After a solid showing and winning the gold medal with Team USA in FIBA play this summer, expectations for Illinois transfer big man Morez Johnson Jr. appear to be shifting:
In a rare mid-summer availability, Michigan men’s head basketball coach Dusty May spoke to the media for nearly a half hour and invited writers to watch a portion of a summer practice. The team is about midway through summer preparations heading into the 2025-26 season.
“I like our team,” May said on what he’s seen so far this summer. “They seem to be a competitive group — they appear to be in better shape than we anticipated. We have a lot of weapons.”
The Vets showing how it’s done as Nimari Burnett flushes it and Will Tschetter drills a three at the other end of the scrimmage. pic.twitter.com/AkjxYTtyPf
— Jake Singer (@JakeMSinger) July 13, 2025
One of those weapons is Morez Johnson Jr. Transferring in after one season at Illinois, Johnson is now in Ann Arbor after winning a gold medal with Team USA.
In six games representing his country, Johnson averaged 8.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and had his best showing when the lights were brightest. In the medal-winning game against Germany, Johnson led his team in points (15) and plus/minus (+23). He was 5-of-6 from the field and perfect from the free throw line (5-of-5).
Johnson was one of the most important players for the USA. In seven games, he was tied for third in minutes, seventh in points and second in rebounds. He wasn’t a star by any means, but the role he played was important because of his size.
May emphasized the importance of guys playing in team settings during the offseason, but there’s a difference between scrimmages against guys you know and competing against some of the best young players in the country.
“Some players on the team are lottery picks next year, so it’s exciting to play with them and against them,” Johnson said. “It was just a great learning experience overall.”
“It’s impressive to see (Johnson) buy into that role,” May said. “They needed him to be an enforcer in the paint, a finisher, and he did that. He was really, really effective playing that role for a gold medal team on the world stage.”
Assuming Johnson is going to play the same role at Michigan would be naive, considering how last season went. We saw significant improvements from Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf in just one season, so it feels safe to assume we’ll see improvements from Johnson as well.
Recruiting big men that can be more than role players appears to be a trend for May, who has pursued bigs who can play make and add more wrinkles to the offense.
“Recruiting is niche,” May said. “(It’s) because we’ve evolved into a system where (the bigs are) involved in the offense and getting bigs away from the rim. Ideally, we’re clicking with five guys in unison playing wonderful music, and we’re able to recruit anyone. I think if you’re a big guy that likes to pass and be involved in the offense they see us play, they are attracted to it.”
It’s incredibly early to project how Michigan will do in 2025-26, but as is often the case this time of year, optimism is at an all-time high. While May is encouraged with what he’s seen so far, he’s still figuring out who plays the best with who, which guys don’t need the ball, and what lineups will be best.
“I think we can be even more unique,” May said. “There will be times where we roll out a really big lineups…offensively I think when you have talented enough players you can figure out a way to be efficient enough to win, it’s usually a matter of if those bigger players can find a way to guard smaller players, can guard the paint and still contest on the perimeter.”
Johnson is part of a deep frontcourt that also features Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara and Will Tschetter. May stressed the importance of that depth for a deep postseason run, an obvious goal considering Michigan is coming off a Sweet Sixteen appearance and is shooting for more this season.
“I do,” May responded when asked if he feels Michigan can have one of the best frontcourts in the country. “We think that these guys all complement each other, when you look at their skill sets and what they do well…we do think we have a lot of options, and as the teams in the Final Four proved last year, you need good depth if you want to play late into March and hopefully April.”