NCAA 2026: Michigan vs. Tennessee Recap

I’ve been trying to figure out how to put this Michigan run to the Final Four into context. John Beilein’s two trips to the Final Four felt like the culmination of something long and hard, a testament to sticking to it over many years and through failure and some rough patches.

This run isn’t that. This was a laser-focused plan that was executed to perfection in 24 months. My first impression of Dusty May was that he said all of the right things, but maybe it was all too good to be true. If the contents match the label, there could really be something here,” I wrote two years ago after May’s first presser in Ann Arbor.

The label might have undersold it, if we’re being honest. May’s first two years have been everything he promised and more. He loves to compare his vision for raising NIL funds to a venture capital and startups, well, right now, Michigan is a unicorn stock hitting exponential growth.

May has taken a program that was essentially an empty crater, raised three banners, and made the Final Four in just two years.

May is intentional about what he says, and he seems to follow through on it to a T. None of this is a surprise; it’s exactly what he’s outlined each step of the way. The alignment between how he talks about the game and how his team plays is impressive. The fact that every player communicates and believes in the same vision is what takes it to the next level.

The culture he’s built could just as easily be studied in a business school case study as in a coaching clinic. There’s transparency and honesty, a coach who knows he has to coach Aday Mara differently than Yaxel Lendeborg. More importantly, a coach who isn’t afraid to make big  — sometimes difficult — decisions to achieve the ultimate goal.

Michigan is in the Final Four because it is following Dusty May’s plan. A plan he hatched after learning at Florida Atlantic that the goal wasn’t to be great in March but on Monday night in April. None of its overly complicated, but it is hard to argue with the results.

Michigan is headed to Indianapolis. That’s not the story; the story is that it is headed there with the intention and belief that it will win two more games.