The college basketball transfer portal is now closed, and there have been a lot of changes in Ann Arbor over the last month. Here’s a look at where Michigan Basketball’s roster stands and how it could use its remaining scholarships:
After a wild few weeks, the transfer portal in college basketball is now officially closed and the 2025-26 roster for the Michigan men’s basketball team is taking shape.
The Wolverines have been active in the portal, adding some new players to make up for the losses from last year’s squad.
Let’s run through where Michigan’s roster stands with the portal now closed. Before we get started, there are two important things to note.
- Just because the portal is closed doesn’t mean that the roster activity is over. Schools can recruit players that entered the portal before Tuesday’s deadline. Also, if the head coach of a program takes a new job, players at that school get a 30-day window to enter the transfer portal.
- After the House vs. NCAA settlement last year, schools can now offer up to 15 scholarships, an increase of two from previous years. However, it’s important to note those additional scholarships have financial implications. As Noah Henderson broke down in a recent piece for Sports Illustrated , not every school will use all 15 scholarships. At this time, it’s unclear if Michigan will offer all 15 available scholarships.
Let’s break everything down.
Players transferring in
- North Carolina G Elliot Cadeau
- Illinois F/C Morez Johnson
- UAB F Yaxel Lendeborg
- UCLA C Aday Mara
This is a really nice haul for the Wolverines, especially if Lendeborg decides to return to college after testing the NBA waters.
Michigan picked up a point guard who has started 68 college games in Cadeau, and two bigs with upside in Johnson and Mara. As discussed in my Mara scouting report , those two big men fit well together similar to Trevion Williams and a young Zach Edey on Purdue a few seasons ago.
247Sports and Evan Miya both rank Michigan as having the top transfer class, with On3 ranking it second behind Kentucky . Those rankings would change if Lendeborg stays in the draft, but experts agree Michigan has one of the best transfer portal classes in the sport.
Returning players
- G L.J. Cason
- G Roddy Gayle Jr.
- G Nimari Burnett
- F/C Will Tschetter
This is a solid group of returnees who give the program stability and leadership. Tschetter and Burnett served as leaders on last year’s team and will do that once again. As a senior, Gayle — who had a tumultuous junior year — could step up as a leader as well.
Cason is the lone first-year player to not hit the portal. He showed scoring flashes in his freshman season and will likely have a larger role next year.
Incoming freshmen
- G Trey McKenney – five-star
- G Winters Grady – four-star
- F Oscar Goodman – four-star
It’s unclear how much all three will contribute next season, but with the five-star pedigree, it feels reasonable to assume McKenney will get some playing time.
Grady and Goodman are both talented enough to contribute at some point, but they’ll likely be bench contributors as freshmen.
Players who have entered portal, are out of eligibility, or are entering the draft
- G Justin Pippen – Portal (Cal)
- F Sam Walters – Portal (SMU)
- G Tre Donaldson – Portal (University of Miami)
- G Durral Brooks – Portal
- G Jace Howard – Portal
- G Rubin Jones – Out of eligibility
- C Vlad Goldin – Out of eligibility
- F/C Danny Wolf – NBA Draft
It would make sense to call this section “departing players,” but in theory, Howard and Brooks could always return to Michigan if they don’t find somewhere to transfer to. I’m not sure how likely a return is for either player, but it’s certainly on the table — Michigan is all Howard has ever known, and Brooks is from Grand Rapids and grew up a Michigan fan.
Regardless of what happens with Brooks and Howard, those are a lot of minutes Michigan has to replace.
Scholarships accounted for, what comes next
To recap, Michigan has at least 10 scholarships accounted for, and that number jumps to 11 if Lendeborg returns to college. If he does, that gives Michigan four transfers, four returning players, and three incoming freshmen.
This means the Wolverines have 2-4 available scholarships to use. There are really four main options for those scholarships:
- Michigan can pursue other portal players, like Minnesota’s Dawson Garcia , who could be a great insurance plan if Lendeborg stays in the NBA Draft.
- Michigan can pursue other 2025 recruits to stock the cupboard of young players that can serve as developmental pieces.
- Michigan can go abroad and recruit international prospects, like German center Malick Kordel who visited for the Michigan-Michigan State game in Ann Arbor.
- If the Wolverines are satisfied with that group of 11 — which would be reasonable, considering they played 8-9 guys in most close games last season — they can simply provide those scholarships to walk-ons.