It has been quite a time of late for Michigan basketball.
Apart from Dusty May leaving the Wolverines for a job in the NBA as the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, Michigan also grabbed headlines with their former players making noise in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The Wolverines did not just have one, not two, but three players hearing their names in the first round, marking a historic night for the renowned Big Ten program.
“What a night for the champs! Before this year, Michigan had never had more than one lottery pick in a draft. Tonight the Wolverines had THREE,” ESPN Insights shared on X, formerly Twitter.
The Wolverines draft party got started when May and the Mavericks used their No. 9 pick to select forward Morez Johnson. After playing his freshman year with the Illinois Fighting Illini, Johnson transferred and took his talents to Michigan and made an immediate impact on the Wolverines, becoming the team’s second-leading scorer (13.1 points per game) and playing a big role in the program’s NCAA Tournament championship run.
At the No. 11 spot, the Golden State Warriors took Yaxel Lendeborg, viewed as the leader of that Michigan championship team. He paced the Wolverines last season with 15.1 points, while shooting 51.5 percent from the field.
Right after the Warriors pick, big man Aday Mara was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder at No. 12, who added more ceiling to their frontcourt. Mara played his first two seasons in college with the UCLA Bruins before going to Michigan. In his lone season with the Wolverines, Mara led the Big Ten with 1.7 blocks per outing.
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