Seven weeks ago, Michigan won a National Championship. Ever since, the staff has been scrambling to fill out a roster.
“It’s like drinking out of two ends of a fire hose at the same time,” Michigan assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. said on Defend the Block. “There’s a little bit of distractedness to the celebration because you’re trying to make sure that you’re on top of the things that you know you have to do. You’re at a little bit of a disadvantage because most of the other programs have been able to prepare for, all right, what’s April 7th look like for us when we wake up? And it was actually before we go to sleep.”
The Wolverines have been active in the transfer portal, adding Moustapha Thiam, JP Estrella and Jalen Reed. They also added a commitment from five-star guard Brandon McCoy during the Final Four win over Arizona.
But more importantly, they’ve had to juggle the realities of the NBA Draft. Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. declared for the draft and are projected to be top-20 picks. Mara’s stock has soared to the point that he could even be drafted before Yaxel Lendeborg next month.
While Mara has left no doubt about his future, there’s still an outside chance that Johnson could return to school. His draft stock doesn’t indicate it, but the door hasn’t been formally closed. Officially, college players in the draft have until May 27th to withdraw and return to college.
Dusty May and Boynton were on hand at the NBA Draft Combine last week, watching Johnson, Mara, and Lendeborg.
“Regardless of what decision he makes for himself individually, this is gonna be a good process,” Boynton said of Johnson. “If it results in him playing for the Chicago Bulls next year, well, we’ll go to watch the Chicago Bulls play the Pistons when they come to Detroit next season. If it results in him playing for Michigan next year, then certainly we’ll do everything we can to help him be in a better position a year from now, because our goal, our job is to help them achieve their goals also while trying to accomplish the goals that the program has in mind.”
It isn’t like this process comes as a surprise, either. The Wolverines realized what was happening during the year as they barnstormed their way through the sport en route to a 37-3 record and the program’s first title since 1989.
“The reality is it happens immediately, but we were kind of built up to it,” Boynton said. “As the season goes along, you start hearing about Aday improving his profile and Morez improving his profile. Obviously, we thought Yax came here to do that partly. And so you kind of have some contingencies in mind.”
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