In mid-February, with Michigan stumbling through Big Ten play and well on its way towards a losing season, Wolverines athletic director Warde Manuel gave embattled coach Juwan Howard a tepid vote of confidence in a conference call with reporters.
"I continue to support [Juwan] and the effort to turn this around," said Manuel. "It would be fair to say I have not really thought about any changes in our men's basketball program at this time."
Michigan was 8-17 at the time ... and then it lost seven straight games to finish the season after Manuel's public remarks. On Friday, Manuel reversed course, firing Howard after five seasons and just two days after a season-ending loss in the Big Ten Tournament that dropped the Wolverines to 8-24.
So what is next for Manuel and Michigan, and who might the program look to next to try to get things back on track in Ann Arbor? Below are eight candidates to watch as potential fits for the gig.
Dusty May, FAU coach
May could be -- and perhaps already is -- going to be the most sought-after candidate this carousel season should he leave Florida Atlantic with Louisville, Ohio State and now Michigan among his potential suitors. May led FAU to the Final Four last season and helped set a single-season school record with 35 wins. May is now 125-67 since taking over the Owls program in 2018.
Amir Abdur-Rahim, USF coach
South Florida won the American Athletic Conference regular-season title in Abdur-Rahim's debut -- a mere year, mind you, removed from a 14-18 effort. A strong contender to win National Coach of the Year, he also helped turn around Kennesaw State from a one-win team in 2019-20 -- his first season -- to an NCAA Tournament team with 26 wins in 2022-23.
Brian Dutcher, San Diego State coach
Should Michigan look to connect with its history once again like it did with Howard, Dutcher could be a fine successor by engendering some nostalgia for the Wolverines faithful. The San Diego State coach previously coached in Ann Arbor as an assistant on Steve Fisher's staff that won a national title in 1989 and was a key part of recruiting and developing those early 1990 teams -- which included the Fab Five. Dutcher's been at San Diego State since 2017 with a 174-56 overall record. He's coming off a Final Four appearance in 2022-23.
Darian DeVries, Drake coach
DeVries took over at Drake in 2018 and has yet to win fewer than 20 games in a single season. The Bulldogs coach was a longtime disciple on Greg McDermott's staff at Creighton and is now taking his team to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history.
Anthony Grant, Dayton
A 10-year assistant on Billy Donovan's staff at Florida, Grant's blossomed into a known and valuable commodity as a head coach, with his stint at Dayton the last seven seasons resulting in a 148-71 record. Grant was also the architect of a Flyers team in 2019-20 that went 29-2 and was poised to make a deep NCAA Tournament run before its cancelation. He also had winning records at VCU (76-25) and Alabama (117-85) prior to Dayton.
Jamie Dixon, TCU coach
Dixon has his alma mater -- which he took over in 2016 -- in line to make a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, and he has won 64 games across the last three seasons. It's hard to break through in the middle class of the Big 12, though, and plotting a potential leap could make some sense here. He was run off at Pitt after 13 seasons despite winning 73% of his games as one of the marks of consistency in the Big East, and later in the ACC.
Mitch Henderson, Princeton coach
Henderson, like Dixon, is another potential candidate coaching at his alma mater -- he played at Princeton in the mid 1990s and has been coaching there since 2011 -- who could be primed to make a leap elsewhere. The Tigers are 70-19 over the last three seasons and have won three consecutive Ivy League regular-season championships. They could be back in the NCAAs this year, which would be the first time since 1998 they've made the Big Dance in consecutive seasons.
