Michigan State’s season finale was just affected by a serious injury to a key Michigan player.
The Spartans are facing a tough three-game stretch to finish the regular season, finishing things off with a road game against No. 3 Michigan in Ann Arbor. That’s the most daunting remaining task for the Spartans, but it may have just lightened up a bit with an injury to Michigan’s sixth man.
LJ Cason is remembered un-fondly by Michigan State fans for standing on the Spartan logo during the Spartans’ senior day festivities a year ago. Now, he’s going to miss the rematch with MSU.
According to Jeff Borzello, Michigan’s backup point guard and sixth man tore his ACL against Illinois on Friday night. This means that Michigan’s bench just shortened and one of the best backup point guards in the country is going to miss the rest of the year.
NEWS: Michigan point guard LJ Cason suffered a torn ACL in last night's win over Illinois and will miss the rest of the season, per the school. Cason was averaging 8.4 points off the bench for the Wolverines.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) February 28, 2026
This is just a massive hit to the depth of one of the top two teams in the country this season. He averaged 8.4 points per game off the bench this year, but he had been on fire lately.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines, they’re going to be really limited at the point guard position for the rest of the year. Elliot Cadeau will shoulder the load obviously, but Nimari Burnett is going to have to play big minutes there, and I’m not sure how much Dusty May trusts that.
This is a huge blow to the Wolverines.
Losing LJ Cason is going to hurt more than people think
Michigan has arguably the best frontcourt in the country led by Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, and Morez Johnson, but the biggest knock on the Wolverines has been the backcourt.
It has now taken a huge hit.
Cason was providing a punch off the bench and he was going to be a key player in March for the No. 1 seed Wolverines. We’ll see just how much this loss impacts the team against Iowa next week before it faces Michigan State, but I’d be shocked if the offense doesn’t struggle a bit.
The presence and confidence of Cason off the bench is going to be a huge loss for the Wolverines as they pursue a national title.