Michigan Teammates Show Support for Injured G L. J. Cason Before Iowa Game

Friday was very bittersweet for Michigan. On one hand, the Wolverines went into Illinois and whooped the Illini to claim an outright Big Ten Championship. However, the Maize and Blue lost arguably their most important bench player in the win.

Sophomore guard L.J. Cason suffered a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the year.

Fast forward to Thursday and Michigan will play its first game without Cason. To show support, his teammates were seen wearing No. 2 Cason jerseys during pregame shootaround.

A good chunk of Michigan players wearing #2 LJ Cason jerseys during pregame warmups at Iowa.

Cason tore his ACL in the Wolverines’ win over No. 10 Illinois last Friday. pic.twitter.com/XG4f4s7N8n
— Eliot Clough (@EliotClough) March 5, 2026

It's not the first time we've seen this team rally around one another. In particular, Yaxel Lendeborg has worn the jerseys of his teammates. We've seen him wear Roddy Gayle Jr.'s when the Wolverines were facing Ohio State — Gayle Jr.'s former team. And it was the same this past Friday when Morez Johnson went to Illinois to face his former team.

How Michigan will respond without Cason

Earlier this week, head coach Dusty May talked about how important it's going to be for starting point guard Elliot Cadeau to stay on the court without foul issues.

Michigan Wolverines guard Trey McKenney (1) drives the ball down court. — Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

"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."

As far as a player who's likely going to see more on-ball minutes, that's freshman Trey McKenney. May said McKenney is ready and has improved — we will see how the Wolverines adjust against Iowa.