Michigan basketball got a jolt on June 22, but one of its newest additions says the program’s message stayed steady even after Dusty May left for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
Incoming graduate transfer Jalen Reed, a wing from LSU, is the first transfer to speak publicly since the coaching change. In a recent conversation with Brian Boesch on the “Defend The Block” podcast, Reed said the mood inside the team room was shaken at first, but not broken.
“I’ve just been really impressed with how much guys are in the gym and how much guys really believe in each other and believe in this team," Reed said. "It was easy for when Dusty left for everybody to kind of split and splinter, but everybody said, ‘When we woke up this morning, before the news broke, we thought we were a championship team - and nothing has really changed but Dusty’s left.'"
Michigan has since turned to former assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. as interim coach, and 12 of the 14 scholarship players have publicly said they’re staying with the program. The two exceptions are junior point guard L.J. Cason, who is coming off an ACL injury, and incoming freshman McDonald's All-American Quinn Costello.
Reed said the coaching switch was a “shock,” but not something that left him bitter. He also said he understood why May’s new opportunity mattered to him.
“It was a dream come true” for May, Reed said.
And according to Reed, May’s parting message to the group was simple: the Wolverines still have what it takes.
“I want to say Dusty came in right after the news broke, came in the locker room and said it first,” Reed said. “Everybody was like, ‘You’re right.’
Coach Mike [Boynton] even followed up on it and the team kind of agreed. Our leaders spoke up - [Elliot] Cadeau, Trey [McKenney] - and everybody just kept believing in the goal.”
Reed’s own path to Ann Arbor makes him an interesting fit in all of this. He spent the last four seasons at LSU and arrived as something of a sleeper pickup this offseason. His recent history has been interrupted by injuries - an Achilles tear one season, an ACL tear the next - but he’s rehabbing with the goal of helping Michigan sometime next season.
May viewed Reed as a low-risk, high-reward addition: a player the Wolverines wouldn’t need to carry a huge load, but one who could matter a lot if he gets healthy. Before his first injury, Reed played eight games as a junior in 2024-25 and averaged 11.1 points and 6.5 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per game.
The connection that helped bring Reed to Michigan started with assistant coach Akeem Miskdeen. Miskdeen, who previously worked at Florida from 2021-22 and Georgia from 2022-24, had recruited Reed out of high school before Reed chose LSU. When Reed entered the portal, the two reconnected, and Miskdeen helped sell him on Michigan - then helped keep him there after May’s exit.
"I just talked to coach Akeem, he kind of reassured me that he thought coach Mike [Boynton] would get the job, it would be run similar," Reed said. "Coach Dusty said the same things [in his departure meeting] where he felt like the program would still be honestly really similar − even with him not being here physically, he would still have his hands all over the program."
"I just believed in them and feel like if you look at my history, loyalty is in me. I stayed at LSU for four years, so I wasn’t going nowhere."
Boynton was a major recruiter for much of the roster, but Miskdeen and May were the key voices in Reed’s recruitment. Reed said he’s now back on the court running and working out, and that his health is “closing in on 90%.”
The move to Michigan has also brought a personal connection into sharper focus. Reed said he learned more about his late father, Justin, who was an All-American at Ole Miss in 2001, and his link to Boynton.
"I discovered him and my dad were roommates at a camp back in their playing days," Reed said. "It’s only grown each and every day since this all has happened.
"I’m sure it will grow even more, especially when I get back to playing."
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