Dusty May Shares Michigan's Plans to Replace L.J. Cason's Important Role After Injury

The Wolverines lost one of the best backup guards in the country. How will Michigan replace him?

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The timing could not be any worse, but Michigan lost backup point guard L.J. Cason to a torn ACL during the Wolverines' win on Friday against Illinois. The Maize and Blue won an outright Big Ten championship, but they also lost arguably the best backup guard in basketball.

Without Cason, Michigan's rotation will shrink from nine to eight. On Monday, head coach Dusty May discussed the challenges of losing Cason, but he believes in his players and he also thinks an eight man rotation might be better for players to stay in rhythm and work through mistakes.

However, more responsibility will rely on starting point guard Elliot Cadeau, who will be tasked with more minutes, and more need to stay out of foul trouble.

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"As far as Elliot, yeah, this will force Elliot to be, I guess, much more solid with his defensive decision making when it comes to fouling," May said on Monday. "He doesn't have that insurance policy anymore, named L.J. behind him, because L.J. came in and carried the load several games for our group.

"So that's not there anymore, but this is a great opportunity for Roddy and Trey and Nimari to play more, and those guys are really good players, and our rotation's been nine, and nine, I think, is too deep, I mean, that's playing too many guys if you want to optimize everyone. But we felt like we had nine guys that deserved a play that gave us a different element.

"There wasn't any of those nine that we felt like we could cut out of the rotation because of how good they are. We look at this as another challenge, but it's also an opportunity for guys to play a little bit more, to play longer periods, to play through a mistake, to play a little bit different role, and we do feel like these guys are a lot better than they were earlier this year, and so we're prepared to handle whatever comes at us."

Who will replace LJ. Cason?

While more is going to be on Cadeau's shoulders, May was asked what happens when he needs a breather. The most logical player to take over for Cason is freshman Trey McKenney. Michigan doesn't run a slow offense, but May said McKenney has the ability to play more on the ball and it will likely be the former five-star who takes on that role.

But May also mentioned veterans Roddy Gayle and Nimari Burnett, who has that experiece, as welll.

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"Can Trey take over minutes with the bonus hands? Yes, absolutely," said May. "He's proved that time and time again. He's done it in practice. And we don't really come down and stop, get organized. So, yes, it's more if someone on the court needs to huddle us, get us organized, give the team the calls, the commands, and then, yeah, Trey's got a great voice.

"He's improved. Are we confident in Trey? Yeah, for sure. He's good. I mean, Roddy, Trey, Yaks, I mean, we have confidence.

"Just, yeah, we have a lot, Trey McKinney's a hell of a player. He's good with the ball in his hands, he's good without the ball in his hands, and he's continued to improve, and so, but yeah, we're confident in him, Roddy, Namari played point guard here the year before we got here. Now, obviously, it's a different style of play, but we have enough to overcome what L.J. brought to the team, and obviously, we're losing a lot.

"L.J. was playing as well as I saw. Rothstein said he was the best backup point guard in the country. I don't know if he's the best backup point guard in the country, but I can't think of one that's better. And so, we lost, we're losing a lot, but once again, we're not going to sit here and say, look at it from that angle.

"We're going to go, this is an opportunity for all these other guys to do a little bit more, and they're more than capable. So, it's all on us to find the right rotations and situations, but without a doubt, we have a lot of confidence in our roster."