Michigan coach Dusty May on roster: 'Wait-and-see approach' with Morez Johnson Jr., 'prepared to pivot'

Michigan Wolverines basketball head coach Dusty May is at the NBA Combine in Chicago as he puts the finishing touches on his 2026-27 roster. The Maize and Blue are waiting on a final decision from forward Morez Johnson Jr., who has two years of eligibility left but is impressing at pre-draft events and a projected first-round choice. They could still add someone from the transfer portal, prep ranks (though that pool is very limited now) or internationally if Johnson doesn’t fill the last spot.

“Well, we have one spot,” May explained in an interview with Andy Katz. “We’re in a wait-and-see approach with Morez. Certainly anticipating him having a difficult decision because of how well he’s playing in Chicago. But we’ll support him, and then if he does stay in, we’ll be prepared to pivot.

“But we like our team regardless, but obviously he raises our ceiling like Yax did last year.”

Point guard Elliot Cadeau, who’s entering his senior season, entered the NBA Draft but will return for another year with Michigan. He was invited to the G League Elite Camp but declined.

May is excited about Cadeau pairing with sophomore Trey McKenney, who scored in double figures in 19 of his final 23 games and was one of the top five players on the team despite coming off the bench in 2025-26.

“With Elliot, the NBA Draft process was very beneficial for him,” the Michigan coach said. “He was able to get some feedback, go to some individual workouts and be prepared to go through the full experience next year.

“With him and Trey, I can’t think of a better 1-2 punch in the entire country, let alone the Big Ten. Both of those guys will be as good as any.

“Trey will also play some backup point guard with [junior] L.J. Cason’s injury, so it’s a chance for him to continue expanding his game. But those guys’ impact defensively and offensively, they should be able to lead us back into contention.”

May will coach with Team USA in Colorado Springs in late-May ahead of the Americup, then take a vacation early June. Michigan’s summer workouts begin in the middle of June, and it’ll be an important time of the year to blend in nine new players.

“I think our staff does a great job of just pouring into our guys every day and trying to find solutions to any problem and anticipate what our problems are going to be and start addressing them in the summer,” May said.

“We’re excited about our backcourt, our frontcourt and then we like our wing corps. [Freshman] Brandon McCoy, obviously, has had an amazing spring on the circuit. And then [redshirt freshman] Ricky Liburd was a redshirt for us last year, and we think he’s going to be another Swiss Army knife type of player. And then [redshirt sophomore] Oscar Goodman, there could be an emergence from him, and I haven’t even mentioned [freshman] Quinn Costello and some other guys, [freshman] Joseph Hartman. We like our group.”

Michigan has a daunting schedule next season. The Wolverines will play in the Players Era in Las Vegas for the second-consecutive year, go at Villanova, host Marquette and play neutral-site contests versus Duke and UConn.

“Because of how deep we played in the tournament, we were able to surpass [Alabama head coach] Nate Oats as the No. 1 schedule in the country this year, so that’s a heck of an honor,” May said. “We’re going to try to do that every year. We want to play a top-five schedule. We want our guys to be on the biggest stage under the brightest lights and see how they perform. It’s more fun that way, and hopefully we can continue to recruit at the level where we can compete against the best like Duke and UConn.”