Michigan basketball: Yaxel Lendeborg injury update and who else is banged up after opener

ANN ARBOR – The No. 7 Michigan Wolverines opened their season with a 121-78 blowout win over the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Monday night in Ann Arbor, but star forward Yaxel Lendeborg‘s pregame injury loomed as a large storyline.

Lendeborg, who was not listed on the team’s pregame availability report, warmed up with a wrap and tape on his right hand and was listed as a starter pregame before he was replaced shortly before tipoff by sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr. Lendeborg wound up playing nearly 22 minutes in the game off the bench with 12 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

Late in the game with the bench being emptied, Lendeborg was at the end of the bench with his hand wrapped in ice.

Michigan head coach Dusty May addressed the injury during his postgame press conference.

“He played left-handed yesterday [in practice],” May said. “It was his first day back after missing a few. He played left-handed and I thought he was a borderline all-league player with just one hand. 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 it with essentially one hand… There’s no break or anything like that, so it’s not as if we’re we’re concerned with long-term damage other than just another random injury.

“We also told him today that a lot of times when guys have a thumb injury or finger injury, they shoot it better for whatever reason. I think it probably eliminates a little bit of the noise in our minds. I thought all of his [threes and free throws] looked clean. I thought he played a very intelligent basketball game with the hand injury that he’s had.

“But it’s, it’s day to day. We pulled him out and limited his minutes just because we wanted him to minimize risk.”

May on Michigan’s other injuries

Michigan was without two other rotational players on Monday night in sophomore guard L.J. Cason and freshman guard/wing Winters Grady, the latter of whom was in a boot on Monday night.

May said Cason was available, but banged up, while Grady could be close to a return in the next few days.

 ”LJ could have played tonight and, and we had him ready for emergency purposes,” May said. “He said he could go, and he said he was 100%. He’s been cleared to play, but he hasn’t looked great in the last day or two and 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. We didn’t wanna risk it if we didn’t have to.

Winters, I believe, starts practicing tomorrow or the next day. .. He’ll be practicing the next couple of days. He had a minor foot injury. We are being very cautious, 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 if he’s 70-80% or less.”

Michigan returns to game action on Nov. 11 against Wake Forest in a semi-home neutral site game at Little Caesars Arena in Downtown Detroit. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. with Fox Sports 1 carrying the broadcast.