Michigan men’s basketball took its first step toward its 2025-26 season this week as the Wolverines began summer workouts in Ann Arbor.
U-M hopes to build on a Sweet Sixteen appearance, and the offseason has given the program plenty of reasons for optimism. Not only has Michigan retained its entire coaching staff, but the team added the nation’s No. 2 Transfer Portal class, per 247Sports, headlined by the top overall player, Yaxel Lendeborg. They join returners Nimari Burnett, LJ Cason and Will Tschetter, plus a freshman class highlighted by five-star CG Trey McKenney, as Dusty May and Co. set their sights on national contention.
Assistant coach Justin Joyner joined “Defend the Block” this week to break down the revamped roster and his expectations for this season. Here’s what he said:
What made the 2024-25 Michigan basketball team successful
I just think when you go to this business, when you go into this current landscape in college basketball, I think you really want to put together quality, quality teams that can maximize their ability. And I think a lot of that’s going to do with how they connect and how they trust each other. And I think we really got there as a team.
I think our leadership was really strong when we’re returning some of that with Nimari and Will. But our connectivity was at an all-time high when we needed to be — obviously, the Big Ten tournament.
Certainly, we ran a great race within the Big Ten, didn’t finish how we’d want to finish. But I do think through the adversity of our season, we really connected when it was time to be our best and finish really strong.
Michigan’s defensive performance last season
I think as a finished product, we were good. I think we were 12th in KenPom defensively, which, that’s a great mark for us to hit. Separately, though, I think we learned a lot about our team as the season went.
… I think at this level and certainly in this landscape of college basketball, where the roster turnover is so great, I think it’s important for you to be able to be flexible in your approach, both sides of the ball. And then the level of play consistently within the Big Ten, it’s going to force you to be a little bit deceptive in your coverage. It’s going to force you to be a little bit outside the box in your methodology.
Guys like Braden Smith, you can’t give them the same look every time. So you’ve got to be able to switch it up and keep teams off balance day to day, game to game.
What Michigan can carry defensively from last year into this year
Absolutely. I think, obviously, the switching was good for us. It allows us to be a little bit more disruptive.
But I also think just the ability to have a great understanding of the league, of the physicality of the league, of how the league’s officiated, the environments on the road. I think it allows you to at least prepare your team in a better sense. And then the other thing is just understanding our team and our staff, really, and getting another year to work with each other.
We understand how we work and how we scout and how we prepare our team.
Justin Joyner evaluates the talent Michigan added via the Transfer Portal
First and foremost, the ability to be deep, have real depth within our roster is really important. Those guys really give us a chance to have real depth. Certainly with those three adds — Yax, Morez, and Aday, it gives you a really deep front line with obviously Will Tschetter, Oscar Goodman as well.
Our front line is deep and I think you have to be able to play big in college basketball. We saw that last year with Danny and Vlad. Danny was a little bit more of a perimeter-type big. We’ll have to play a little bit different, but I think Yax can certainly do both — play on the perimeter, play in the post, and do some things like that.
Just the depth, the size, the physicality, the athleticism. I love the fact that they’re all a little bit different inside. Morez is different than Aday. Aday is different than Yax. We have some versatility on the front line.
Then Elliot gives us a true point guard. He gives us a guy that can play with pace. He gives us a guy that’s a real table setter that takes pride in making other players better.
I think that’s a great fit for our staff, but most importantly, Coach May.
The impact Will Tschetter and Nimari Burnett will have as program veterans
I just think the importance of Michigan as a whole bleeds through those guys. Those guys really, really care about Michigan. They really, really care about this program, and they really care about leaving this place better than they found it.
I think a good senior leader is going to put that at the forefront of everything. We felt that with Will, we felt that with Nimari last year, and I think it’s going to be tenfold this year. Those guys are really selfless, team-first mentality guys, and we’re lucky to have them back.
Our newcomers, our freshmen, and some of our returners for that matter, will really benefit from their leadership and expertise.
How LJ Cason and Roddy Gayle Jr. fared in Year 1 as Wolverines
I’ll start with LJ. For a young player who’s had such success in high school, you don’t always know what you’re getting into when you come to this level, when you come to college basketball.
I like to say it all starts over in college, and that happened with LJ. As a fan base, as a coach, and everybody around saw him kind of hit the ground running and have success early, I think naturally there’s going to be a little bit of a pullback. As competition grows, you’re going to hit some walls.
The most important thing for a young player to realize is if you don’t break, and you continue to push, and you continue to fight through adversity, there’s greatness on the other side. And I think LJ was a great example of that. He pushed, he pushed, he didn’t break, he bended, he didn’t break, he kept going, he kept pushing, and he ended up having great success for us.
And now he’s going to be even better for us in year two.
And Roddy’s the same a little bit. I think Roddy, in how he handled his adversity, was just so professional, so mature from being a starter to going to the bench, and ultimately winning us a game and getting us to the Sweet Sixteen.
He was just so mature throughout the year. He never lost his focus. He never lost his team first mentality. He continued to pour into his game. He continued to pour into his teammates. He continued to pour into his program.
And ultimately, he was rewarded for that. We were rewarded for that. And I just think that speaks volumes of not only the player he is, but the young man he is as well.
Winters Grady is a ‘fighter’ who can make an impact
He’s a competitor. He’s a fighter. It’s not a guy that it’s come easy for. Obviously, he has a great skill set. He’s big, he’s strong, he can really shoot the ball, he can really score the ball.
But I think his experience as a junior at Prolific Prep really prepared him for potentially the role that he’s going to have here. He played with AJ DyBantsa, he played with Tyran Stokes, he played with some really high level guys, and he had to find a way to be a factor on a really good Prolific Prep team as a junior. And so to do that, he had to defend, he had to rebound, he had to make open shots, he had to be really efficient in his opportunities, and by doing that, he got more opportunities.So that’s a great place to start for him.
As he expands his game, I think you’ll see a guy that can really score the ball in a lot of different ways, not just as a shooter. I think you’ll see a guy that’s really committed to the craft. A guy who’s going to continue to grow as a teammate, grow as a part of a program that is certainly bigger than himself, like all freshmen need to understand, and he should have a really good career here.
Story photo by Patrick Barron / MGoBlog.com.
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