The Blueprint: How Michigan Built a Formula College Basketball is Racing to Copy

There was a moment during the three-week window between winning the national title on April 6 and the official announcement of his new roster on April 28 when Michigan basketball coach Dusty May toyed with making wholesale changes to a strategy that had worked wonders. Towering positional size and NBA-caliber talent in the frontcourt propelled the Wolverines to the sport’s apex, securing just the second championship in program history. Michigan’s triumph marked the fourth time in as many years that college basketball’s eventual champion tore through the competition by deploying one of the tallest rosters in the country, overwhelming opponents at the rim and in the paint. Coaches everywhere had noticed and were adjusting their roster-building strategies accordingly. But an obvious chasm separating supply from demand for elite big men in this spring’s transfer portal meant replicating that construction was akin to joining a highly competitive auction. “Let’s just put it this way,” May told me last week, “this would be a great time to be the financial advisor of a quality post player, or the agent. There have been times this spring, before we were able to finish our class, where we thought that the market was so inflated. We considered kind of leaving and going a little bit smaller again. Maybe even try to sign a bunch of [wings] with a point guard and spread you out, just because we felt the bigs were so overvalued.” That was before the Wolverines knew they would land former LSU forward Jalen Reed (6-foot-10, 230 pounds) and former Cincinnati center Moustapha Thiam (7-foot-2, 250 pounds) on consecutive days in late April, building on a prior commitment from Tennessee forward J.P. Estrella (6-foot-11, 240 pounds). Just like that, any discussion about potentially abandoning the build that fueled arguably the greatest season Michigan has ever had was quickly scuttled. In its place was the chance to recreate what May believes is an exemplary formula, even if the individual talents might differ next season. “There’s certainly an element of that,” Michigan assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. told me last week. “It’s never completely just swapping out guys and it will be the exact same. But there is a certain skill set that Dusty has a great appreciation for and [he has] a great way of unlocking the potential that’s in some guys.” So why wouldn’t May want that? By winning 64 games since joining the Wolverines ahead of the 2024-25 campaign, May is now tied with former Kentucky and current Arkansas coach John Calipari for the most victories in college basketball history through a coach’s first two seasons at a program. His two big men from that debut season — Danny Wolf (6-foot-11, 250 pounds) and Vladislav Goldin (7-feet, 255 pounds) — are both playing in the NBA. And now, as this year’s draft approaches, all three members of his indomitable frontcourt trio from the national championship-winning squad are projected first-round picks: Yaxel Lendeborg (6-foot-9, 240 pounds); Aday Mara (7-foot-3, 255 pounds); Morez Johnson Jr. (6-foot-9, 250 pounds). If that happens, Michigan will match its program record for most first rounders in a single draft. Former Wolverine greats Rumeal Robinson (No. 10), Loy Vaught (No. 13) and Terry Mills (No. 16) were all first-round selections in 1990, a year after they won the school’s only other national championship. “I think we’re going to have [signed] five bigs in two years out of the portal,” May told me, “and I anticipate all five will be playing in the NBA next year. That hit rate is pretty high, and I think agents and players are aware.” That reputational shift for May, whose stock has never been higher amid legitimate interest from NBA head coaching vacancies, began when he secured a commitment from Wolf via the transfer portal two years ago, elevating the former All-Ivy League performer at Yale into the No. 27 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Though May enjoyed tremendous success as the head coach at Florida Atlantic from 2018-24, guiding the Owls to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and a trip to the Final Four, none of his players were drafted during that span. This opened the door for agents, opposing coaches and handlers in the recruiting space to discourage certain high-end prospects from joining the Wolverines early in May’s tenure at Michigan, according to Boynton. May eventually began to address that perception through on-court innovation, most notably by deploying Wolf as a pseudo-point guard to unlock the ball skills and playmaking ability coveted by NBA front offices, all while pairing him with Goldin in oversized lineups that were initially questioned around the sport. That approach ultimately helped May fill one of the few perceived gaps on his résumé. The effects were noticeable almost immediately, with May telling me that “it felt like any and every big [man] in the portal, they were at least intrigued or interested,” as Michigan began assembling what proved to be a championship-level roster last spring. In Lendeborg, the Wolverines knew they were acquiring someone who was, by most accounts, already capable of playing in the NBA. He was the highest-rated player in the transfer portal following two standout campaigns at UAB and projected as a fringe first-round pick before enrolling at Michigan. Fast-forward to the present, and Lendeborg, who became a consensus first-team All-American and was named Big Ten Player of the Year this past season, is now “a lock lottery guy,” as Boynton described him. Still, it’s the growth May and his staff elicited from Lendeborg’s lesser-known teammates that continues to open more doors for the Wolverines in recruiting, according to Boynton and fellow assistant Drew Williamson. Transforming Mara from a bit-part player at UCLA, where he averaged 6.4 points and 4 rebounds per game during the 2024-25 campaign, into a double-figure scorer and arguably the most fearsome rim protector in the country represents masterful talent identification and coaching. As does the impressive expansion of Johnson’s repertoire to harness the athletic gifts that shimmered in a smaller role with Illinois but blossomed in full at Michigan, evidenced by 10 double-doubles and a spot on the Big Ten All-Defensive Team. “[They] probably weren’t expecting to be in the position that they’re in now,” Boynton told me when asked about Mara and Johnson, both of whom are navigating the pre-draft process. “And again, because of the work that they were willing to do and the commitment that Dusty had to them not only helping our team win, but to their own individual development, [that] gave us a chance to have sort of a blueprint to tell guys like Moustapha Thiam and Jalen Reed and J.P. Estrella that we may be able to do [it] with them.” Added Williamson: “I do believe we had a little proof of concept to where we were more appealing, maybe, than some other places.” While the Wolverines understand the role their own success has played in radicalizing the finances for post players — whom multiple college basketball staffers said were commanding the highest fees in this year’s transfer portal — they are far from the only team to “screw up the market,” as Boynton playfully described it to me. He pointed to the back-to-back championship teams at UConn in 2023 and 2024 as having tremendous positional size, headlined by eventual lottery pick Donovan Clingan (7-foot-2, 280 pounds). The same goes for last year’s winner, Florida, which utilized a frontcourt rotation that featured four players listed at 6-foot-9 or taller, with the Gators finishing sixth nationally in defensive efficiency. Seven teams that reached the Elite Eight this past March were ranked among the top 42 nationally in height, according to KenPom, including every school that advanced to the Final Four. Subsequent activity in the transfer portal, where 19 of the 41 highest-rated players are either power forwards or centers, reflected the sport’s burgeoning obsession with size — both in Ann Arbor and beyond. Those frontcourt players have spread their high-priced commitments to 15 different schools and counting, with two more still uncommitted as they weigh NBA decisions. The only two programs to land multiple players from that group are Indiana and Michigan, which signed Thiam (No. 13 overall, No. 3 C) and Estrella (No. 23 overall, No. 7 PF) to headline May’s portal haul and adhere to the championship-winning blueprint. For the Wolverines, there was no better proof of concept than cutting down the nets in Indianapolis last month. “It wasn’t [just] because we were big,” May told me. “It was that our bigs were really good and versatile. Just getting bigger is not the answer. It’s getting bigs who are as good as the last four national champions.”