Michigan strength coach Matt Aldred discusses plan for returning players, newcomers, more

Michigan Wolverines basketball strength and conditioning coach Matt Aldred joined Brian Boesch on the ‘Defend The Block’ podcast to discuss returning and incoming players on the 2026-27 team. Here are notable quotes from the conversation.

On 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior point guard Elliot Cadeau

“It’s kind of a hard place to go trying to improve from MOP in the Final Four. I want to be really cautious with these guys, because I know how intense the season is. So with EC, especially, being a fourth-year guy — [freshman guard] Trey [McKenney] is only going into his second year — there are a lot of miles in that body. He has played every game in college, and that’s the aim to keep going.

“He is a very robust athlete, so you’ve got to really find the balance between maintaining that robustness through various strength exercises in here but also improving his explosiveness, which is an area I know he wants to keep improving — his ability to dunk off his left leg and his ability to wall up on defense. He’s so explosive, but obviously with an explosive athlete, you want to really peak them at the right time. So I think that’s probably a conversation that we’ll have, is maybe it’s doing a bit less in June than we did last year, because I trust him to have done stuff a little bit this offseason. Maybe it’s building up a bit later in the year. So, we’re going to be having conversations with him.

“But his leadership last year in the locker rooms at halftime was absolutely elite. It’s something that I’m able to be in there and listen to the message that the guys are saying, and I see him taking even greater steps there, not just in the weight room but in practice, being an everyday guy. We did some conditioning before he went away for those [NBA Draft] workouts. To see the banner up there, he just walked on the court, was clapping and said, ‘Hey, whenever I get tired, just tell me to look at that.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I got you, buddy.'”

On 6-foot-4, 225-pound sophomore guard Trey McKenney

“He has expressed that he wants to be even leaner, so that’s something that we’ve been working on this past month and trying to really not put the water over the bucket … we’re not trying to overdo it this offseason. I want to give him appropriate time off. But also, if a guy wants to lean out and lose a little bit more weight, this time is great, too, because we can control a lot of things in this period of time in May.

“That’s an area maybe his explosiveness off the first step, being able to beat a guy, improving his lateral quickness and his agility … obviously, he’s super strong finishing at the rim, he’s an elite shooter and scorer. But I think for him it maybe is trying to be lighter so he can be quicker. Obviously, mass moves mass, so the lighter you are and the stronger you are, you should be quicker.

“And, obviously, he might have an increased conditioning demand now, if he’s going to — if, I don’t know — slide into a starting position, that’s probably an increased conditioning demand, as well, for the five-and-a-half months. So, those are areas for him now, but again, it’ll be a conversation, ‘Hey, are you good with this?’ It might be again pulling back a little bit in June to build up again, because this is the longest these guys have ever played in college, as long as we’ve ever coached in college. We got to the last game, made it through. So, it’s just going to be a reassessment, but trusting his opinion of what he needs; he is an extremely impressive, mature young man, so I will trust exactly what he wants to do.”

On 6-foot-7, 235-pound redshirt sophomore forward Oscar Goodman and 6-foot-4, 190-pound redshirt freshman guard/forward Ricky Liburd

“Oscar being really good friends with [former Michigan forward] Will Tschetter, I think, was an amazing thing for ‘O,’ and I think that’s the energy and leadership he will bring every day to this program. Tschett-Bomb, if you’re listening, dude. I mean, dude, he’s looking good [playing professionally in Australia], those are Wemby numbers. I think ‘O’ is going to be a great leader for us. He’s very mature for a guy his age. He’s a big dude. He’s big and strong but powerful. And as that Auburn player found out, he’s got a lot more bounce than people think. That’s something that’s going to be surprising for defenses.

“And then Ricky, the best thing, I used to sit next to Ricky at the games, and he would be very excited when guys would dunk. I’d be like, ‘Hey, Ricky…’ He’d be like, ‘I’ll be doing that all of next year. That’s me. That’s me.’ I said, ‘I’m going to hold you accountable if you don’t dunk on someone.’ His attitude, I’m sure everyone across the board on our staff would be so impressed with his attitude. He won the conditioning test for us. He is an absolute machine. His nickname is ‘Ticket.’ He is an absolute robot. That’s a Dusty [May] thing. I’m sure there’s an American football reference in there from some player.

