If Michigan wins NCAA title with a transfer-heavy roster, it has nothing to apologize for

INDIANAPOLIS — If Michigan wins the national title here Monday night, the grumble campaign among rival fan bases and even some Big Ten coaches that has been building all season will reach full tilt. College athletics has long been a place for sour grapes to flourish like a Malbec vine in the Argentina soil, but the reaction to how Dusty May constructed this team — raiding the transfer portal for four starters, all of whom commanded significant dollars — has taken on a life of its own as the Wolverines rolled through the NCAA tournament and into Monday night’s national championship game against UConn in just his second season. “If you listen to the college basketball gospel, we took 17 [transfers] and that’s all we have and we should have a bunch of fifth-year seniors in Year 2,” May said.

So it’s safe to say May has heard the notion that somehow Michigan isn’t doing this the “right” way or that somehow he “bought” a championship team or that UConn winning a title would somehow signal greater purity because more of its key players have been with the program since they began their college careers. But not only does such nonsense fly in the face of reality — these are all professional athletes now, at every program in the power conferences — it fails to properly credit May for choosing the right transfers and putting them in a system that takes advantage of their skills. If it was so easy, everyone would do it — and from Kentucky’s $22 million disappointment this season to the hundreds of portal mistakes across the country, it’s very clear everyone cannot.

Just as important, however, is what it has done for the four transfers in Michigan’s starting lineup. Everyone who criticizes the current environment in college sports — including the president of the United States — gets fixated on the money athletes make. They don’t talk enough about what it means for a player who was not thriving in their previous environment to become the best version of themselves.

“We all came here for a change of scenery, and we’re just taking full advantage of it,” said Michigan point guard Elliot Cadeau, a former five-star recruit who spent his first two years at North Carolina. “Everyone is pretty much playing a bigger role than they did last year, or a different role, and we’re just having confidence in ourselves. ” It’s one thing for the pearl-clutchers to act as if May did something different than any of his peers to build this team, including those who chose to pay big money to freshmen or European pros rather than transfers.