How Michigan Transfer Malick Kordel Fills a Major Need for the Gophers

The Gophers landed the second of two transfer portal commitments on Friday from Michigan center Malick Kordel. He will fill a major need on Minnesota's roster in 2026-27, and here's why.

COMMITMENT: 7-foot-2 Michigan center Malick Kordel will transfer to Minnesota.

Hailing from Oberhausen, Germany, he played professionally in Europe, but he was primarily a bench player last season. Currently 21 years old. https://t.co/hMDx3ZDtqg pic.twitter.com/1xjuDFuLeC
— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) April 17, 2026

The Gophers were small for a Big Ten team in Niko Medved's first season as head coach. They had just four players on their roster who were taller than 6-foot-7, and only two over 6-foot-8. Michigan showed the college basketball world how important size is en route to the national championship, and Minnesota is now adding one of the Wolverines' reserve big men.

It might seem lazy to immediately point towards Kordel's 7-foot-2 size as an impactful trait, but you simply have to be big in order to compete in the Big Ten consistently. Michigan's front line last season consisted of Aday Mara at 7-foot-3, Morez Johnson Jr. at 6-foot-9 and Yaxel Lendeborg at 6-foot-9. Their starting frontcourt was bigger than 86.6% of Minnesota's entire roster.

The Wolverines weren't the only big team in the conference. Illinois will return the Ivisic twins, who are both taller than 7 feet. Purdue rolled out 6-foot-11 Oscar Cluff and 6-foot-9 Trey Kaufman-Renn as their frontcourt. And Michigan State's frontcourt consisted of 6-foot-9 Jaxon Kohler and 6-foot-11 Carson Cooper.

Being tall will only get you so far, and you obviously have to be skilled in order to contribute on a Big Ten court. Gophers fans will remember the last huge center, Jack Wilson, who played only 30 minutes all season in 2023-24. Kordel is a much different player.

The 7-foot-2 big man from Oberhausen, Germany, just wrapped up his freshman season at Michigan, but he just turned 22 years old in March. He started playing competitive basketball in 2021, according to Michigan's website.

Kordel played three years of lower-tier professional basketball in Germany before making the trip across the pond to play college basketball at Michigan. He averaged 11.7 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the 2024-25 season for Fraport Skyliners Juniors.

He hasn't proven himself at the Division I level yet, but he had an ideal developmental situation at Michigan last season. Mara improved from 6.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in his final season at UCLA to 12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game with the Wolverines.

Is Kordel going to be the next Mara at Minnesota? Probably not, but if the Gophers are able to get even half that production in 2026-27, their ceiling would raise dramatically. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson could be one of the best post players in the Big Ten next season, and Minnesota might've found the perfect true center to play next to him.

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