Flory Bidunga is the No. 1 player in the 2026 Transfer Portal. After Dusty May landed Yaxel Lendeborg out of UAB last year, it’s not a surprise to see Michigan in the mix for Bidunga after his stellar sophomore year at Kansas. However, if that pursuit comes to fruition, it will raise the same questions May’s portal activity did last year, only this time, the naysayers who raise them might actually be right.
Could Dusty May be too all-in on his three-big lineups?
When May brought Lendeborg from UAB, Aday Mara from UCLA, and Morez Johnson Jr. from Illinois last offseason, outside observers weren’t the only ones wondering if those three bigs could play together. May even admitted that he wasn’t sure his experiment would work.
Obviously, the early returns were fantastic with Michigan steamrolling through the non-conference, and it ended with a bang in the NCAA Tournament. It was made possible, though, by Lendeborg’s continued development as a spot-up shooter and on-ball creator. At times, he played like a shooting guard on offense, and while Michigan wasn’t the best three-point shooting team, the Wolverines shot nearly 37 percent from beyond the arc with a 41.4 percent three-point attempt rate.
Spacing wasn’t an issue offensively, but that doesn’t mean those weren’t real concerns. Michigan took advantage of a team with a similar build in Arizona, but which lacked the three-point threat.
Much of college basketball is following May and Todd Golden’s lead, who won the 2025 title with a similar formula, and supersizing in the front court. The goal is to raise your floor by dominating at the rim, getting easy baskets in the paint on offense, taking them away on the other end, and winning the possession battle on the boards.
However, there are still plenty of ways for that to go wrong. The gravity of a lob threat helps with spacing, but if you don’t have shooters and passers to run perimeter actions with your multiple bigs. With Mara, Michigan has the passing element covered, but if you swap out Lendeborg for Bidunga, a lot of shooting gravity goes away.
Flory Bidunga, Morez Johnson Jr., and Aday Mara couldn’t all play together
After starting his career taking one three-pointer a game, Lendeborg shot 37 percent on 4.5 attempts this year. Bidunga, on the other hand, has attempted two threes his entire career and is yet to make one. An athletic 6-foot-10 forward, Bidunga is an elite defender and impressive post scorer, thriving with his back to the basket and from the dunker spot.
He can do a lot of good, and that’s why, after averaging 13 points and nine rebounds, the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year is the top player in the portal. He’s just not a shooter, and doesn’t have the guard skills that enabled Michigan to thrive in transition and Lendeborg to run the offense in the half-court.
Bidunga, Johnson, and Mara would give Michigan the best front court in college basketball for the second-straight season. The only problem is that they couldn’t all play together. Maybe this pursuit is a sign that Mara is heading to the NBA after an impressive postseason. But unless that’s the case, there isn’t room for all three.
So, as many were wrong to say last season, Michigan should look to add more shooting. If it's down to Bidunga or Wisconsin guard John Blackwell, while Bidunga would fit the identity May has built in Ann Arbor, Blackwell would fit better on the court.