For the second straight offseason, Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May has killed it during the offseason.
Soon after getting knocked out of the NCAA tournament by Auburn in the Sweet 16, May went to work on rebuilding the Michigan Wolverines for the 2025-26 season.
Michigan has added a slew of top-50 transfers. Elliot Cadeau, the former North Carolina point guard, was the first addition. Former Illinois center Morez Johnson also transferred, along with Aday Mara, the former UCLA center.
All three of those players will have essential roles next season. Of course, the key player in the Wolverines transfer portal class is Yaxel Lendeborg. The former UAB standout, and American First-Team All-Conference selection as well as the Defensive Player of Year, is considering the NBA draft.
Lendeborg committed to Michigan basketball out of the transfer portal. He also visited the Wolverines recently, and by all accounts, that visit went really well. Chris Balas, a Michigan insider for the Wolverine, posted recently that it was about 51-49 in terms of Lendeborg going to the NBA.
Here are the teams this offseason that are bringing in the highest quality transfers on average, per https://t.co/cegyfz8ykZ.
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) May 9, 2025
Getting quality in the transfer portal matters just as much as quantity. pic.twitter.com/PfxkpvZ1c8
Michigan's transfer portal class also looks much better with him in it. In fact, according to Evan Miyakawa, a college basketball analyst, the Wolverines have the best transfer portal class in the 2025 cycle, in terms of quality.
Miyakawa has praised Michigan's transfer portal class before, but in his rankings of "quality over quantity," the Wolverines take the cake. UConn, Louisville, Illinois, and Oklahoma round out the top five.
However, if Yaxel, the No. 1 transfer according to 247 Sports, stays in the NBA draft, Michigan's class will look much different. So will its chances of being a national title contender.