threw it into the dirt, so I’m hoping just zero hops,” a smiling May told TheWolverine.com on the field. “I tried to throw it too hard.”

The attendance for Sunday’s game was 41,740. If someone predicted that would be the number Aug. 11, when FanGraphs gave them a 0.2-percent chance to make the playoffs, they would’ve been laughed at and told that the outing would be meaningless. It is true, though, that it was pretty insignificant, but only because the Tigers clinched their postseason spot and celebrated with a champagne shower Friday night.

The Tigers — an afterthought around these parts six weeks ago — have become the talk of the town. May, who just moved back to town in March, taking the Michigan job after four seasons at Florida Atlantic, might just have a new team to root for.

“It’s cool to be a part of it, with the Tigers in such a successful season preparing for the playoffs with a lot of stakes,” May said. “Great environment.

“I don’t follow baseball closely, but now living here, I’ll start following the Tigers.”

The city of Detroit has meaning for the University of Michigan and its basketball program. It’s been important for recruiting, and many of the in-state fans live in the area, but May even acknowledges that the school was founded in Detroit in 1817 by Gabriel Richard, a Roman Catholic priest.

May and Michigan will be back in ‘The D’ next month, scheduled to take on the Oakland Grizzles in an Oct. 20 charity exhibition.

“Obviously with Michigan, our origins being in Detroit, it’s very, very important, and we’re excited to play in front of the fans in this area and those that don’t get the chance to go to Ann Arbor,” May said. “But also just to play against Oakland and Coach [Greg] Kampe. He’s built a great program there. And also for such a great cause, in a charity exhibition like it is.”

The exhibition, which is set to tip at 5 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena, will benefit Forgotten Harvist, a “non-profit food insecurity organization whose vision is to work with communities to end hunger and create individual, neighborhood, economic and environmental health.” Tickets are on sale now at 313Presents.com, Ticketmaster.com and the box office at Little Caesars Arena.

Michigan is getting ready, with preseason practices having started up last week.

“We had a good first week,” May said. “We’re starting to get healthy and rounding into shape.”

The Wolverines have a tough non-conference schedule before its 20-game Big Ten slate, with six games against high-major opponents. Including league tilts, Michigan will take on eight Power Conference teams before the new year.

“Very tough,” May noted. “We’ll be challenged early, but we know if we’re going to improve and be ready for Big Ten play, we have to challenge ourselves.”

Later this week, May will be accompanied by junior forward/center Danny Wolf and graduate center Vladislav Goldin at Big Ten Media Day. While Michigan has numerous veteran players who May could’ve chosen to take with him to Chicago, he picked the two big men.

“We have a very balanced group,” May said. “I spoke to several people in our administration, it’s just a great storyline to be able to have two 7-footers in today’s climate playing together. Danny with his family history with Michigan and then Vlad with his history with us at FAU.

“It was a difficult decision, because we have a lot of different guys that are capable of being our best player on a given night, but those two guys are a pretty cool storyline.”

Cool storylines all around. May is getting set for his first season at Michigan with Wolf, Goldin and a bunch of new faces, the Tigers are headed to Houston for a best-of-three series with the Astros.

Oh, and the pitch? A little high, but much better than May’s first go-around.

“I played it safe!” the Michigan coach said with a laugh as he walked off the Kentucky Blueglass at Comerica.

Dusty May’s first pitch. I’d call it a strike! pic.twitter.com/KsfaRCi8Rh

— Clayton Sayfie (@CSayf23) September 29, 2024