The 2026–27 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team will represent the University of Michigan during the 2026–27 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. It will be the program's 111th season and its 110th consecutive year as a member of the Big Ten Conference. The Wolverines will be led by first-year head coach Mike Boynton and will play their home games at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Previous season The Wolverines finished the 2025–26 season with a record of 37–3, setting a program record for wins. They finished 19–1 in conference play to win the Big Ten regular season, and set a Big Ten record for conference wins. As the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament, they advanced to the championship and lost to Purdue. The Wolverines received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, and won the national championship for the second time in program history, and first time since 1989.
Offseason After suffering a torn ACL late in the 2025–26 season, L.J. Cason will redshirt this season. Trey McKenney and Elliot Cadeau were the first to announce they were returning this season. Oscar Goodman and Ricky Liburd soon after confirmed their plan to return. On April 8, Winters Grady was the first player to enter the NCAA transfer portal. On April 9, Malick Kordel was the second player to enter the transfer portal. That same day, the Wolverines received their first transfer portal commitment from redshirt-junior J. P. Estrella, a forward for the Tennessee Volunteers. He started 13 games and averaged ten points per game the previous season. On April 17, Kordel and Grady both announced they transferred to play for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. On April 23, Michigan received their second transfer portal commitment from Jalen Reed, a graduate student and forward from the LSU Tigers. Reed suffered season-ending injuries the previous two seasons, playing in only 14 games and averaging just over ten points per game.
On April 24, Aday Mara, Morez Johnson Jr. and Cadeau declared for the 2026 NBA draft, while maintaining their NCAA eligibility through the draft process. That same day, the Wolverines gained their third transfer portal commitment from junior Moustapha Thiam, a 7'2" center from the Cincinnati Bearcats. He started 31 games as a sophomore and averaged 12.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. As a freshman, he started 34 games for the UCF Knights and was fourth in the nation in total blocks. On May 1, the NBA announced its 73-player NBA draft combine invitation list and another 44-player NBA G League combine invitation list. Yaxel Lendeborg, Mara and Johnson were on the NBA combine list. Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr. and Cadeau were not on either official invite list. However, Burnett attended the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. On May 16, Cadeau withdrew from the NBA draft. On July 13, Cason notified the program he would be the lone player to enter the portal following the departure of Dusty May on June 22. He transferred to play for the Miami Hurricanes.
On July 31, following the Wisne v. NCAA ruling, Gayle declared that he would pursue a fifth year of college basketball. On August 19, guard Kenny Noland of the Columbia Lions transferred to Michigan after being granted an additional season in the NCAA ruling. He was second-team All-Ivy League, averaging 17.1 points per game as a senior. Noland had signed a professional contract in Germany with the Artland Dragons in July before returning to college. On August 21, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit halted the order that granted eligibility for 2022 high school graduates, rendering Gayle and Noland ineligible at the time. Noland first filed a separate lawsuit against the NCAA in North Carolina before voluntarily withdrawing the case and refiling the collective lawsuit in Indiana. Both players accompanied the program to Europe in August and practiced with the team while awaiting eligibility. On August 31, Gayle filed a lawsuit in the state of New York. He stated he was enrolled at the University of Michigan for the fall of 2026, had been granted a roster spot by Michigan and had been practicing with the team. As a result, he was granted a temporary restraining order against the NCAA and eligibility. On September 23, Noland was granted a preliminary injunction by an Indiana judge and regained eligibility. The next day, Gayle also received a preliminary injunction.
Coaching changes On March 11, 2026, assistant coach Justin Joyner was hired to be the head coach at Oregon State University for the Beavers. Joyner remained with Michigan throughout the 2026 NCAA tournament. On June 22, the day the team was set to convene for the first practice of summer workouts, head coach Dusty May left the program to become the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. He was officially hired the next day. On June 23, assistant coach and defensive coordinator Mike Boynton replaced May as interim head coach. Due to the coaching change and Michigan hiring an interim head coach from within the program, a 15-day transfer window will open a full 30 days after set hire on July 24. Once again, McKenney and Cadeau were the first to affirm they would remain with the program, despite the exit of May. Over the next two weeks the entire roster confirmed their commitment to remain with the program, with the exception of the injured Cason. On July 10, Boynton was named the official head basketball coach. On July 13, he hired Mike Martin away from Brown, where he had been the head coach since 2012. On July 21, KT Harrell was promoted from director of basketball operations to an assistant coach. On July 31, Boynton hired Dylan Murphy to fill the final assistant coaching role. Murphy was the head coach of the Osceola Magic in the NBA G League from 2023 to 2026, and an assistant with the Orlando Magic prior to that; beginning in 2020.
