The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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20 THE WOLVERINE ❱ JUNE/JULY 2026 2026 BASKETBALL RECRUITING ISSUE BY CHRIS BALAS D usty May has never seemed to follow the "norms" since he arrived in Ann Arbor, a great quality for Michigan and its fans but one rivals have found makes their lives more difficult. Though many around the Big Ten initially scoffed when May said he wanted to win imme- diately after inheriting a program that went 8-24 in Juwan Howard's last sea- son, they found out quickly how serious he was when he won the Big Ten Tourna- ment and took his team to the Sweet 16 in his first year. And when they questioned if he could continue to win with that formula? Well, we all saw what happened this year — 37-3, undisputed Big Ten champions (by four games over second place), and the program's second-ever national title af- ter a 69-63 win over UConn in the NCAA championship game. May did it by assembling not the high- est-priced nor most sought-after talent in the transfer portal, but players who all had something in common besides just chasing money. "We've always done it a little different. I watch certain teams that recruit a cer- tain profile or certain skill set. … We've always just really tried to find guys who love ball, who are great teammates, who are competitors," May said. "Those are probably the two things we value most. Competitors, because we just have a strong belief that competitors are go- ing to figure out a way to win, whatever that is, whatever they're playing. So, the competitive spirit is probably the most important thing. "Loving ball would probably be a close, close second. Sometimes, we say we don't really care. You can love to compete, or you can love ball. We think we can get to the end result as long as you have one of those." If there's a third, he added, it would be size. The Wolverines had a ton of it this year, along with a point guard in El- liot Cadeau who played bigger than his 6-1 listed height, and it made them a nightmare defensively. With center Aday Mara and forwards Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan simply over- whelmed most of its opponents. "Obviously, being big is in vogue," May continued. "I'd never been a big coach at the Power Five level, but at Florida [as an assistant], because we were so big, our defensive numbers were top five in the country. I didn't feel like we were that great defensively or had great defenders but because we were big and athletic, that gave us a baseline to be good. "So, we wanted to try to copy that. Then, it was convenient because [FAU transfer] Vlad [Goldin] was 7-1. [Yale transfer] Danny Wolf 's mom went to Michigan, and he wanted an academic situation and high-level basketball. … We thought, 'Wow, we could have a real shot at getting this guy.' With two 7-footers, you're naturally going to be bigger than most." This year was the 7-3 Mara and the 6-10 Johnson, of course. And while May admitted in a recent interview that they almost changed course because big men were "overvalued" in this year's transfer portal, he landed 7-2 Moustapha Thiam from Cincinnati. If they hadn't, they might have tried to play smaller, he ad- mitted. In short, there's always more than one formula to build a roster. "We've always tried to get good players and have enjoyed the process of watch- ing our guys, learning [about] our guys, to figure out the best way to function as a group," May said. "We're not married to being big. If everybody goes big, we might weave and go small. Who knows? "We're not winning because we're big. We're winning because we have really good players and smart players." REVAMPING THE ROSTER But that takes work, and May couldn't rest much after leading his team to the national championship. He and his staff immediately switched to reloading the roster with hopes of competing for an- other title in 2026-27. They signed nine players in the offseason, with several ex- pected to at least compete for playing time immediately, and were waiting on decisions from a few more potential ad- ditions, he confirmed in late April. Though he didn't go into detail, the coach acknowledged there were others still on the radar. "Yeah, and obviously, the guys who are affecting those decisions," he noted of his players [Mara, Johnson] who were testing the NBA waters. "We're in the information-gathering phase with a couple of guys." Of the nine additions, he added, the biggest component in the Wolverines' ability to sign them was the expansion of rosters. They have 15 spots now, "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 of years and develop them, pour into them, and help them, and give them all of everything that Michigan has to offer." U-M signed elite players like McDon- ald's All-Americans 6-5 guard Brandon McCoy Jr. of Chatsworth (Calif.) Sierra Canyon and 6-10 forward Quinn Costello of The Newman School in Boston. Be- tween that and elite portal additions like Thiam, On3's No. 14 portal player overall ARCHITECT AT WORK Michigan Coach Dusty May Signs Nine In Rebuilding His Roster