Big Ten media poll puts Michigan third, Cadeau and McKenney earn first-team honors
The defending national champions will enter the 2026-27 season with plenty of respect — but not as the favorite to repeat atop the Big Ten.
Michigan was picked to finish third in the annual Big Ten preseason media poll organized by the Columbus Dispatch, trailing Illinois and Michigan State. The Wolverines received 436 points and one of the 28 first-place votes cast by reporters covering the conference.
Illinois grabbed the top spot with 498 points and 18 first-place votes, while Michigan State was close behind with 483 points and nine first-place votes. UCLA and Nebraska rounded out the top five.
It’s been an offseason of significant change, despite Michigan keeping much of its roster together after Dusty May left for the Dallas Mavericks.
The Wolverines have to replace the dominant frontcourt that helped deliver the program’s second national championship. Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara were Michigan’s three leading scorers last season and are all gone.
What Michigan does have is one of the conference’s most highly regarded backcourts.
Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney were both selected to the media’s preseason All-Big Ten first team. Michigan was the only program with two players among the five first-team selections.
Cadeau and McKenney joined Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears Jr., Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort, and Illinois’ David Mirkovic on the first team.
It is another step forward in Cadeau’s rise. The senior point guard averaged 10.5 points and a team-high 5.9 assists while starting all 40 games, then earned the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award after Michigan’s national championship run.
He scored 19 points in the Wolverines’ 69-63 win over UConn in the national title game.
McKenney enters his sophomore season with significantly larger expectations after playing all 40 games off the bench as a freshman. The Flint native averaged 9.9 points in just over 22 minutes per game while shooting 46.2% from the field and 39.1% from 3-point range.
He earned All-Freshman Team honors in the Big Ten last season. Now the preseason voters expect him to make the jump from one of the conference’s best young players to one of its best players, period.
Michigan’s new-look frontcourt also received some attention.
Cincinnati transfer Moustapha Thiam received five points in the All-Big Ten voting and four votes for preseason Transfer of the Year. The 7-foot-2 junior averaged 12.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks last season at Cincinnati and will be asked to help replace the considerable production Michigan lost inside.
Fears was the overwhelming choice for Big Ten Player of the Year, receiving 23 of 28 votes.
Michigan may not enter the season as the conference favorite after winning a program-record 37 games, going 19-1 in Big Ten play and cutting down the nets in April. But the preseason voting makes one thing clear: The expectations did not disappear with May or Michigan’s NBA-bound frontcourt.
With Cadeau running the offense, McKenney stepping into a much larger role, and Boynton taking over a roster built to remain in the national conversation, Michigan is expected to be right back in the middle of the Big Ten championship race.
