Dusty May Explains How Michigan Can 'Tweak' Its System For Skilled 7'2" Moustapha Thiam

May is excited about landing one of the top players in the portal.

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As things stand right now, Michigan is set to lose its entire front court from this past season. Backups Will Tschetter graduated, and Malick Kordel transferred to Minnesota. Both Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara have entered the 2026 NBA Draft — but there is hope Johnson Jr. could come back one more season.

However, Dusty May has to prepare for the worst, as in losing both Johnson Jr. and Mara, so he hit the transfer portal and added three big men to his roster for the 2026-27 season.

The big get was former Cincinnati big Moustapha Thiam, who is ranked as the No. 12 player in the portal. Thiam is a 7'2" shot blocker, who was All-Big 12 last season. He will come to Michigan to likely take Mara's spot as the starting center.

Different player than Vlad Goldin and Aday Mara

When Michigan landed Thiam, many thought it was another prototypical center for May. In the last two seasons, he hit the portal to add Vlad Goldin and most recently, Aday Mara. But on Wednesday, May spoke with the media and said Thiam is actually a lot different than either of his former centers.

Thiam is able to run the court better than either Goldin or May could, and he has the ability to knock down threes at a high rate. Thiam is also one of the better shotblockers out there — which Michigan knew all about this season with Mara being on the team.

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"Yeah, he's a lot different," May said of Thiam compared to Goldin and Mara. "Obviously, he's a center and he's big and he's talented and he's skilled, but his game isn't like theirs. And so it's exciting to have another player with the talent he has that we can tweak our system to and play through a little bit. But he's got a lot of weapons and a lot of tools in his toolbox.

"He's gonna be fun to coach. But yeah, we're excited for him. But obviously, the rim protection and things like that, if you're gonna have the type of defense we have this year, you need to be able to clean some stuff up at the rim. And we think he's able to do that on the defensive end. He runs, he makes threes. I mean, as you saw here in the exhibition game, we had no answer.

"And that was before Rez and Aday, but we had no answers for him down low. So he's a guy that we think that he will be able to identify some matchup advantages for us and tackle on the perimeter and the low post and transition, whatever the case. But yeah, he's another one that we're incredibly excited to coach because he's proved that he can do it at a high level in the Big 12."

Thiam will come to Michigan will two years of eligibility after starting his career at UCF before playing at UC this past season. Thiam led the Big 12 in blocks during his freshman season, blocking 88 shots. This past season, he led the Bearcats, blocking 50 shots.

Thiam has started every game of his collegiate career and averaged 12.8 points and 7.1 rebounds a year ago. Michigan wanted Thiam and Dusty May was able to get his man.