Dusty May Reveals Michigan Player’s Agent Has Contacted Other Schools

With the portal opening soon, at least one Michigan player has been looking around.

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In the world of the transfer portal — it's always open. Despite college basketball's transfer portal officially opening on April 6, agents and others are using back channels to inquire about their clients getting more money at the school they are at, or going somewhere else.

Teams have to maneuver throughout the season and have constant contact with their players for the seasons ahead, and even a team like Michigan, which is now in the Elite Eight after beating Alabama on Friday night, is currently dealing with it.

On Saturday, ahead of Michigan's game against Tennessee on Sunday, head coach Dusty May revealed that one of his players' agents told him he has talked to other schools in the last two weeks. Who that player is, we don't know, nor was Coach May going to say. While it doesn't come as any surprise, it's still hard to fully wrap your head around the concept.

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"..But even when we're negotiating with agents, they'll tell us, well, this school offered this, and this school offered that," May said on Saturday, "I was talking to one of my closest friends in coaching. He's had postseason meetings -- they were in the tournament, got beat early, and he's had postseason meetings. He said this guy's been offered this from this school. You don't know if it's true or not because — if an agent is using leverage or maybe the agent called a coach he knows and said this kid is leaving, he's just got to wait until the portal opens. Do you guys want him?

"I don't know. It's really complicated, like I said. We had one of our players' agents two weeks ago say he's spoken with other schools. He caught himself. I said you work for your client. And we've got the next month to evaluate from our standpoint and his standpoint, if this isn't the best place, there's no hard feelings. You work for him. You have to do the best for him. We want him to stay. If he doesn't feel like he'll have an opportunity to play and develop, whatever the case, there's no hard feelings.

"So he was almost shocked that we weren't angry at him because he said he'd spoken to several other schools. So it's — as long as they're all on one-year contracts and as long as there's as much fluidity as there is in college basketball, until we figure out a system, it's not going to change. I don't take it personally when our guys say they have offers from other schools. I just don't.

"I don't like it because, obviously, it's more work for me and it's change and it's hard, but I'm not mad at them for it."

Michigan has utilized the transfer portal as well as anyone under coach May. In his first season, he landed Tre Donaldson, Danny Wolf, and Vlad Goldin, among others, who played a pivotal role in the Wolverines' Sweet 16 run.

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This past offseason, Michigan landed Yaxel Lendeborg, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson, and Aday Mara. All four players start and Lendeborg won the Big Ten Player of the Year.

While the Wolverines are going to focus on getting past the Volunteers on Sunday — the portal questions are in full effect.