Michigan basketball lost its two 7-footers from last season to the NBA Draft, but the Wolverines imported a trio of big men from the Transfer Portal as they reload for 2025-26.
Though Yaxel Lendeborg has commanded headlines, Aday Mara (from UCLA) and Morez Johnson Jr. (Illinois) will each play "big roles on both sides of the basketball," as Dusty May detailed this week on "Defend the Block."
"Both of those guys have played for really good coaches. They have a really solid foundation of how to play winning basketball at a high level," May said of Mara and Johnson. "Now, we've got to get them acclimated into our system. Obviously, each year you're in college basketball, your role is probably going to grow. We're going to lean on both of those guys."
Johnson, a rising sophomore, averaged 7.0 points and 6.7 rebounds during his lone season in Champaign. The former top-50 prospect — ranked as the top player from Illinois in the Class of 2024 — is a physical big who commands the boards on both ends of the floor.
He entered the Transfer Portal in late March and committed to the Wolverines after a lightning-quick recruitment that garnered interest from Arizona, Kansas State, Iowa, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Wisconsin.
"Morez was an extremely expedited recruiting process where he knew what he was looking for. I think we fit a lot of the criteria of who he is and what he was," May said. "He had a good experience at Illinois. He played well. He was in the rotation. Sometimes these guys are just looking for a change."
Mara averaged 13.0 minutes as a sophomore at UCLA, logging 6.4 minutes and 4.0 boards per game. But his role increased as he recovered from illness, and he played big minutes as the Bruins pushed toward the postseason.
"When you watch Aday play the last half of the year, he really took his game to another level and had some really, really bright moments," May said. "His learning curve, his developmental curve, him going into his third year of college where he's added weight — he's well coached."
Mara entered the Transfer Portal in April and committed to Michigan just 10 days later. It was another quick recruitment for Dusty May and Co., but it's a familiar reality in the new paradigm of college basketball. As the coach said on "Defend the Block," he and the staff "don't spend nearly as much time recruiting high school players as we once did."
"We were extremely excited about both of those guys because we were familiar with them," May said of Johnson and Mara, whom he scouted at their respective Big Ten programs last season.
"… That's the beauty of the Portal: You have to make quick, decisive decisions. By playing these teams and watching as much ball as we do, it doesn't take us long to decide who we want once they go into the Portal."