Oscar Goodman: 'I'm coming back to Michigan' to 'try to win back-to-back national championships'

There are thousands of college basketball players in the NCAA transfer portal, but Michigan forward Oscar Goodman won’t be one of them, he said on the Kiwi Hoopers podcast.

“I’m coming back to Michigan,” Goodman said.

The 6-foot-7, 235-pounder is a native of Opunake, New Zealand. He joined the team in January 2025, enrolling early while joining the team from the NBA Global Academy. He redshirted in 2024-25, before playing a reserve role on a 37-3 national championship team in 2025-26. Goodman appeared in 16 outings, averaging 1.4 points and 1.2 rebounds in 5.4 minutes per contest.

“I’m just taking a little bit of time off right now,” Goodman said. “I’m probably going to start working out in the next day or two, get back into that. And then I’m coming home at the end of this month, start of May. I’ll be home for a bit, just see my family, see my mates. And then I’ll come back over for June workouts, summer workouts and just get ready to try to win back-to-back national championships.”

The last week-plus has been a whirlwind since Michigan cut down the nets following a 69-63 title game victory over UConn in Indianapolis.

“We celebrated with family and stuff after the game back at our hotel,” Goodman said of the aftermath. “It was kind of a long night. I think I went to bed at maybe 5:30, wasn’t running on a lot of sleep. But then we got back here, a bunch of fans were here and it was awesome to celebrate with them. Had a few days off, played a lot of golf, and then we had our parade. It was a lot of fun. We raised the three banners that we won this year, and it’s been amazing.”

Goodman finished 4 ferocious dunks and made 77.8 percent of his shots at the rim, mostly during garbage time of Michigan victories. He improved behind the scenes, going up against forwards Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr. and center Aday Mara in practice all year.

“I was going up against Aday and Morez and Yaxel and all those guys,” the Michigan forward noted. “I definitely got a lot better from that, but it was challenging at first. I’ve never been blocked so much before in my life.

“In my position, I was the youngest. A bunch of the guys had already played four years of college ahead of me, so they had that experience on me, and Morez is just a dawg. He plays so hard, and I’ve kind of stolen that from him, in a way. I’m just trying to get that into my game of just going 100 percent all the time. But the skill factor of Yaxel and ‘Rez and Aday is NBA level.

“It’s going against an NBA player every day, and I’ve seen the work that our whole team put in. We were all in love with the gym and getting our work in when we could.”

There’s an opportunity for Goodman to step into a prominent role for Michigan next season. Johnson and Mara are receiving NBA Draft stock feedback and may depart, while Lendeborg and fellow forward Will Tschetter are out of eligibility.

Overall, Goodman’s experience in Ann Arbor has been extremely positive.

“Just the connections you make,” he said of what’s stood out. “I’ve met so many people through other people. This world is really small here. It’s kind of crazy to see the alumni base and how many people still love this place and come back to visit and see it. Michigan is a special place, and it’s amazing.”