Dusty May Gives Latest Update on Michigan Guard L.J. Cason Regarding '26-27 Season

Michigan has won its last two games without L.J. Cason backing up Elliot Cadeau. The sophomore suffered a torn ACL in the Wolverines' win over Illinois. The Monday after Cason tore his ACL, head coach Dusty May wasn't sure what the future looked like for Cason — in regards to next season.

Then on Sunday, during Michigan's win over rival Michigan State, CBS Sports' Tracy Wolfson said that Cason was likely going to redshirt next season since he hadn't had his surgery yet.

That sparked a question to May on Monday during his weekly press conference. And yes, it does sound like Cason will redshirt in 2026-27 for Michigan. When will his surgery be? That's to be determined with Michigan playing in the Big Ten Tournament and then heading to the NCAA Tournament.

"Timing," May said on Monday. "I mean, he hasn’t had a surgery yet, and I think, I can’t imagine bringing him back in January after not playing for a year and a half, so.

"No, we don’t have the date. We want him to be a part of this stuff. We don’t want him to miss the NCAA tournament. We don’t want him to miss the Big Ten tournament, so I think the longer we play, the longer surgery will be, but no, we don’t have a date, and the medical people, sometimes they want to get all the swelling out sometimes. We lean on them. I’ve, you know, once again, I don’t comment on things that I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking, studying, reading about, and so when it comes to the medical side, I just lean on our elite support staff.

Who May feels like has stepped up in Cason's absence

When news hit that Cason was out for the season, Michigan had to start thinking about what needed to change. Cason was playing as well as anyone on the roster and was arguably the best backup point guard in the country.

May said he immediately went to both Roddy Gayle Jr. and Trey McKenney — who have both stepped up in the two games without Cason.

Michigan Wolverines guard Roddy Gayle Jr. (11) dribbles defended. — Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

"Roddy Gayle, immediately when it happened, I went to Roddy and just said, man this is a great opportunity for you to really get back into playing longer and longer stretches and being more aggressive. And the same thing with Trey," May said of playing emerging in Cason's absence.

"Trey, this is an opportunity for you to play a little bit of a different role and evolve into more of a point role than just a wing role. And so you go down the line, Nimari, this is an opportunity to play a little more minutes. All the guys that were going to benefit from L.J.’s misfortune, it gives them a chance to grow and develop and like everything else, we look at it as a positive.

"Obviously, L.J., he’s built for certain games, and he was playing as well as anyone on our roster when he went down. And so the timing of it wasn’t perfect, but once again, it’s an opportunity for other guys to step up, and L.J., he was a big part of us getting to this point, and now we’ve all got to give a little bit more to get over the hump without him."

Michigan will now get a few days off before playing its first game in the Big Ten Tournament on Friday.