2 Michigan Basketball Players OUT for Foreign Tour Won't Factor in Wolverines' Play

The Wolverines are on their foreign tour and two of their players won't suit up.

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Michigan arrives on Thursday for its nine-day foreign tour. The Wolverines will play three exhibition games in both Lithuania and Croatia.

With a lot of new faces on Michigan's roster, including a new-look coaching staff, Mike Boynton Jr.'s program will have a chance to gel and compete against national teams. But the Wolverines will be down two players for the trip.

Unsurprisingly, neither Jalen Reed nor Lincoln Cosby will participate. Cosby is behind Reed, as far as a return to play schedule, but Michigan hopes to get Reed back in the fold by December.

"He won't play on the trip," Boynton Jr. confirmed. "But we did get a pretty positive report on him last week from the doctors that he's way ahead of schedule. The initial thought was it would be like a late December kind of ramp up. I think we're going to get the green light when we get back to start doing some contact, live stuff with him."

A great opportunity for Michigan

For Michigan, the Wolverines gain some extra preparation heading into the new season. After winning a national title last year, the Wolverines are without their three-headed monster of Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr., and Aday Mara.

Michigan is also without some key contributors. But the Wolverines hit the portal hard once again and landed four players who are expected to make a big impact on the new season.

"Yeah, it's going to be a great opportunity for this group to spend some time together and have a chance to play some games and see the things that we've been working on all summer," said Boynton Jr. "You know, how they actually pan out and work or not. The things we need to adjust when we get back."

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Boynton Jr. noted that he has done very little scouting on the three teams Michigan will be facing. Lithuania has some NBA players on its national team, but with training camps starting to ramp up, he's not sure if they will play in an exhibition game or not.

Either way, it's going to challenge this Michigan team. On Wednesday, the Arizona Wildcats suffered a loss to Lithuania's B Team, and the Wolverines will be playing both the B Team and the National Team. But Boynton Jr. isn't going to allow the outside talk hinder him. He plans on mixing the rotation up and seeing what sticks.

"No, I'm aware of it, but I don't think about it much," Boynton Jr. said. "They're exhibition games. We're going to try some things. We're going to play some guys in positions that maybe they will play in a season or not. And so, yeah, we want to go in the games. I'm a competitor, but I'm also not. I don't have a goal of being the Lithuanian, Croatia, the Invitational champions of 2026.

Michigan's game schedule

• Saturday August 22 is a practice day in Lithuania
• Sunday August 23 is a game vs. Lithuania's National Team
• Monday August 24 is a game vs. Lithuania's B Team
• Thursday August 27 is a game vs. Mega Superbet (Serbia) in Croatia
• Saturday August 29 is a return to the United States