The Wolverines lost a national-title coach to the NBA, but the first public reaction from two key guards points to why the roster did not fall apart. Their comments also frame Mike Boynton Jr.’s first season in Ann Arbor.
Michigan basketball players reacted to Dusty May leaving Ann Arbor more than one month after the National Champion coach left Michigan for the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas. On July 27, Trey McKenney and Elliot Cadeau shared their reactions on The Rich Eisen Show, explaining that May left for the Dallas Mavericks and that their immediate job was to help keep the Michigan basketball program together.
That matters because coaching exits can scatter a roster quickly, especially after a championship season. In Michigan’s case, new head coach Mike Boynton Jr. inherited not just expectations, but a group that largely stayed in place.
The first job was retention
Cadeau framed the days after May’s departure as a leadership test, not just a personal decision. According to comments highlighted by SportsCenter and reported by Michigan Wolverines On SI, he said he and McKenney talked the day the news broke and agreed that staying in Ann Arbor mattered.
“As one of the leaders of the team, me and Trey talked about it; our main focus was to keep the team together,” Cadeau said. “We both talked about it the day it happened and we both kind of told each other that we wanted to stay here. It was our job to help coach keep the roster together.”
That quote explains why the reaction carried beyond standard player loyalty. Cadeau described a player-led effort to steady a room that had just lost the coach who had taken Michigan to the top of college basketball.
The measurable result, at least so far, is that Michigan has kept most of its roster intact. The notable departure cited in the report is guard L.J. Cason, who entered the transfer portal and went to Miami.
McKenney described the uncertainty
McKenney’s reaction was less polished, and probably more revealing. He said the initial feeling inside the program was confusion.
“I was definitely kind of upset, but I think there was just a level of uncertainty with everybody in the room,” McKenney said. “I didn’t know what was going on, Elliot didn’t know what was going on, the whole team didn’t know what was going on. The biggest thing for me and Elliot was to just try and calm the team down.”
That is the part of a coaching change fans rarely see in real time. Publicly, programs move quickly to statements, hires and schedule graphics. Privately, players are trying to figure out whether their role, development plan and trust in the staff still exist.
McKenney’s account makes the Michigan response sound less like blind optimism and more like triage. First came uncertainty. Then came the decision from two backcourt leaders to lower the temperature before the roster started making individual moves.
Why May’s exit hit hard
May’s move to the Dallas Mavericks landed differently because of what he had just accomplished in Ann Arbor. The report describes him as Michigan’s National Champion head coach, and losing that kind of figure after a title season creates an unusual emotional whiplash.
For Michigan, the timing sharpened the stakes. A championship can make a program more attractive to returning players, recruits and transfers. It can also make its coach more attractive to the NBA.
The Mavericks’ move for May placed Michigan in the familiar but uncomfortable college sports position of celebrating a peak while immediately managing a reset. In the transfer-portal era, even a short stretch of uncertainty can become roster damage.
That is why Cadeau’s “keep the team together” line matters. It suggests the Wolverines’ response was not only administrative. It also came from inside the locker room.
Boynton inherits a steadier room
Mike Boynton Jr. is now the head coach tasked with turning that retained roster into a functioning team. The first victory for any new coach in this situation is often not tactical. It is preventing the roster from breaking apart before practice even begins.
By that measure, Michigan appears to have avoided the worst-case version of May’s departure. Keeping McKenney and Cadeau gives Boynton a credible backcourt foundation, and the report also notes that redshirt junior forward Harrison Hochberg played a role in the effort to keep players in place.
McKenney’s own public signal came quickly. He reportedly announced his return to Ann Arbor for the 2026-27 season on Instagram the day after May left, posting a photo of himself against UConn with the caption, “Victors always stay.”
That kind of message does not guarantee wins, but it can matter in a transition. It tells teammates, fans and incoming staff that at least one central player is not waiting to see which way the wind blows.
The roster held, for now
There are two fair ways to read Michigan’s position. The optimistic read is straightforward: the Wolverines lost a championship coach and still kept the core of the team together, which gives Boynton a real chance to maintain momentum.
The cautious read is just as valid. Retention in July is not the same as cohesion in November. A new coach brings different expectations, rotations, terminology and relationships. Players who stayed because they believed in the team still have to adjust to a different voice running it.
Michigan also has to replace more than May’s play calls. A coach who wins a national title carries authority in recruiting, scouting, late-game moments and the daily psychology of a long season. Boynton’s challenge is to build his own credibility without pretending the previous chapter did not happen.
Still, the Wolverines would rather face that challenge with McKenney and Cadeau in the room than with a gutted roster. In modern college basketball, that distinction is enormous.
What remains unclear
The comments from McKenney and Cadeau answer the emotional question: How did Michigan’s players process May leaving for the NBA? They do not answer the basketball question yet.
Michigan still has to show what its identity becomes under Boynton. Will the retained roster play the same style? Will the backcourt become the organizing force? How will players who chose stability respond when roles are redistributed?
Those questions will be settled on the court, not in a July interview. But the interview did reveal something important about the Wolverines’ transition: the players did not wait passively for the program to be saved.
May’s exit to Dallas could have become the first line of a teardown. Instead, at least for now, McKenney and Cadeau have made it part of a different story — one about a team trying to hold together after the coach who led it to a championship walked into the NBA.
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