With more than two decades of NCAA coaching experience, Michigan basketball assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. has his share of young players showing maturity beyond their years.
The latest for Boynton is Trey McKenney, a true freshman point guard, McDonald’s All-American and a Michigan Mr. Basketball last season.
“You take basketball away from Trey McKinney tomorrow, and he’s going to be an incredibly successful person,” Boynton said. “He’s got a maturity that I’ve only seen in Cade (Cunningham) at his age, only in 22 years now of coaching college basketball.”
Boynton worked with Cunningham in his lone year at Oklahoma State, before the guard became the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. That comparison may be a bit much for a teen right now, but his maturity should help him improve faster than the average player.
That will be put to the test early, as McKenney hasn’t had the introduction to college many expected. In his first game in a U-M uniform, a 100-98 loss at home to Cincinnati, the former Orchard Lake St. Mary’s standout went 0-for-7 from the floor, 0-for-6 on 3-pointers and made just one of two free throws. He also had two turnovers and three fouls, with the Wolverines outscored by five during his 16 minutes.
There were subtle improvements in the exhibition followup, a 96-94 overtime win over St. John’s at Madison Square Garden in New York: He shot 1-for-5 – making a 3-pointer – and committed one turnover en route to four points in 14 minutes. He didn’t record an assist in either game, though Boynton believes those will come as he settles into a new role.
After years spent as the star of every team he played for – even while playing with fellow 5-star recruit Darius Acuff (Arkansas) on the AAU circuit, he was always a top-two option – he’ll be a role player to start his career in Ann Arbor.
“He’ll have to figure out how he fits in with this group; that’ll probably be the most challenging basketball experience for him that he’s gone through,” Boynton said. “Not that he won’t be capable of helping us win and being a big part of our success this year. But he’s never been asked not to be a primary play-making scorer consistently, right?
“There’s going to be sometimes he’s our fifth option on the court in terms of what we’re looking to do and the way we play. He’ll figure it out, but I’m curious to watch how he embraces that challenge.”
McKenney has had the right approach since arriving on campus. He’s meticulous with his preparation, according to his coaches, from planning when he goes to bed, to the times and meals he will eat to his stretching regimen. It’s often something players don’t become truly committed to until they’re older.
Minutes at guard won’t be easy to carve out behind Elliot Cadeau (a highly regarded transfer from North Carolina), L.J. Cason (a returning sophomore who had one of the best summers of any player on the roster), and seniors Nimari Burnett and Roddy Gayle Jr.
But McKenney is seemingly equipped to handle it, and the staff is counting on him to play a key role.
“I have no doubt, by the way he’s worked since he’s been here in June, that he’ll do well,” Boynton said. “He’ll certainly hit some bumps in the room – all freshmen do. But I’m really, really bullish on what he’s going to become.”
Banner ceremony
The Wolverines will raise their 2025 Big Ten Tournament championship banner in Crisler Center shortly before the season opener against Oakland on Monday, Nov. 3 (8:30 p.m., FS1).
Boynton was asked what he’ll be thinking about when the banner goes up; he brought up players such as Ian Burns and Jace Howard – those who played integral roles on the team but didn’t get the same publicity as U-M’s stars.
First-year Wolverine Yaxel Lendeborg, meanwhile, said he plans to use it as motivation. It’s one of the main reasons he came to Ann Arbor; he saw what happened in Year 1 under May and has imagined what is possible in Year 2. He didn’t stop at just winning the Big Ten.
“I 100% think that we can do that and a national championship banner,” he said. “We all got to buy in, which we are, but hopefully this moment here is going to really like, light another fire in me that makes me want to do this and experience this again next year … even if I’m not on the court with them, just, you know, in the beaches watching.
“I’m really excited to see the joy in their faces when they get the banner raised, and see how we do this season.”
Speaking another language
Lendeborg was born in Puerto Rico, while UCLA transfer Aday Mara was born and raised in Zaragoza, Spain. Even though they both speak English and Spanish, they’re seemingly communicating in a third: their chemistry.
“It’s too easy to play with him,” Mara said. “I think we are in a moment that we can just talk without saying anything, just by looking at each other. He knows what I’m trying to say. … We can talk in English and Spanish just by looking at each other.”
The dialects are different between Lendeborg and Mara but do they ever speak Spanish to one another on the court?
“I’m trying to,” Mara said with a laugh. “He doesn’t want to. Maybe when I’m tired or mad in the game, I will tell him in Spanish because I don’t want to be thinking about translating, but we talk in English for the most part.”
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
