Last offseason, the Michigan men’s and women’s basketball teams’ rosters were in a similar state. Whether it was due to a coaching change or a throng of players heading to the transfer portal, both rosters entered this season with just two returning players who averaged at least nine minutes per game during the 2023-24 season.
To fill in their rosters, men’s coach Dusty May and women’s coach Kim Barnes Arico took different approaches. By season’s end, May’s top-four scorers came to the Wolverines via the portal, while three of Barnes Arico’s four top scorers were high school recruits.
This offseason, May and Barnes Arico are taking different approaches to the transfer portal once again. But despite those differences, both programs are adapting to a new era of college basketball in a way that sets them up for future success.
Start with the men’s team. May didn’t exactly have a choice but to hit the portal hard last year, but the results were much better than expected. Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin turned into one of the best frontcourts in the country, Tre Donaldson proved to be capable of leading the offense and with a few other supplemental pieces, May led his portal-formed roster all the way to the Sweet Sixteen.
And as successful as last year’s portal class was, it only got the ball rolling more for May’s to be even more aggressive in his recruiting efforts this offseason. Currently boasting the top transfer portal class in the country, the early returns for next season seem even more promising for Michigan — the Wolverines have started popping up as high as fifth in some way-too-early top 25 rankings.
“We were much better received this year than we were last,” May told The Michigan Insider. “… I think when we were recruiting the big guys, because our FAU teams didn’t play that way, they questioned whether it would work.”
With proof of concept in the form of Wolf and Goldin, May has a better product to sell this offseason. That earned him commitments from former Illinois forward Morez Johnson Jr., UCLA center Aday Mara and the top-ranked portal player, UAB forward Yaxel Lendeborg. Replacing Wolf and Goldin is a difficult task nonetheless, but Michigan’s frontcourt should at least have the requisite talent to do so.
There is one caveat there: Lendeborg may still forgo the Wolverines for the NBA Draft. That’s a risk that comes with recruiting the best players in the portal, but it’s a gamble May has said he’s willing to take. And even if his approach means that his teams have more one-year players than some rosters of Michigan past, with the way May has shown he can recruit, it’s a risk that bodes well for future success.
Barnes Arico, on the other hand, is less focused on the one-and-done impact player when it comes to roster construction. With players having to stay longer before jumping to the next level, women’s college basketball tends to be a more developmental sport than the men’s version, and Barnes Arico is a particularly development-focused coach.
In fact, following six of her players transferring away last offseason, Barnes Arico established that, despite the rapid emergence of the portal, she wouldn’t be changing her philosophy.
“We consider ourselves program builders,” Barnes Arico said Oct. 22, 2024. “What we do may be different than a lot of other programs. We’re not a program that’s based on the transfer portal. … That’s not the kind of culture of our university. It’s not the culture of our program. We really pride ourselves on building something.”
So following that mass exodus, Barnes Arico didn’t hit the portal hard looking for plug-and-play impact players. She counted on her best recruiting class ever, elevated past contributors in Jordan Hobbs and Greta Kampschroeder to key roles and led the Wolverines to their seventh-straight NCAA Tournament.
As a result, the biggest get for Michigan this offseason isn’t anyone new coming in — it’s who’s sticking around. The star freshman guard trio of Syla Swords, Olivia Olson and Mila Holloway would each have been coveted transfers had they decided to go elsewhere, but all three are staying in Ann Arbor.
Still, Barnes Arico’s mindset seems to have changed a little bit. The Wolverines lacked size this season, often relying on a five-guard lineup. So while she still might not prefer the transfer portal as a way to build a roster, she dipped her toes in and plucked the Patriot League Player of the Year, Bucknell forward Ashley Sofilkanich, to support her returners. She also added 6-foot-2 Bruins forward Kendall Dudley for good measure.
And between those gets and an impending sophomore-year leap for her star guards, Barnes Arico’s reserved approach to the portal — particularly in terms of recruiting her own roster — also has Michigan women’s basketball set up for success.
The two coaches don’t share the same approach, but both approaches are working. May doesn’t shy away from building through the portal, and he’s built a strong foundation. Barnes Arico prefers to add to a homegrown core, and that’s looking promising, too.
So, in a new, transfer portal-focused era, the Wolverines’ two programs might have different looking rosters — unlike the similarly slim rosters that they entered this past offseason with. But in spite of those different approaches to a changing landscape of college basketball, both coaches have given their programs a bright future.
