Yaxel Lendeborg, Nimari Burnett injury updates ahead of Michigan basketball road trip

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines basketball is set for its second Big Ten road game of the season Tuesday evening at Penn State (7 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1) and may be without one of its top players in graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg.

The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Lendeborg was dealing with a bruised calf in Saturday’s 96-66 win over USC at Crisler Center. He left the game in the first half, was evaluated in the locker room and re-entered the contest to begin the second stanza. He was shut down minutes later in the blowout win, though, and is working to recover in the days since.

“Yaxel is day to day,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said Monday morning. “He’s feeling much better. I would say he’ll be a game-time decision. We’ll see how he goes today and then see how he feels tomorrow at shootaround, and then we’ll make the decision from there — the medical team. I won’t have any … the trainers will tell me if he can go or he can’t, and he’ll say whether he can go or he can’t.”

An All-America candidate, Lendeborg is averaging 15.1 points, 7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, while shooting 56.9 percent from the field, including 37.3 percent from three-point distance.

Michigan graduate guard Nimari Burnett, meanwhile, left for the locker room during the Wolverines’ win over USC, too, and returned with a bandage on the left side of his face. The Maize and Blue will have the sharpshooter back at Penn State.

“Nimari’s on the court shooting right now,” May said. “Yes, he practiced yesterday, full-go.”

Burnett is averaging 8.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 18.8 minutes per game, having started all 13 contests. He’s shooting 37.8 percent from three-point range.

Michigan is 13-0 overall and 3-0 in Big Ten play heading into Tuesday’s showdown. The Wolverines will come back home after taking on the Nittany Lions and host Wisconsin Saturday at Crisler Center (1 p.m. ET on CBS).

“We’re excited to get on the road for our, I believe, third true road game,” May said. “We’ve played several neutral sites, so it’s not as if we’ve played a heavy home schedule, but we’re excited to see if we can improve our performance on the opposition’s home court.”