Dusty May reveals why Yaxel Lendeborg didn't start for Michigan Monday night

Michigan men's basketball got off to a roaring start on Monday night, defeating Oakland, 121-78. The Wolverines scored a program-high 69 points in the first half. The good thing for Michigan is that it had an offensive explosion without arguably its best player at 100% -- or close to it.

The Wolverines had Yaxel Lendeborg in the starting lineup, but removed him prior to tip off. Lendeborg came off the bench and scored 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including a pair of 3s, in 22 minutes of action. After the game, Dusty May said Yaxel's right hand is messed up and has been practicing left handed.

Michigan F Yaxel Lendeborg — Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"You saw it. He played left-handed," May said of Lendeborg. "Yesterday was his first day back at practice after missing a few. He played left-handed, and I thought he was a borderline All-League player with just one hand going left-handed. To be honest, he was trying not to use it at all yesterday.

"He was trying to see if he could practice so he could play today, and he literally was making unbelievable passes with his left hand and catching with essentially one hand and fanning opposite and whatever. He literally can play with his weak hand, and then there’s no break or anything like that, so it’s not as if we’re concerned with long-term damage other than just another random injury. But we also told him today that a lot of times when guys have a thumb injury or finger injury, a lot of times they shoot it better for whatever reason.

"I think it probably eliminates a little bit of the noise in our minds, and so I thought all of his threes were clean. He went 2-for-2. I was saying he went 2-for-3. Yeah, he went 2-for-2. He went 2-for-2 from the line, so I thought he played a very intelligent basketball game with the hand injury that he’s had, but it’s day-to-day. I mean, same thing. We pulled him out. We limited his minutes just because we wanted to minimize risk."

Dusty May updates the health of LJ Cason and Winters Grady

While Lendeborg might be a little banged up right now, he played. Two other Wolverines did not play. Sophomore LJ Cason and freshman Winters Grady were DNPs on Monday night against Oakland. Coach May updated the health of his two scorers.

"Yeah, LJ could have played tonight, and we had him ready for emergency purposes," May said. "He said he could go, and he said he was 100%. He’s been clear to play, but he hasn’t looked great in the last day or two. He hasn’t played enough, so we just felt like with eight days in between now and Wake Forest, he’ll get a couple of practices under his belt, he’ll get his wind back, and we just didn’t want to risk it if we didn’t have to.

"Winters, I believe, starts practicing tomorrow or the next day, maybe off tomorrow, I don’t know exactly, but he’ll be practicing the next couple days. He had a minor foot injury that we were being very cautious with, like we do early in the season. These guys could play if they absolutely had to, but we’re more thinking long-term, and we have so much depth that we’re not going to put a guy out there 75%, 80% unless we absolutely have to."

Michigan will take the court again next Tuesday against Wake Forest.

Dusty May updates the health of LJ Cason and Winters Grady

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