The Michigan football and basketball programs have officially reached their offseasons after a whirlwind nine months.
The men’s hoops team won the national championship earlier this month then had a flurry of moves in recent days, with new players entering the program and championship starters declaring for the NBA Draft (while leaving open the possibility of returns).
Football, meanwhile, saw coach Sherrone Moore fired, arrested, and run through a months-long court process. The program also hired longtime Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, who outfitted almost an entirely new staff, and the team just wrapped up its spring session – including 15 practices – with the annual Maize and Blue spring game.
While more hoops moves are possible, it’s a quieter time in the program. Football, meanwhile, is off until summer conditioning begins on June 1. That makes now a good time to take stock of where the teams are at.
This is the first edition of the Michigan Monday Mailbag; you can submit future questions to @realtonygarcia on X and I’ll do my best to provide the intel I’ve learned and answer them as offseasons progress.
But for this first one, lets go with some of the more popular questions I’ve gleaned from discussions recently:
What’s the predicted starting five for next year’s basketball team?
There’s still more movement likely (or final decisions, at minimum) but the roster seems to be taking shape. Let’s start with the backcourt, where Elliot Cadeau will start at point guard. Even though he just declared for the NBA Draft, I was told that’s just to gauge feedback for a future draft run − he signed a new contract to return to Ann Arbor earlier this month and will be back.
His running mate will be shooting guard Trey McKenney, who stepped up into a sixth man role last season as a true freshman. There’s an expectation within the program that he will blossom in 2026-27 after he, too, signed a deal to come back. Don’t rule out McKenney being first-team All-Big Ten next season.
In the frontcourt, transfer J.P. Estrella (Tennessee) is the likeliest option to start at the four. Think of him in the Morez Johnson Jr. role – there are lineups in which he can move to the five, but primarily he will be seen as the power forward. Someone I spoke with recently raved about him and thinks he’s incredibly underrated.
At the five, it would be a shock if it was anybody but Moustapha Thiam. Michigan landed the 7-foot-2 center as the replacement for Aday Mara (who is all but a lock to stay in the NBA Draft) as the rim protector. Like Mara, he can stretch the floor a bit, but he’s a true five.
That leaves the wing and there are a few options for this. The best-case scenario would be U-M landing Juke Harris, the former Wake Forest wing who is also going through the NBA draft process. He has the size for it at 6 feet 7 and can play off the ball and still score.
If Michigan doesn’t land Harris, coach Dusty May’s team could go small and slot five-star freshman guard Brandon McCoy into the role, though he could also begin in McKenney’s role last year – as a sixth man and a game-changer off the bench. Otherwise, U-M could go bigger and put Oscar Goodman at the three − he will play both there and at the four this season.
There’s also Jalen Reed, the transfer from LSU, though my understanding is he’s more depth than a starter. There’s also Ricky Liburd, a redshirt freshman who had a good year behind the scenes despite not much court time in 2025-26. And finally, there’s Quinn Costello, the McDonald’s All-American who headlined U-M’s class prior to McCoy’s announcement.
The three is the spot most up for grabs and Harris’ decision is the domino holding up clarity.
Is Michigan basketball going on a Europe trip this summer?
While nothing is official, I’m told it’s a distinct possibility. According to the NCAA’s bylaws, college teams are allowed a foreign trip every four years. That means the Wolverines are due for theirs − the last came in 2022 under Juwan Howard, when Michigan went to France and Greece for three exhibition games.
Before that, Michigan went to Spain with former coach John Beilein in 2018, following trips to Italy (2014) and Belgium (2010).
As for this summer, there’s nothing official yet. But Michigan is working on plans and it is a strong possibility the team makes a trip “over the pond” this year. Where? That’s unknown, but I would expect an announcement sometime toward the end of May – Michigan announced its 2022 trip in May of that year.
As for a timeline, that, too, is not yet set, but previous trips came in mid-to-late August.
Will Bryce Underwood have more freedom to run in new system?
In a word, yes.
The philosophy toward the QB’s ground game under the previous regime was, “If you have a running quarterback, you’d better have two.” This year, coaches have repeatedly emphasized the offense will be tailored to the strengths of the team and that means using Underwood’s legs more.
Take a look at Utah QB Devon Dampier the past two seasons, spent under new U-M offensive coordinator Jason Beck at New Mexico and then Utah. In 2024, with the Lobos, Dampier ran for 1,166 yards and 19 touchdowns. Last year, in the Big 12 with the Utes, Dampier ran for 835 yards and 10 touchdowns. In all, he rushed 301 times in 24 games – an average of 12.5 runs a game.
While it’s not a perfect comparison – Dampier is probably more mobile, as he averaged 5.6 yards a carry in 2023 before Beck’s arrival in Albuqueque – last year is an example of what how Underwood could be used on the ground.
In Year 1 at U-M, Underwood ran 88 times – 6.8 times a game, including sacks – for 392 yards and four TDs. It would be a surprise if Underwood didn’t run at least 120 times (10 per game), which includes RPO calls, a core tenet of Beck’s scheme a season ago.
Will OL Andrew Sprague be a first round NFL draft selection?
I am not an NFL talent evaluator, but … maybe?
A first rounder in 2027? Probably not. He has appeared in just 16 games over two seasons, with 13 starts thus far. Sprague has all the measurables one would want in an NFL right tackle, at 6-8 and 315 pounds. But first round territory as a junior is elite territory.
Sprague graded out rather evenly in 2025 as a blocker in both the pass game (71.0) and the run game (69.9), according to Pro Football Focus. There’s room for improvement in both: Utah’s Spencer Fano, the top tackle selected in last weekend’s NFL Draft (at No. 9 by the Cleveland Browns), had PFF grades of 93.6 (run) and 79.9 (pass) in 2024, his sophomore season. Sprague, meanwhile, allowed 20 pressures and 17 hurries as a sophomore − numbers that would generally lead to more than the one sack he allowed, if not for Underwood’s mobility.
Sprague is seen as a likely anchor of U-M’s line in 2026 and early returns from the coaching staff in practice suggest he’s been one of the brighter spots on the unit. New offensive line coach Jim Harding also has a penchant for developing stars on the line: Along with Fano, he had tackle Caleb Lomu go at No. 28 (to New England) in Thursday’s first round.
If Sprague returned for a senior year, he could develop into one of the truly elite offensive linemen in the Big Ten. But doing that in just one offseason with Harding in Ann Arbor is hard to see.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football/basketball mailbag: How much will Bryce Underwood run?
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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