All Transfers

The Michigan Wolverines became National Champions in men’s college basketball for the first time in 37 years, knocking off UConn 69-63. Michigan proved to be too big, strong, deep, and active on both ends of the floor for the Huskies and the rest of the field.

Michigan is a worthy national champion, and what they accomplished is impressive for many reasons, but what makes this team so unique is that it is the first school to win it all with a starting five of all transfers.

Each of them left a previous program to join others who were also leaving an old team behind. They transferred after realizing they needed a change; it wasn’t working for them anymore, and they wanted something better.

College basketball has undergone major changes in recent years, and the transfer portal has become a key way for programs to build rosters, with Michigan choosing to embrace transfers in a big way.

Here are the five transfers who all started for Michigan’s championship team and where they came from:

• Elliot Cadeau went from struggling with consistency at UNC to becoming the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four at Michigan.

  
  

• Aday Mara, the 7-foot-3 standout big man, was previously an underutilized backup center at UCLA before transferring to Michigan and becoming the 2026 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

  
  

• Morez Johnson Jr. went from a limited role at Illinois to transferring to Michigan to be used in more ways.

  
  

• Yaxel Lendeborg didn’t win an NCAA tournament game while at UAB, but joined Michigan and won a National Championship.

  
  

• Nimari Burnett had bounced around, starting his college career at Texas Tech and then at Alabama before finding the right fit at Michigan.

In the end, it’s not about what they did at their old schools, but rather how they came together on a new team, a different path, forming a new identity and joining a new culture and different system.

They had to unlearn their previous plays, put on a new jersey, and get a second chance as they grew and changed on their new team. 

They transitioned from listening to one coach to another. In contrast, head coach Dusty May helped them reach the next level, maximize their abilities to help the team, and experience the ultimate victory in college basketball. Michigan proved you can win with a team of transfers.

The reality is, in a much more important sense, as followers of Jesus, we are all transfers! When we surrender our lives to Jesus and place our faith in Him, we leave our former “team” and join God’s team.

We realize we need a change; the way we’re living on our own isn’t working anymore, and we want something better. We become united with other believers who are also leaving their old lives behind. We transfer from death to life, transferring our sin debt to Jesus.

Colossians 1:13-14 (ESV) encourages, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

We were once trapped by sin, bouncing from thing to thing that didn’t satisfy, limited in so many ways, and then transferred to freedom, being used in more meaningful ways to maximize our gifts for the team and find the right fit with Jesus.

As we transfer our lives to Him, He gives us a new identity, and we join a different culture and system in the Kingdom of God. He shows us how to really live as we unlearn our “previous plays,” stay on a new path, grow and change, and put on a new “jersey.”

Ephesians 4:24 (NLT) tells us to “Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

Romans 6:6 (NLT) explains, “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.”

Regardless of how bad our old life was, we unite with other followers of Jesus and transfers, all coming from a previous place that didn’t work.

Ephesians 2:19-21 (NLT) says, “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.

“Together, we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus, Himself. We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.”

Today, as Michigan’s team of transfers celebrates its championship, let’s celebrate that when we transfer from being an enemy of God to a child of God, we go from sadness to joy, from hopelessness to hope, and from directionlessness to purpose as we experience ultimate victory in Christ together. 

I’m Bryce Johnson, and you can UNPACK that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I’m so grateful that Jesus made a way for me to transfer from death to life and transfer from the kingdom of darkness to Your kingdom. Thank you for allowing me to transfer away from my former life to embrace my new life in Christ and the victory found in Him. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.