The national championship game rematch between UConn and Michigan in the 2026-27 season apparently will be without one of its sideline stars.

Multiple reports Monday said Michigan head coach Dusty May, who led his team to a 69-63 win over the Huskies in the national title game on April 6, is headed to Dallas to take over as head coach of the NBA’s Mavericks.

May has been a rising star in the college-coaching ranks since he was hired to lead the Florida Atlantic team ahead of the 2018-19 season, beginning a tenure that cemented his place in the upper tier of NCAA head coaches.

Michigan plays in the Big Ten, UConn in the Big East. Still, this move could impact the Huskies in the long run, well beyond their scheduled Nov. 6 rematch in Boston.

UConn head coach Dan Hurley unquestionably will be watching to see how May does in his new role.

John Beilein, also from Michigan, was the most recent college head coach to make the jump to the NBA.

The Wolverines plucked Beilein from West Virginia ahead of the 2007-08 season. That was his first power-conference job after successful stints at Canisius and Richmond.

Before landing at Michigan, he’d spent five seasons with each of those three teams. He stayed 12 seasons in Ann Arbor, leading the Wolverines to nine NCAA Tournaments and two national title games.

They lost those games to teams coached by Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coaches – in 2013 to Rick Pitino and Louisville, and in 2018 to Jay Wright and Villanova.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, three seasons removed from the NBA championship, hired Beilein before the 2019-20 season, and his tenure there ended with disastrous results.

Then 66, Beilein didn’t mesh with the Cavaliers, who were not accustomed to an old-school head coach who ran a conservative offense not suited to the pro game. He resigned in February 2020 with a 14-40 record.

“I find losing very challenging and this year has taken a much bigger toll on me than I expected. I grew concerned for the consequences this toll could potentially take on my own health and my family’s well-being down the road,” Beilein said in announcing his resignation.

“I was not certain I could be at my best for the remainder of the season and in the future.”

Before Beilein went to Cleveland, the success of college coaches in the NBA wasn’t guaranteed.

Former Kentucky coaches Rick Pitino (Boston Celtics) and John Calipari (New Jersey Nets), Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg (Chicago Bulls) and Mike Montgomery (Golden State Warriors) all returned to coach in college following their time in the NBA.

The late Jerry Tarkanian, who won an NCAA title at UNLV, was fired by the San Antonio Spurs in his first season in 1992 with a 9-11 record. He and then-owner Red McCombs didn’t see eye-to-eye.

There are college-to-NBA success stories, such as Brad Stevens leaving Butler for the Boston Celtics and Larry Brown with his multiple stops. Brown is the only coach to have won both an NCAA (Kansas) and NBA (Detroit Pistons) championship.

But since the Beilein experiment failed, no NCAA coach has made the leap to the NBA.

The Los Angeles Lakers tried to lure Hurley in 2024 with a six-year, $70 million contract, and after careful consideration, Hurley decide to stay at UConn to pursue a third consecutive national title.

Only Hurley knows that, but it was clear he enjoyed leading his 2025-26 team, anchored by the graduated Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr.

Since the Beilein experience, NBA franchises have been gun shy about hiring a college coach. Hurley was an exception the Lakers were willing to make.

And while Hurley seemingly embraced the challenge of reassembling his roster this spring after graduations, transfers and injuries among his most recent team, it is possible Hurley could one day leave for the NBA.

After all, great college coaches – and Hurley counts as a great one – have walked away from a changed college basketball landscape, where financial compensation can be more important to a player than finding the right fit in the NIL era.

Wright is no longer at Villanova. Mike Krzyzewski is gone from Duke and Roy Williams from North Carolina. Tony Bennett left Virginia less than three weeks before the start of the regular season in 2024, saying he no longer was “equipped” to coach in the new era of college sports.

All four men won national championships.

It will be interesting to hear what May says after he officially is on board with the Mavericks. Did college coaching wear him out, too? Since he achieved a national championship, did he have no goals remaining?

Or maybe the chance to coach Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg, a 19-year-old superstar in the making, was too great to pass up. Remember, too, that the Mavericks have two first-round picks in 2026 NBA Draft, which begins Tuesday.

If May succeeds and turns around the Mavericks, expect NBA teams to let their guards down and come after coaches such as Hurley, Duke’s Jon Scheyer, Alabama’s Nate Oats and Tommy Lloyd of Arizona.

And with no guarantees of what college basketball will look like five years from now, expect those coaches to listen.

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