Michigan basketball is still riding the high of winning the national championship this past season, and with that, head coach Dusty May is still making the rounds.
Immediately upon winning a title, the question quickly turns to the following year and the viability of repeating. Thus, roster changes through retention, NBA draft declarations, the transfer portal, and injury reports tend to come to the forefront.
For the Wolverines’ part, they lost four starters, three to the NBA draft, but brought in three transfers, a bevy of top-flight recruits, and still retain some of the top talent that was on the roster this past year. But there are some injuries, as well. LJ Cason was expected to redshirt this year after tearing his ACL, but with the NCAA looking at a potential five years of eligibility for players in college, May says there’s a plan if that goes into effect.
He shared, in an exclusive interview with Jeff Goodman, his status and that plan, as well as injury updates for freshman Lincoln Cosby (who is still expected to redshirt) and LSU transfer Jalen Reed, who is still recovering from an injury of his own.
“Yeah, I guess I’ll follow suit on LJ of leaking the information of what’s going on. We had a golf outing, a fundraiser, and he was giving out the plan for this year,” May said. “But essentially, if the five and five goes into play, and he’s going to lose the year regardless, he’ll be back practicing probably in November. He’s doing very well. He’s strong. And so that would give him a couple of months to practice. We’ll bring it back extremely slow, whatever’s best for him. But if he could preserve the year, then we would just probably hold him out. I don’t want to speak for him. He’s going to have a lot of say in that.
“And then Lincoln Cosby is a young player that we feel great about in the future that is also battling an injury. And Jalen is ahead of schedule as well. But we also think it’s a real unique opportunity where we have this group of veterans, and then we have several young players, and then we have the guys who are injured. We could play these young guys in meaningful, tough games early on. And we may take some lumps because of our youthfulness, but they’ll get great experience. And we think our roster will be deeper and better long term because of it.”
May was asked further about Reed’s status as he continues to rehabilitate from a ruptured Achilles he suffered in November. It’s unclear if his trajectory is similar to football’s John Henry Daley, who also had a ruptured Achilles the same month, but is now a full go. May is being a bit mum about his status, saying that he’s trusting the doctors.
“I don’t even want to say because it’s all premature,” May said. “And to be honest, I don’t get involved in any of the medical stuff other than just checking on the guys. It’s between them and the support, the medical staff. And they just tell me what a guy can do and when he can’t. And that’s pretty much end of conversation.”
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Dusty May shares injury updates for Michigan basketball roster
Reporting by Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire / Wolverines Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire | USA TODAY Network
