The college basketball landscape was rocked on Monday, June 22, when news broke that former Michigan basketball coach Dusty May agreed to leave the program after two years to take over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA.
While the seismic vibrations were sent through the sport, the epicenter hit in Ann Arbor, where U-M must now replace perhaps the best coach the program’s ever had − and quickly. The expectation, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, is that the Wolverines will elevate assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. to interim for the 2026-27 season, in hopes that it will create stability and give U-M the best chance to hold its roster together.
Five days after a new coach is named, the transfer portal will open again for all Michigan players for a 15-day window. While most other schools’ rosters are full and NIL funds largely used up, there are of course some heavy hitters who could make enticing cases to Michigan’s most elite players that their 2026-27 season will now be more fruitful in another uniform.
It’s Michigan’s job to keep as many pieces together as possible, but these are the five players U-M most can’t afford to let leave Ann Arbor.
Sophomore guard Trey McKenney
We’re starting with McKenney, not only because he’s a proven backcourt scorer who has widely been expected to take a massive leap as a sophomore from what was already a standout freshman season, but because he’s already been outspoken.
The former Michigan Mr. Basketball winner at Orchard Lake Saint Mary’s took to “X” less than 10 hours after May’s decision went public and not-so-subtly implied that he intended to stay. “Victors always stay,” McKenney wrote. “#HA1L #GoBlue.”
McKenney, who appeared in all 40 games for U-M off the bench in Year 1, averaged 9.9 points and 2.8 rebounds per game, then was even better in the NCAA Tournament, putting up 12.0 points and 3.5 rebounds, plus the dagger 3-pointer in the national championship game to help the Wolverines secure the second title in program history.
He served as a team representative at a golf outing at the U-M Club of Flint, his hometown, and caught up with a few reporters to express his mixed emotions.
“ I’m just kinda shocked, but life goes on, and I’m happy for him,” McKenney said. “Anybody else in the room would’ve done the same thing and taken the same job, and it’s an amazing job. But I’m just excited and anxious to see who we’re able to retain and keep. I think we have a pretty good staff, and I think Dusty left a pretty good blueprint of two years of our work, and he brought like the best staff in the country to Michigan.
“So I don’t think there’s anything that the fans or supporters of Michigan basketball should be worried about. … I’m at ease because I know the staff and the people we have around our program, and they’re amazing people, and they’re going to make an impact on this program right away.”
Senior guard Elliot Cadeau
Michigan’s returning starting point guard had agreed to a deal to return to U-M but surprised the fan base when he put his name in the NBA Draft to test the waters, even if it was only to gather intel from the next level. He did return to Ann Arbor − and the Wolverines must make sure he stays there.
Named the Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four, he averaged 10.5 points and 5.9 assists per game in his first season with U-M after spending the first two campaigns of his career at North Carolina. Like McKenney, he took his game up a notch in the postseason, where averaged 12.3 points and 7.5 assists in six NCAA Tournament games, including a game-high 19 points in the national championship against UConn.
Cadeau elevated his game as a whole as a junior, shooting the best 3-point rate (37.6%) of his career while scoring in double figures in more than half of U-M’s games (21) and posting six games with double-digit assists, including three double-doubles.
Few teams in the country have a more proven facilitator in their backcourt, and without a true backup ball handler, his return to the Wolverines is essentially vital.
Junior center Moustapha Thiam
Michigan has brought in five frontcourt players via the transfer portal the past two seasons, and after the NBA Draft on Tuesday, June 23, all five of them will be in the NBA. That requires U-M to backfill the positions and did so at the center spot, replacing Aday Mara with former Cincinnati big man Moustapha Thiam, who was the No. 3 center and the No. 12 overall player in the portal, per 247 Sports’ composite rankings.
Thiam was second on the Bearcats in points (12.8) and rebounds (7.1) per game in 2025-26 while leading the team in blocks (1.6) en-route to All-Big 12 honorable mention honors. He had nine double-doubles and scored 10 or more points on 21 occasions, including when he scored a career-high 28 points to go with eight boards in an upset at Kansas.
While he is looking to improve his 3-point shot (29.0% in his career), he’s a proven down-low scorer who shot 57.3% on 2’s last seasons and is a rim protector. He’s U-M’s lone true center on the team outside of incoming freshman Marcus Moller and provides elements to the game that others on the roster simply don’t have, namely with his 7-foot-2 and 250-pound frame.
Graduate forward J.P. Estrella
Michigan not only has to replace Mara, but also Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg and Will Tschetter, a trio that took up more than 90% of U-M’s minutes at the power forward spot. As a replacement, U-M nabbed former Tennessee big man Estrella, whom the staff saw firsthand in U-M’s 95-62 romp of the Vols in the Elite Eight.
The Wolverines landed Estrella just three days after winning the national championship as the first addition to this season’s roster following an efficient season in Knoxville, Tennessee. The 6-foot-11 and 240-pound frontcourt player averaged 10 points and 5.4 rebounds in just 18.3 minutes a game in 2025-26 as he shot 59.6% from the floor.
After primarily coming off the bench to start the season, Estrella moved into the starting lineup for 13 of the team’s final 19 games and scored 10 or more points in 19 of Tennessee’s 33 contests. His greatest skill is likely offensive rebounding, as he grabbed misses at a 17.3% rate, the eighth best in the nation.
Freshman guard Brandon McCoy
Game-changing freshmen don’t grow on trees, but U-M landed one when Brandon McCoy committed last April.
Ranked the No. 3 shooting guard in the country, the No. 3 player in California and No. 14 overall player in the class according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings, it was little surprise that McCoy became a McDonald’s All-American.
He led Sierra Canyon to a 30-1 season in 2025-26 and capped it off with a California Division I state title in March. McCoy is seen as a versatile backcourt piece who figures to primarily play off the ball, but he has enough ball-handling skills to serve as a backup point guard when needed. At 6-foot-5 and 190 pounds with nearly a 6-foot-10 wingspan, McCoy has exceptional length for a backcourt player.
Pair that with a high motor and quick feet, he’s not only an elite offensive player but seen as a defensive prospect beyond his years, as he averaged 1.6 steals and 1.2 blocks per game in the EYBL last summer. He could be the McKenney of this season, a piece that’s not relied on play-in and play-out but always available to change the game.
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: The 5 players Michigan basketball can least afford to lose
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