“I think the fans will be very impressed with both, with their attitude … because at the bare minimum, what do fans want? They want effort, they want you to dive on the floor for loose balls, they want you to show appreciation for the jersey — and that’s something our team did great last year, and I think those two are going to be very impressive from that standpoint alone, let alone their basketball skills. It’s exciting. I’m really excited this offseason for those guys to develop again and keep getting better.”

On relationship building with Michigan players that are new to the team

“Sometimes, it’s a FaceTime with those guys, just to kind of check in. But a lot of it might be this when they get to campus, just sit down and talk to them about it. Building that relationship. Knowing who their previous strength coach is important, understanding how they like to be trained, how they felt the training environment was. But also, this year I kind of did it differently. I kind of took guys for a clean slate. I didn’t reach as many strength coaches as I did my first year, because I was like, ‘Let’s just start anew. I don’t want any prior baggage of their history in the weight room. I want to hear it from them.’

“I would tell them that. I’d say, ‘Hey, man, this is a partnership, and I want you to be honest with you about everything. I’m going to tell you the truth. I’m going to be a truth-teller in your life and in this building. I’m going to do it with love. You’re going to see very early I’m very consistent. I have the utmost respect for you. I expect the same for me. But I understand that trust has to be earned, and you will see every day in my attitude and in my detail, but also I just want to be reasonable. If you’re struggling with something, I’ll probably be able to tell by your face and your attitude, and I want you to be able to tell me. This is a safe space here. I want to be like a big brother / uncle to you, and we can talk about deep family stuff, we can talk about the game last night, whatever it is. But this job for me is way more about the dumbbells and barbells. If it was that, I would probably be an Instagram influencer. This is about people and relationships, and also it’s about winning. So, how can we just grow as individuals together? I’m still going through life as a 37-year-old with a two-year-old daughter. I want you to see me be a dad. Hopefully at some point in your life, you’ll be a dad. If we can leave any impact on you from seeing us and how we are as professionals, I think that’s important.’

“So just being genuine. I love my job. Hopefully the guys will see that very quickly. There’s going to be a time where it’s super intense. Strongman is going to be intense, and I’m going to be on you. But prior to that, you’re going to see a lot of built-in relationship building and enjoyment. I want to enjoy coaching you, so let’s just have fun with this and let’s see where our continuous improvement every day can take us.”

On how Michigan winning the national championship has shaped his view of the process

“I think what it did was it showed the process worked, which was really reinforcing. There’s only one time in my career in this last 10, 11 years I’ve been in the states that you can look back and go, ‘Preseason might have worked, and then in-season loading might have worked…’ There’s reinforcement there. That might be a three-percent difference of why we won — one percent. But it’s still reinforcement.

“Actually, I found this with [guard] Roddy [Gayle Jr.] my first year. We call it ‘March Roddy,’ right? How explosive he was. He played Texas A&M and he was unbelievable. I was sitting on the bench, and I was like, ‘He looks so good.’ And I’m like, ‘We didn’t do anything different for the last in-season, so what’s the key to that in my mind? Don’t do random stuff. Keep it simple. Keep it basic.’ So that really reinforced the process for this year, even though it was a very different team.

“So that’s something it does, is it shows you that, OK, your process did work, but it only worked for the ’25-26 Michigan team. How is it going to work for the ’26-27 Michigan team? Yeah, there are going to be aspects that work. Our strongman is going to need to be tweaked. This year, it was already going to be different because of the summer trip, so we have extra practices and then you have the extra load of the summer trip.

“It’s one of those things where you look back and it’s like it’s unbelievable, of course, but I think Coach has talked about this, it is very much and you look back and remember the process and the bus rides and the sessions. Those preseason sessions and the conversations with [forward] Yaxel [Lendeborg] after a lift and we’re talking about stuff that involves our fathers. That kind of thing is really impactful, and obviously now to see those three guys hopefully do what they’re going to do in the NBA Draft is also just so rewarding.

“I keep telling my wife, ‘Winning the championship is like the gift that keeps on giving.’ It truly is. I’m not sitting in the play room with [daughter] Lucy saying, ‘I’m a national champion.’ You still have to do your everyday stuff. There’s not that. And it might recalibrate your happiness metric a little bit, because you’re like 70,000 fans, this is weird.

“But it’s just having the conversations with you, seeing the stuff in the office like, ‘Wow, we did do that. That was amazing.’ But as coaches, we’re drivers, and it is on to the next thing. And in one month’s time, we will be starting up with those guys again, and it’ll be a whole new team, a whole new challenge. But that’s why we do it, right? We love challenges.”