Dusty May gives injury update on two key Michigan basketball starters

The No. 2 Michigan basketball team continued its impressive start to the season, moving to 13-0 after a dominating 30-point victory over USC.

However, the Wolverines played the majority of the second half without two of their starters, Yaxel Lendeborg and Nimari Burnett.

In the postgame press conference, head coach Dusty May was asked about the status of the two starters.

“He (Lendeborg) has a bruised calf, and Nimari has stitches in his eye,” May said. “They both asked to go back in.”

From watching the game and when the injuries occurred, the bigger concern would seem to be Lendeborg. When he was playing with the injury, he was clearly not 100 percent. He was limping and did not look like himself.

The Good News

You never want to see student-athletes of any team go down with injury. But the silver lining here is that the Wolverines took care of business without the two key players.

On top of those two, Roddy Gayle Jr. also fouled out and UofM was then down three players, but still handled business pretty easily.

May gave high praise to Will Tschetter when talking about the injury situation.

“I want to tip my cap to Will Tschetter,” May said. “He hasn’t been able to stay in for the amount of minutes that he did last year, that he’s earned, for obvious reasons, because we have Morez, Yaxel, Elliot and L.J., all the reasons… He has handled it like a champ. His mood, his day-to-day hasn’t changed or waivered.”

Last season, Tschetter played 15.9 minutes per contest, whereas he is sitting at 13.8 in his final season in Ann Arbor.

Wolverine fans should feel confident that even if Lendeborg does miss some time, there are players willing and able to step up and fill his shoes.

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