ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Year 3 for Dusty May at Michigan was shaping up to be another memorable one. The roster May assembled, though perhaps not quite the equal of Michigan’s national championship team, looked talented enough to make the short trip to Detroit for next year’s Final Four.Monday, Michigan fans faced the stunning reality that there won’t be a Year 3 for May, who is leaving to become the next coach of the Dallas Mavericks. Mike Boynton Jr., May’s top assistant the past two seasons, is expected to replace him on an interim basis. Michigan, a school that watched John Beilein leave for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Jim Harbaugh leave for the Los Angeles Chargers in recent years, is back in a familiar position, replacing another highly successful coach whose departure leaves a significant void.Five thoughts on where Michigan goes from here.Dusty May leaving for pros is familiar for Michigan fansAustin Meek1. Boynton is taking over a talented teamReplacing Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara and Morez Johnson was going to be a tall order. Now the Wolverines have to replace May, the coach who took Michigan from the bottom of the Big Ten to a national championship in just two seasons.May navigated the transfer portal as well as any coach in college basketball the past two years. Last year’s transfer haul included the three players listed above, all of whom could be selected among the top 15 picks Tuesday in the NBA Draft, and point guard Elliot Cadeau, who projects as one of the top guards in college basketball next season.May’s M.O. at Michigan was his creative use of big men from the portal. Before his departure, he remade Michigan’s frontcourt again with Cincinnati transfer Moustapha Thiam, Tennessee transfer J.P. Estrella and LSU transfer Jalen Reed. The return of Cadeau and Trey McKenney in the backcourt, plus the biggest freshman class of May’s tenure at Michigan, earned the Wolverines the No. 5 spot in The Athletic’s rankings after the NBA Draft deadline.Keeping that team together will be Boynton’s first task. Players will have a 15-day window to enter the transfer portal that opens five days after the new coach is announced. If Michigan can avoid major departures, the Wolverines shouldn’t slip too far in the projections for next season.2. May was building Michigan for the futureMay left behind a deep freshman class led by five-star guard Brandon McCoy, the No. 13 prospect in the Rivals industry rankings. The Wolverines signed two other top-50 prospects in forwards Quinn Costello and Lincoln Cosby, plus guards Joseph Hartman and Malachi Brown and center Marcus Moller, a 7-foot-3 prospect from Denmark.Michigan assembled this freshman class with one eye on the present and one eye on the future. McCoy, who can play multiple positions at 6-5, projects as an immediate contributor. Other players in the class could follow the developmental track.“We thought this was a great opportunity to maybe take a flyer on a guy or two that we feel like will be really, really good in a couple years,” May said in April.Michigan also returns guard L.J. Cason, who is recovering from a knee injury that could keep him out for most or all of the coming season. There’s no good time to lose a championship-caliber coach, but Michigan is better equipped to survive May’s departure than it was a year ago.3. May followed his own philosophyMay said he didn’t take it personally when players decided to explore their options in the transfer portal. He was clear-eyed about the professional nature of college basketball and pushed back on the idea that his players were “mercenaries” for leaving other schools and joining Michigan’s quest for a national championship.May had his own ambitions as a coach. His interest in the NBA was no secret, even if Michigan was hoping to keep him for at least a few more years. Michigan’s confidence increased when May and athletic director Warde Manuel reached a verbal agreement on a contract extension shortly after Michigan beat UConn in the national championship game.“We reached an agreement on the terms, and we’re putting it on paper,” Manuel said in April. “He’s going to be our coach.”May met with reporters a few weeks later and said the two sides were still finalizing details.“We’ve agreed to the terms,” he said. “There’s no second-guessing or second thoughts. In my mind, it was done on the handshake.”The terms of that proposed contract extension were never disclosed. Even if May had signed it, the deal might not have been enough to keep him at Michigan once the Mavericks came calling. In leaving for the NBA, May followed the advice he often gave to his players.“We support our players with whatever their personal ambition is outside of the season,” May said in April, asked about Cadeau’s interest in the NBA Draft. “If an NBA team said, ‘We’ll draft you in the top 10,’ I’d probably tell Elliot to go to the NBA.”4. Boynton brings experienceMay’s departure came with little warning, and many questions remain about the transition. Boynton is likely to provide stability, at least for the short term. Is he the long-term answer? That’s a question Michigan’s decision-makers will have to ponder.When Beilein and Harbaugh left for the professional ranks, they were replaced by first-time head coaches: Juwan Howard in basketball, Sherrone Moore in football. Neither hire worked out. Boynton, 44, brings a different resume. He was the coach for seven seasons at Oklahoma State, where he coached Pistons star Cade Cunningham. He was 119-109 overall and had a losing record in the Big 12 at 51-75, but he has experience running a major program and was heavily involved with Michigan’s defense, which was No. 1 in the KenPom efficiency rankings last season.“I’m the head coach at Michigan; he’s just as good as I am,” May told reporters before the national title game. “He’s just as prepared. He’s been invaluable for me. The best part about him is he covers my blind spots before they’re blind. There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t call me and want to take something off of my plate that I haven’t thought of, and that’s what he is. He’s a forward-thinker. He’s got a great feel for people.”5. Departure adds to the upheaval at MichiganMichigan’s national championship was a bright spot during an otherwise difficult year. May was one of Michigan’s brightest stars and a public face for the school while the football program was dealing with the fallout from Moore’s firing and subsequent arrest.In a vacuum, May’s decision to leave for the NBA makes total sense, just like Billy Donovan’s decision to leave Florida or Brad Stevens’ decision to leave Butler. However, it’s difficult to separate May’s departure from the background issues at Michigan, including the turmoil in the football program and the investigation into the culture of Michigan’s athletic department.Even when they were embarrassed by the headlines coming out of the football program, Michigan fans could take comfort in knowing May was their men’s basketball coach. Losing May, arguably the best hire Manuel made during his decade as athletic director, leaves Michigan with more big decisions to make. And it adds to the stakes for new football coach Kyle Whittingham, who is carrying even more of Michigan’s hopes before coaching his first game in Ann Arbor.