Departures Michigan departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure 23 F 6'9" 240 GS Pennsauken, New Jersey Declared for NBA draft: selected by Golden State Warriors 4 G 6'5" 195 GS Chicago, Illinois Declared for NBA draft: unselected, signed with Toronto Raptors 42 F 6'8" 230 GS Stewartville, Minnesota Graduated; signed with Warwick Senators (Australia) 12 G 6'5" 190 RS-Jr Boca Raton, Florida Graduated; hired by Georgia (assistant coach) 15 C 7'3" 255 Jr Zaragoza, Spain Declared for NBA draft: selected by Oklahoma City Thunder 21 F 6'9" 250 So Riverdale, Illinois Declared for NBA draft: selected by Dallas Mavericks 2 G 6'2" 195 So Lakeland, Florida Transferred to Miami 10 G 6'6" 210 Fr Tualatin, Oregon Transferred to Minnesota 32 C 7'2" 275 Fr Oberhausen, Germany Transferred to Minnesota
Coaching staff departures Michigan coaching staff departures Name Position New team New position Dusty May Head coach Dallas Mavericks Head coach Justin Joyner Assistant coach Oregon State Head coach Drew Williamson Assistant coach Dallas Mavericks Assistant coach
Incoming transfers Michigan incoming transfersNameNumberPos.HeightWeightYearHometownPrevious Team 13 F 6'11" 240 RS-Jr Scarborough, Maine Tennessee 9 F 6'10" 245 GS Jackson, Mississippi LSU 52 C 7'2" 250 Jr Dakar, Senegal Cincinnati 2 G 6'2" 185 GS Apex, North Carolina Columbia
Recruiting class On July 8, 2025, Michigan landed its first class of 2026 recruit, center Marcus Engelhardt Møller. He is a Danish native who played basketball in Spain in Liga U for Unicaja Málaga U22 and in the Tercera FEB for Unicaja-Andalucía Málaga. Møller also represented the Danish senior national team in qualifiers for both the EuroBasket 2025 and 2027 FIBA World Cup, where he averaged 4.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in eight contests. On September 16, Michigan received their second commitment from four-star forward/center, Quinn Costello. On September 24, the Wolverines received their third commitment from three-star guard/forward, Malachi Brown. On October 1, the Wolverines received their fourth commitment from four-star shooting guard, Joseph Hartman. All four players officially signed their national letter of intent during the early signing period in November 2025. On February 3, Costello was named a 2026 McDonald's All-American.
On February 10, Michigan received their fifth commitment from four-star forward, Lincoln Cosby. He reclassified as a five-star recruit from the class of 2027, namely so he could rehab his ACL at the University of Michigan, which he had surgery on before his commitment. Before enrolling, it was announced he would redshirt this season. On April 4, the Wolverines received their sixth commitment from unanimous five-star guard, Brandon McCoy Jr. He announced his commitment at halftime during the Final Four game between Michigan and Arizona. At the time of his commitment he was a top-20 player by all three recruiting services. He joined Costello as a McDonald's All-American and previously won three gold medals representing the United States at the 2023 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship, 2024 FIBA Under-17 World Cup and 2025 FIBA Under-19 World Cup. He was teammates with Morez Johnson Jr. in 2025. McCoy finished as the No. 3 overall ranked player in the nation by rivals and No. 10 by 247Sports, making him the highest ranked high school recruit to ever sign with the program by both outlets (since 21st century). Michigan had the No. 2 ranked incoming recruiting class in the nation according to 247Sports (high school and transfer recruits combined).
2026 recruiting class
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Exhibition
!colspan=9 style=""|Regular season
References