The coaching carousel in college basketball never stops spinning, even when all eyes were on the 2026 NBA Draft. On the eve of one of the premier events on the NBA calendar, May shockingly departed Michigan, less than three months after guiding the program to a national title, to take the vacant job with the Dallas Mavericks.
With May gone and Michigan’s job suddenly open, the administration moved quickly to promote assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. as the interim coach. Less than three weeks later, Michigan removed the interim tag from Boynton’s title and handed him a two-year deal.
In an exclusive interview with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on Inside College Basketball Now, Boynton peeled back the curtain on the initial conversations with Michigan’s administration after May departed for the NBA and how the program was able to retain a roster built via retentions, transfer portal additions and a top 10 high school recruiting class.
“The first meeting actually was fair,” Boynton said. “Because it was so fresh and new. There wasn’t really a whole lot of preparation for what the immediate steps would be. I was simply asked at that moment to help buy some time for the department and figure out exactly what we needed to do.
“Most importantly for me was getting these players on this team, who all arrived on campus already for the most part, to understand they still had a great opportunity in front of them. And that if they decided to stay together, they [could] still be a really good basketball team that can compete at the highest level in the Big Ten and nationally.”
Boynton expressed how hectic It was for the first few days to get all his ducks in a row, keep the team together, and build out his staff.
“It was overwhelming. Especially the first 72 hours,” Boynton told Rothstein. “It was a lot of phone calls and conversations with the players, their parents, their relatives, their representatives — you know they all have agents now. They all wanted to know what the vision would be and whether things were gonna change substantially with me in charge.
I felt very confident that if we were able to keep the team together, we would be able to fill the gaps from a staff standpoint. And that we would be able to play very similarly to how we played the last two years. The roster had already been built to play a certain style, and if everybody stayed, we would still be able to do those things. So it was hard just because of the volume of phone calls and the time spent with everybody.
Michigan only lost one returning player from the roster Boynton inherited after May left. LJ Cason, who is set to miss the 2026-27 season after suffering a torn ACL during Big Ten play, transferred to Miami, where he projects as a key contributor when he does return to the lineup.
Despite losing Aday Mara, Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr. from last year’s roster, the Wolverines remain one of the favorites to repeat as national champions because of a strong mix of newcomers and returners. It all starts with the backcourt of Final Four Most Outstanding Player Elliot Cadeau and key reserve Trey McKenney, who projects as the starting shooting guard next to Cadeau.
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“Credit to both of them, they both made sacrifices for last year’s team to give ourselves a chance to cut down the nets on April 6 in Indianapolis,” Boynton said. “Elliot Cadeau’s handprints were all over the NBA Draft. He made the lives of those (lottery picks) easier. And Trey McKenney accepting the role as a starting-caliber player coming off the bench the whole season. There will be a lot more attention on those guys creating more offense.”
To replace the three lottery picks who departed, Michigan landed an elite transfer portal haul headlined by Cincinnati center Moustapha Thiam, Tennessee forward J.P. Estrella and LSU forward Jalen Reed. The Wolverines finished with the No. 12-ranked transfer class in the 247Sports rankings, and No. 3 overall (transfer and high school class) behind only Texas and Duke.
