Over the last few years, we’ve borrowed an idea from Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch to roll out our season preview player profiles in a power-ranking format. We’ll preview every player on the roster while ranking them by some arbitrary combination of ability, importance, and role.
We’re bringing the same thing back this season. I ranked each scholarship player (1 through 13) based on their expected impact on the 2025-26 season, and we’ll dive into each player in-depth as we near tip-off. This approach is more straightforward than a position-by-position preview because those often get bogged down in a debate about each player’s position rather than their importance and role on the roster.
Next up is true freshman guard Trey McKenney, the only in-state player on the 2025-26 roster.
Previously: No. 9 Will Tschetter, No. 10 Winters Grady, No. 11 Oscar Goodman, No. 12 Malick Kordel and No. 13 Ricky Liburd
No. 8: Trey McKenney
#1 | 6-4, 225 pounds | Freshman | Guard
A decade ago, Trey McKenney would be the determining factor in Michigan’s success this season as a McDonald’s All-American, Mr. Basketball, USA Basketball gold medalist, and top-30 prospect.
If you didn’t hit on your high-profile signings ten years ago, the season would be a throwaway. Landing a prospect like McKenney would have meant building the season around him. In this current climate, he projects to be more of an X-factor than a deciding factor for the Wolverines.
Michigan’s projected starters at the 1-2-3 spots are 21, 22, and almost 24 years old. They’ve played a total of 289 college basketball games. McKenney just turned 19 and will be playing his first one in two weeks.
In this era, that’s how rosters look for almost every team, certainly contenders. There are still talented freshmen, but aside from a subset of desperate teams or very elite talent, top-30-type freshmen are more like roster luxuries than centerpieces.
Michigan has the requisite pieces to use McKenney in precisely that fashion, which might be the best-case scenario for all parties.
Strengths
Off-the-dribble jump shooting
Trey McKenney’s ability to make difficult jump shots off the dribble has consistently stood out at the top of his scouting report. He has great footwork, a consistent shooting motion, and a mature feel of how to get to his spots and elevate.
In Nike EYBL play, he shot 56% on off-the-dribble twos and 36% on off-the-dribble threes with a combined 55.3 eFG% on all pull-up jumpers. He graded out in the 90th percentile in pull-up volume and 96th percentile in pull-up efficiency.
It wasn’t just a hot shooting summer, either. The previous year (while still playing 17U), McKenney graded out in the 91st percentile in off-the-dribble volume and 87th percentile in efficiency.
The only player to take more than his 7.4 off-the-dribble jumpers per game last summer was his The Family teammate Darius Acuff.
McKenney’s elite skill presents an interesting conundrum in Dusty May’s offensive system. McKenney took 80 pull-up twos in 18 EYBL games last summer. Michigan, as a team, took 48 pull-up twos in 37 games last season.
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