Dusty May’s Michigan Wolverines won the national championship after a wait of 37 long years. They beat Dan Hurley’s UConn 69-63 in the NCAA title game. Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson, Aday Mara and Elliot Cadeau keyed Michigan’s success.
With Lendeborg, Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. all declaring for the upcoming NBA draft, May has a task at hand to rebuild his team. It will be fair to assume that the Wolverines might not be as good as they were last season. In fact, analysts Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster think Michigan’s age-old rivals will be better.
While reviewing teams for next season, Goodman and Dauster also discussed Tom Izzo’s Michigan State.
Dauster explained why he thinks that the Spartans might be better than the Wolverines next season.
“Obviously, it starts with Jeremy Fears, right? Jeremy Fears is, if not the best point guard in the country, like, he’s going to be right there with Tyler Tanner, in terms of the two best point guards in college basketball,” Dauster said (Timestamp: 1:50).
“I think that Coen Carr, Jordan Scott and Caleb Glenn is everything that you could possibly ask for when it comes to wings in a Tom Izzo system. All three of those guys can get out and run the floor. They rebound. They are nightmares in transition. And at least with Jordan Scott and Caleb Glenn, they have proven the ability, in small sample sizes, but have proven the ability to make threes from the perimeter. So, I think that you have some versatility with your roster there.
“Obviously, Kurt Tang, a junior, I worry about him defensively, but there have been games where he changed it with his ability to shoot. Cam Ward (is) going to be a breakout sophomore. I know you don’t think sophomores can possibly get better after their freshman seasons, but Cam Ward’s one of those guys I think has a chance to have a big year because of his ability to rebound.
“And Anton Bunk, who is one of the cooler stories in college basketball, a 7-foot-2 kid from an island called Vanuatu, which is in the South Pacific, which … it’s like Fiji, right? It’s this island in the middle of nowhere. It’s, like, how the hell did you find a 7-foot-2 dude in Vanuatu? But he averaged 10 and 8 last year.”
Dauster also mentioned how there are six players returning, including Coen Carr. He expects some big performances from them. Although he is worried about the shooting from their freshmen, he is confident about the roster Tom Izzo has built.
Dusty May’s Michigan Wolverines roster for next season
While Dauster was optimistic about the Spartans’ talent, their rivals, the Wolverines, also have some firepower for next season. Their returnees include Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney. Despite losing names like Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara, Dusty May has added some quality players.
They have eight new players: three from the transfer portal and five freshmen. Forward J.P. Estrella (Tennessee), forward Jalen Reed (LSU) and center Moustapha Thiam (Cincinnati) all joined Michigan from the transfer portal. In the 2026 freshman class are point guard Brandon McCoy, center Quinn Costello, power forward Lincoln Cosby, shooting guard Joseph Hartman and small forward Malachi Brown.
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