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ANN ARBOR — The first time Dusty May spoke publicly as Michigan’s head men’s basketball coach, he said it was important to “put a good team on the court in Year One.” How’d he do? When Michigan opens May’s second season Monday night, the game will feature a banner-raising ceremony. His next challenge: meeting expectations that are even higher than Crisler Center’s rafters. He believes he has the squad to do it. “I love our team and I think we have a really high ceiling,” May said. “There’s nothing that makes me say we don’t have enough of this or we don’t have enough of that to beat any team in the country on a given night.” The journey for the 2025-26 Wolverines begins Monday at home against Oakland (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1). To consider what they might accomplish, it’s worth remembering what they already have. May orchestrated the biggest single-season turnaround in Big Ten history last season, taking a program that went 8-24 the year prior and turning them into a serious contender. Michigan went 27-10, won the Big Ten Tournament and reached the Sweet 16. It was a master class in roster construction and in-season adjustments. May kept the useful players interested in sticking around (Nimari Burnett and Will Tschetter) and loaded up on transfers. They weren’t the splashiest additions: none were in the top 25 of the 247Sports rankings and some had never played at the high-major level. It quickly became clear that Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin were up to the challenge. They earned a clever nickname, “Area 51,” that played off their jersey numbers and out-of-this-world production. Backcourt additions like Tre Donaldson, Roddy Gayle Jr. and Rubin Jones were capable Big Ten starters. Close losses (the first four by a combined eight points) turned to close wins (nine straight by no more than four points). The Wolverines were in the hunt for a Big Ten regular-season title right until the final week. They found another level in the postseason, winning three games in about 45 hours against strong competition to capture the league tournament trophy. Despite getting hosed by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, 5 seed Michigan beat two uniquely challenging teams in Denver before falling to No. 1 overall seed Auburn in Atlanta. May doesn’t want to overhaul the roster every year, but he had to do it again this offseason. Donaldson transferred for a second time. He’ll finish his career in his home state at Miami. (It’s telling that Michigan was willing to let him leave, suggesting some issues behind the scenes.) Michigan would have loved another season out of Wolf, but you can’t fault a guy when he’s a first-round draft pick. Goldin and Jones were out of eligibility. Others won’t be missed as much. Sam Walters, whose season ended prematurely with a back injury, transferred for a second time to SMU. Justin Pippen showed promise as a freshman, but was MIA in the postseason and left for California. Phat Phat Brooks (who played a total of 48 minutes) will try for a reboot at Central Michigan and Jace Howard (20 minutes) will finish his long career at Fordham. As a result, May added four transfers, considered among the best hauls in the country: do-it-all forward Yaxel Lendeborg (from UAB), North Carolina’s starting point guard Elliot Cadeau, rebounding machine Morez Johnson Jr. (Illinois) and 7-foot-3 Aday Mara (UCLA). All but Cadeau were projected, by ESPN this summer, as NBA draft picks next year. Lendeborg played just 12 high school games and started at a junior college before two years at UAB. His rise to preseason AP All-American is remarkable. Cadeau led the ACC in assists last season; May met with him the day after Michigan’s season ended. Johnson showed great promise as a freshman; his athleticism makes him a force in the paint at both ends of the floor. Mara is the tallest player in program history and perhaps Michigan’s best passer. The freshman class is promising, headlined by Michigan’s Mr. Basketball Trey McKenney and sharpshooter Winters Grady. They’ll both get a chance to crack the rotation. The other rookies are long-term prospects, though Malick Kordel’s 7-foot-2, 275-pound frame makes him Big Ten-ready. The four returners all excelled at times in May’s system: Burnett, Gayle, Tschetter and sophomore L.J. Cason, who started and finished last season strong. Michigan assistant Mike Boynton Jr. said that Cason thought his hot start might get him drafted before he “forgot how to play basketball for a month.” Better off-court and practice habits should help him be more consistent. Starting guards Burnett and Gayle are the types of veterans Big Ten contenders usually have. Burnett is an effective high-volume 3-point shooter this roster needs. Gayle found his groove in the postseason after a rough winter and is comfortable as a senior. Tschetter can play multiple frontcourt spots and provides reliable outside shooting. He’s the definition of a “Michigan man.” The pieces are all there. One advantage Michigan won’t have this year compared to last is the element of surprise. Michigan is No. 7 in the preseason AP poll, with only a half-dozen teams having better odds to win it all. Consider Burnett, who played for a loaded Texas Tech team and a terrific Alabama squad that earned a No. 1 seed before arriving at Michigan. “This is probably the most talented team I’ve been on,” he said last month. “Especially when you combine IQ with athleticism and size. We’re going to be really, really tough to beat, especially when we bring it all together.” Preseason prognostications, difficult enough before the transfer portal, now involve a heavy dose of guesswork. Remember last year that Indiana, which would not get invited to the Big Dance, was picked second in the Big Ten. It all came together for Michigan last season: right away and when it mattered most. With so many new faces, that’s no guarantee. May is optimistic it will, saying the chemistry is ahead of schedule compared to last year, partly because he and his assistants — all of whom stayed — are now working in an environment with an established culture. There will be bumps along the way. May’s aggressive scheduling all but guarantees that. Michigan will play San Diego State, Auburn and another marquee opponent in Las Vegas before Thanksgiving; Duke in Washington, D.C. in late February; and a grueling 20-game Big Ten slate. When setbacks occur, Boynton said, “What gives you a chance to still become what you are capable of is the quality of people who don’t start pointing fingers and start taking in all the outside noise and start buying into individualism over our team. We’ve got a group of people in our locker room who really care about each other and care about winning.” Michigan split a pair of high-level exhibition games, both of which went down to the final possession. They exposed some issues, namely the turnovers that hindered last season’s offense. May compared his job to the scene in “Vegas Vacation” where Chevy Chase’s character tries to plug a leak in the Hoover Dam with a piece of gum, only to have another leak appear. “You better have a lot of gum and a lot of putty to plug those holes,” May said. “We do. We have a lot of gum and putty in our locker room.” May took Florida Atlantic to a Final Four. He rebuilt Michigan immediately. Armed with his most talented roster ever, now doesn’t seem like the time to doubt him.
