Michigan basketball monitors host of injuries
Jackson, Howard, Llewelyn are watched by coaching staff
Tony Garcia
Graduate transfer forward Tray Jackson has missed each of the past two games and is listed as “out” while under concussion protocol. But head coach Juwan Howard revealed on Wednesday there’s even more to it than that.
Not only did Jackson suffer the brain injury in last Sunday’s game against Penn State, but he suffered a broken bone in his face which may require surgery.
“Tray has been suffering an injury that’s very delicate,” Howard said. “What I’m speaking of is his nose; he has a small fracture on his nose with the possibility of surgery on the table.”
Jackson, a 6-foot-10 Detroit native who transferred to Ann Arbor from Seton Hall, has played 15 games this season and averages 5.5 points and 2.8 rebounds. It hasn’t been the homecoming Jackson had hoped it would be; he has scored more than eight points just once, when he scored 17 in 21 minutes in a November loss to Long Beach State.
Jackson isn’t the only player the staff
is monitoring.
In addition to Jace Howard, who is being eased back into the rotation and just played eight minutes in his season debut in Monday’s win over Ohio State, Jaelin Llewellyn is being closely watched by the staff. Llewellyn had ACL surgery last January and has rehabbed his way back in the year in between; though he missed the beginning of the year, the point guard returned in early December vs. Oregon.
After three games back, Llewellyn missed two game in concussion protocol; in the first five games he played this year, he only topped 10 minutes once. Last week vs. Maryland, when the team was without Dug McDaniel, however, he played 33 minutes which nearly matched his total (44 minutes) from those first five games of 2023-24.
He only played one minute Monday vs. Ohio State. It might appear Howard is saving him for the road games when McDaniel is not available, but the U-M coach said it’s a game-bygame process.
“We’re monitoring his health as well, want to be very respectful of the injury that he’s dealing with from last season,” Howard said. “With the minutes he experience in the Maryland
game, thought they were great minutes, hadn’t played that many minutes in a very long time.
“That knee is something we do not want to cause any flare up where it could set him back because we need Jaelin and we need a healthy Jaelin.”
Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.