The Michigan Wolverines were crowned March Madness champs after a special tournament run, led by four transfers in Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, Morez Johnson Jr. and Elliot Cadeau. Dusty May proved you can build a contending roster from scratch.
Now, with more college basketball stars entering the portal than ever before thanks to NIL, let's sift through the best of the current stars in the transfer portal to determine if it's possible to build an even better team with carte blanche resources and a creative mind:
How Michigan's title team stacks up against the Transfer Portal All-Stars
Michigan's 2026 Championship Roster | All-Portal Roster |
|---|---|
G) Elliot Cadeau | G) Acaden Lewis |
G) Nimari Burnett | G) John Blackwell |
F) Morez Johnson Jr. | F) Milan Momcilovic |
F) Yaxel Lendeborg | F) David Punch |
C) Aday Mara | C) Flory Bidunga |
LJ Cason | Juke Harris |
Trey McKenney | Allen Graves |
Roddy Gayle | Somto Cyril |
(Starters are in bold)
The transfer portal offers endless possibilities, so there are naturally some very talented players left off of the eight-man rotation snapshot. If we were to build out a full roster, benchwarmers and all, the pick-of-the-litter portal team would be the deepest in college hoops by a wide margin.
Michigan, of course, was damn near an All-Portal team of its own last season. Four of their five regular seasons — Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, Morez Johnson Jr. and Elliot Cadeau — were portal additions last spring. Nimari Burnett, on his third year with the Wolverines, arrived via the portal in 2023 as a redshirt junior. It was his third school in as many (healthy) seasons at the time.
Roddy Gayle was a former transfer from Ohio State, too. LJ Cason (sophomore) and Trey McKenney (freshman) were the only start-to-finish Michiganders, and that barely even counts.
Looking ahead, Michigan will return Cadeau, Cason and McKenney, with Johnson a candidate to come back if his NBA Draft stock falters. Dusty May will otherwise look to the portal for reinforcements, with J.P. Estrella (who didn't quite make the cut for the portal dream team) on his way over from Tennessee. Michigan is also welcoming in a talented freshman class, headlined by potential 2027 lottery pick Brandon McCoy Jr.
And, to highlight the depth of the transfer portal in the modern era, here are just a few of the noteworthy names who couldn't find a spot on our made-up portal squad: Paulis Murauskas, Miles Byrd, Neoklis Avdalas, Kayden Mingo, Isaiah Johnson, Dedan Thomas Jr., Jackson Shelstad, Jeremiah Wilkinson (and many, many more).
Where the Transfer Portal holds the advantage
Depth
This was the inevitable differentiator in this exercise. If we can put our eight favorite portal stars on a team together, that team is going to run eight deep without issue. The bench "unit" here features three more starting-caliber players, which is virtually impossible for a team — even one as dominant and well-constructed as Michigan — to replicate under normal circumstances.
Juke Harris averaged 21.4 points per game at Wake Forest last season. Allen Graves is a potential first-round pick whose BPM (12.7) as a freshman tied for the fourth-highest in college basketball, behind only Cameron Boozer, Yaxel Lendeborg and Zuby Ejiofor. He's tied with Caleb Wilson, a projected top-five pick, and Aday Mara, another Michigan standout (and a potential lottery pick). Somto Cyril started 32 games for UGA last season and led the SEC in both 2-point field goal percentage (75.9) and blocks (2.2).
Shooting
Michigan was an incredibly efficient 3-point shooting team last season, largely due to Elliot Cadeau's brilliant setup skills and the creativity of Dusty May's pro-style offense. That said, the Wolverines by nature did not get up the highest volume of 3s, as their jumbo-sized frontcourt of Mara, Lendeborg and Johnson necessitated a focus on dominating the interior. The focus obviously paid off.
The Portal All-Stars would hope to get up more 3s and try to win this hypothetical matchup in a shootout. Acaden Lewis is very much a Cadeau-coded drive-and-kick facilitator. David Punch and Flory Bidunga will do the majority of their scoring at the rim, too. But Milan Momcilovic shot 48.7 percent on 7.5 attempts from deep; John Blackwell shot 38.9 percent on 7.3 attempts. Their explosive capacity, paired with a similarly microwave-quality bench leader in Juke Harris, could help the Portal All-Stars rip the door off with some shooting luck.
Guard play
Michigan's frontcourt was the most dominant frontcourt in college hoops last season. The backcourt was far from a weakness — and a season-ending LJ Cason injury didn't even derail the Wolverines' NCAA Tournament stampede, which is a testament to their depth and versatility across the board.
That said, Michigan's backcourt was not its foremost strength. Cadeau won Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four, but he's a very flawed lead guard. Burnett and Cason are awesome, but point blank, Lewis, Blackwell and Harris is a more talented collection of off-guards.
