In a new podcast interview, Michigan head coach Dusty May spoke on a busy off-season, the roster turnover, and how the team will prepare this summer:
It’s been a busy off-season for the Michigan men’s basketball team, fresh off a historic turnaround where the Wolverines tripled their win total from the previous season, won the Big Ten Tournament and made it to the Sweet Sixteen.
This all happened under the guidance of head coach Dusty May, in his first season in Ann Arbor. Now with a full off-season to prepare for the 2025-26 campaign, May and his staff are hoping to build on that success, with a few key returnees, some top transfers and a talented recruiting class.
May spoke with Brian Boesch, Michigan’s radio play-by-play man on Defend the Block recently . This is May’s first appearance on the podcast since March 26, and a LOT has happened since then. Here is a look at Michigan’s roster as of Tuesday, June 3.
Players transferring in
- North Carolina G Elliot Cadeau
- Illinois F/C Morez Johnson
- UAB F Yaxel Lendeborg
- UCLA C Aday Mara
Returning players
- G L.J. Cason
- G Roddy Gayle Jr.
- G Nimari Burnett
- F/C Will Tschetter
Incoming freshman
- G Trey McKenney – five-star
- G Winters Grady – four-star
- F Oscar Goodman – four-star
- F Patrick Liburd – three-star
“Things are going really well,” May said to open the interview, when asked how Year 2 has gone so far. “We’re excited about where we are as we begin June. It’s been a hectic schedule since the season ended, we haven’t gotten acclimated to Ann Arbor yet, I think this past weekend was the first me and my wife were in town for a Friday and Saturday. This is the new normal, there’s a lot going on besides coaching basketball games, but it’s been a very productive spring for the program.”
Here are some other key quotes from May from the conversation, and some analysis on those quotes.
On Recruiting Yaxel Lendeborg
“Immediately after going into the portal, myself and the staff drove to Chicago where he was interviewing and meeting with agents, and we asked if we could carve out an hour or two just to visit face-to-face,” May said. It moved pretty quickly at that point, and we also felt like this was a year we could gamble on someone who we felt was the best player, most productive player in the portal. In some years you can’t wait that long, but this year, we felt we had the roster depth where we could roll the dice and go the duration with someone like Yax, and fortunately, it paid off because he raises our ceiling exponentially.”
You have to move that quickly with a player as talented as Lendeborg , easily the most highly-touted player Michigan has landed in the portal in program history. The Wolverines did just that, with May drawing on his relationships with UAB from his time as an assistant coach there (2007-2009) to get intel on Lendeborg. I do like that the whole staff came for the sell, with Michigan showcasing a united front. May said that many schools also made that drive to Chicago to meet with Yaxel, but the Wolverines sold him.
On Lendeborg’s role with Michigan, and how that impacts everyone else’s role
“The beautiful thing about Yax is we think we can play him all over the board. We have guys that can slide up, slide down, even when you look at the guys we brought in,” May said. “The more players we have that can slide up and down the lineup and play different positions, just gives us more versatility, more options to go on either side of the ball.”
May brought up defensive versatility at this point in the podcast, praising Will Tschetter for grading out as one of U-M’s best on-ball defenders and bringing up the switchability of transfer Elliot Cadeau, who May says can guard bigger guards because of ‘his spirit’. Versatility has clearly been a priority for Michigan’s coaching staff, which feels like a wise strategic choice; adaptability in both roster building and coaching decisions has always been May’s biggest strength, in my opinion.
May went on to say that Lendeborg will be used “as a queen on a chess board, like Derik Queen at Maryland, like Danny Wolf.” I don’t think it’s a one-for-one replacement, but May stressed Lendeborg’s talents as a passer when he draws too. Michigan has the depth and shooters to make defenses pay when that happens.
On talking to Elliot Cadeau the morning after losing in the Sweet Sixteen, and playing faster
“With Elliot, we actually scrimmaged them the year before last at FAU,” May said. “Coincidentally, I coached North Carolina legend Sean May as a player, a very good basketball coach who is on their staff now, and so we had a lot of back-channeled information. We just felt like he fit because we still didn’t play at the tempo that we wanted to last year, and the more talented weapons we have on our roster, it makes it even more integral to have a point guard that’s going to set those guys up, and a true pass-first point guard that’s going to keep everyone happy.”
While May stressed playing early into his tenure — like pretty much every new basketball coach — Michigan finished the season 54th in adjusted tempo on KenPom, a mark that was faster than every Big Ten except Illinois. May wants to play faster, and Cadeau can help with that.
On potential concern for a lack of a backup point guard on the roster
“We do think Roddy Gayle showed us glimpses of real steady playmaking and decision-making late into the season, and we’re going to get him involved more. His passing, when you go and look at Vlad’s basket that weren’t assisted by Danny (Wolf) or Tre (Donaldson), a lot of them came from Roddy Gayle’s post passing…you never feel great about anything because you always want more, but we do feel like we have a lot of options.”
Gayle got a lot of praise in this interview, with May bringing up his hard work this off-season and expressing his optimism after his NCAA tournament play.
“With the right pieces around him, he’ll thrive even more,” May said of Gayle.
Gayle wasn’t the only player that May brought up for this role: in terms of playmaking, May brought up Cason, Lendeborg when he has the right match-up, Burnett and freshman Trey McKenney. While the lack of another true point guard is a legitimate concern, May countered Boesch by saying that true point guards are becoming a rare breed; offenses at the NBA level are usually initiated by star players, whether they’re true point guards or not.
May did say he was concerned if Cadeau got hurt, but it does sound like there’s a good amount of options to patch together point guard minutes.
On Patrick Liburd, Michigan’s newest recruit
“It happened really quickly,” May said on Liburd’s recruitment. “He’s a guy where we’ve had trouble getting the rangy, 3-and-D wings, there’s not a lot of them out there, and the NBA is constantly looking for them as well. He has skill, he has shooting ability, he’s a hard worker, so from an intangible standpoint, we thought he was someone who could develop this year and learn from the older guys playing at a high level.”
Liburd was recruited late in the process , being added to the roster in the last few weeks after largely being recruited by Ivy League programs and high mid-majors. May didn’t explicitly say it, but with how the roster shakes out and reading between the lines, Liburd could be a candidate to redshirt. He’s got a skill set that can fit on any roster as a two-way wing, and he’s got a bright future, regardless of how many minutes he gets in 2025-26.