‘Do our work early’: Michigan avoiding past transfer portal woes early in Dusty May’s tenure

In more recent memory, the words, ‘Transfer Portal’ may have incited winces amongst the Maize and Blue faithful.

Under the previous tenure of Michigan coach Juwan Howard’s regime, the enigmatic, and frustrating comings and goings of players — both potential and realized — often yielded more questions than answers. Even as the Wolverines attempted to navigate the stormy waters of the portal’s infancy, they often came out on the losing end.

The highly touted Caleb Love and Terrance Shannon Jr. never matriculated, the potential of former outgoing players like Frankie Collins and Gregg Glenn III never fully materialized, and with NIL pushing star-center Hunter Dickinson south to Kansas, the shrouded curtain of the ‘portal’ often rolled back only disappointment. Whether for academics, playing time, or NIL, it seemed as though the transfer portal was incompatible with the University, or at least, its basketball program.

Now though, after landing six transfers into the program in under two months, problems have turned into positives under new Michigan coach Dusty May. And he doesn’t believe it’s an anomaly.

“We have to do our work early,” May said Tuesday of potentially losing players to academic restrictions. “There’s no reason for us to invest a lot of time, energy and effort, especially the emotional energy that goes into recruiting. There’s one thing to make a call and there’s another thing to really be invested in that call and be present and relational in it.”