If Acaden Lewis can take the second-year leap we all expect, building on his phenomenal distribution skills (33.7 AST%, 17.1 TOV%), he could match or exceed Cadeau's value in the point guard slot. The Portal All-Stars' ability to generate major production from the frontcourt and backcourt — especially the backcourt — could be a separator.
Where Michigan holds the advantage
Size
We obviously have certain benefits in creating a Portal All-Stars team from scratch. We know what Michigan did well last season and can build a roster specifically to combat it. Flory Bidunga is the best player in the portal and a potential lottery pick in the weaker 2027 draft. Somto Cyril comes off the bench at 6-foot-11 with monster defensive range and instincts (10.6 BLK%), David Punch is a bowling ball of physicality at the four spot. These Portal All-Stars can match up better than most teams can with Michigan's supersized, super-skilled frontcourt.
That said, Michigan still has 7-foot-3 Aday Mara. He's not the lightest on his feet, which could give Bidunga the advantage in certain spots, but he's going to wall off the rim on defense and finish over the top with ease. Lendeborg has made steadfast improvement over the years, becoming a legitimate high-volume shooter in addition to his straight-line drives and bully-ball post work. Morez Johnson Jr. was effectively a wing at times, but he's 255 pounds of pure muscle and he shot 72.9 percent at the rim last season. The Wolverines can still pummel the paint and win the battle of brawn.
Defense
The Portal All-Stars will guard, no doubt, but in favoring the offensive firepower of Momcilovic, Harris and Blackwell on the perimeter, Michigan maintains a significant defensive edge. The Wolverines, in many ways, are the shining example of how to build a team through the portal. Find the right blend of syngergy, size and experience (and spend a boatload of cash), and you can manifest a two-way juggernaut out of thin air.
There are plenty of talented players in this year's portal, but no coach is going to build a roster on the fly as well as May did last season. It was aberrational. Lendeborg was the second-best player in all of college hoops last season. Mara put together better defensive tape than 99.9 percent of his peers. Johnson was an All-Defense talent in his own right. Michigan's ability to stack three massive humans with the versatility and buy-in necessary to embrace their shifting roles and dominate the defensive end to the extent they did is why the Wolverines are champs — and why the Portal All-Stars still face an uphill battle here.
Star power
Again, it's hard, verging on impossible, to dominate the portal the way Michigan did a year ago. We literally have the freedom to pick anybody we want for our Portal All-Stars, but it's hard to imagine Flory Bidunga or David Punch having the sort of breakout, Wooden Award-caliber season Lendeborg just put together for Michigan.
You can argue that the three best players in this matchup are Lendeborg, Mara and Johnson. And while the depth advantage is real for the Portal All-Stars, at the end of the day, Michigan's top-end star power — and the way those stars fit so beautifully together — will be hard to counteract.
Who wins: Portal All-Stars or Michigan?
Call it recency bias or lack of gumption, but gun to my head... I am probably picking Michigan here?
It's close, no doubt. The sheer volume of Dudes on the Portal All-Stars could very well tip the scales in their favor, but in a do-or-die championship showdown, it's not like Michigan will be digging deep into its bench. Trey McKenney and LJ Cason are tremendous bench cogs in their own right; Gayle is not the sexiest name, but he gave Michigan 25 solid minutes (and two blocks) in their championship win over UConn.
It's also worth remembering team context. Juke Harris was a 21.4-point scorer as the No. 1 option on a middling Wake Forest team; he can explode in 30 minutes off the bench, no doubt, but he won't have the same oxygen — the same freedom — game-to-game in this role. Somto Cyril is awesome, but the blunt-force physicality of Michigan's roster can limit his impact. Allen Graves is awesome, but he's a freshman with little high-major experience. We can't put the weight of the world on his shoulders expectations-wise.
The starting lineups, meanwhile, are a far more even match, with the edge almost certainly belonging to Michigan. Cadeau has the benefit of experience over Lewis, who may be overwhelmed as a freshman (or rising sophomore) with shaky scoring chops. Bidunga, Punch and Momcilovic is a killer frontcourt, but Michigan has the defenders to mirror and negate all of them. Mara holds the advantage as a post anchor; Lendeborg is going to outclass Punch despite clear parrallels in skill set. Momcilovic, for all his perimeter scoring prowess, is a weaker link on defense and sometimes more one-note in his production than any of Michigan's stars.
At the end of the day, we've seen it work for Michigan. That familarity, that proof of concept, gives them a slight edge once all the nitpicking is complete. So congrats to the Wolverines, who out-portalled the literal portal.
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