Roster retention critical for Michigan after Dusty May's NBA move

On the same day the Wolverines were set to begin summer workouts and start gearing up for the 2026-27 season, they lost their national championship-winning coach.

Just like that, things took a sudden turn, and the Michigan men’s basketball team was thrown through a loop with the departure of Dusty May, who’s set to become the head coach of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.

May’s exit is a crushing blow on its own, but the timing of it makes it even more brutal and puts Michigan in a bind. It’s almost July, the main window for the college basketball transfer portal has closed, and the coaching carousel has stopped.

A program that reloaded and was chugging along in the offseason now must quickly find a new leader who can steady the ship and keep things on course. Assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. appears set to take over as an interim, though it’s unclear how long that would last since Michigan has yet to make an official announcement.

Yet, Boynton is a logical choice and perhaps the best bet to keep the roster intact as a continuity pick. Not only has he served as May’s top assistant and de facto defensive coordinator the past two seasons, he has experience as a head coach at the high-major level (seven seasons at Oklahoma State) and he’s played an integral role in building a national championship roster at Michigan in two years.

Not to mention an extensive coaching search at this time of the year isn’t ideal, considering the pool of candidates has thinned and an outside hire could trigger a mass exodus. The fact Boynton has existing relationships with the returners and newcomers should provide stability and help Michigan retain its top talent.

“I think we have 14 really good players that we’re excited about,” assistant coach and general manager Kyle Church said on the program’s “Defend the Block” podcast last month. “I think we have a very competitive roster, a potential top-five, top-10 type roster. … We’re really excited about the position we’re in.”

Michigan would like to keep it that way but there are no guarantees. Under NCAA rules, a 15-day transfer window will open for Michigan players five days after May’s replacement is hired or publicly announced. If any key contributors decide to leave, it’ll be difficult for the Wolverines to find suitable replacements, given most top transfers and recruits are already off the market.

That said, there’s plenty of pieces Michigan must hold onto and prevent from being poached if it’s going to have a chance at repeating as Big Ten champions and defending its national title, starting with the transfer portal additions.

The Wolverines’ starting frontcourt already was going to change after losing projected first-round picks Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara to the NBA. Michigan restocked by scooping up J.P Estrella (Tennessee), Jalen Reed (LSU) and Moustapha Thiam (Cincinnati), a three-man transfer class that’s ranked No. 12 in the nation by 247Sports and headlined by Thiam, whom Church called “the best center in the portal.”

And all three were pursued and targeted with a purpose — to complement starting point guard Elliot Cadeau and maximize his ability in pick-and-rolls.

“The good thing about those three, they all are lob threats for Elliot Cadeau,” assistant coach Akeem Miskdeen said on the program’s podcast last month. “We always try to build a team with what we have, and Elliot was pressing us to get some guys that can catch some lobs. He was a part of lot of this when we asked about what we need to help for next year.”

Alongside Cadeau, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, Michigan is set to return rising sophomore Trey McKenney, a breakout candidate who played a key role as a freshman.

McKenney told The Detroit News on Monday that he doesn’t plan on going elsewhere, and he seemed to reaffirm that stance with a social media post that read: “Victors always stay #HA1L #GoBlue.”

Of the eight Wolverines who played in at least 39 games for last season’s national title team, Cadeau and McKenney are the only two who are returning. All the others either exhausted their eligibility or left to begin their professional careers.

“Both of them are a big part of Ann Arbor and University of Michigan now,” Church said on the program’s podcast last month. “There was mutual wanting to be here. We know we’re not the coaches without them. They might not be the players without us. They need each other, we need them.

“There was no question that we wanted those two guys back, so we made that a priority. … I think both parties knew this is where they want to be, knew that we could help each other. We knew we could build a roster around what I think is going to be one of the best backcourts in the country next year.”

Then there’s the six-man freshman class that’s No. 4 in 247Sports’ composite rankings, led by McDonald’s All-Americans Brandon McCoy Jr. and Quinn Costello. Those two figure to factor into the mix right away, with four-star guard Joseph Hartman, three-star wing Malachi Brown and Danish center Marcus Moller providing depth.

With freshman forward Lincoln Cosby, junior guard L.J. Cason and Reed all rehabbing and working their way back from injuries that required surgery, returners Oscar Goodman and Ricky Liburd seem poised to compete for minutes and carve out roles.

All said, Michigan’s roster is already going to look much different this upcoming season, with nine new faces in the fold. The hope is there won’t be another wave of player movement following May’s departure and the Wolverines can hold it together.

“We’re going to have a chance to have a team that looks a little bit different, because we’re going to be younger than we’ve been next year but still very talented,” Boynton said on the program’s podcast last month. “We look forward to seeing how we can put the team together to be the best version of itself.”

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan hopes to avoid roster losses after Dusty May’s departure