Michigan’s trip to Europe was supposed to be the first chance for Michigan’s roster to come together. The Wolverines would go to Europe, face some quality competition, and start to figure out how this season would look with a new head coach and so many new players.
Instead of a pre-semester uptick in vibes, the trip took a turn for the worse on Thursday when Brandon McCoy Jr. injured his right knee. Instead of coming together as a team, the Wolverines lost a key player and flew home with more questions than they left with.
It’s easy to play the hindsight game after an injury. What if the trip had been called off after Dusty May left? What if it wasn’t 95 degrees in Montenegro or the game hadn’t been moved from Dubrovnik due to facility issues? But in the end, you can’t control any of that. Brandon McCoy Jr. got hurt on a trip where the reps were probably most beneficial to him among all players on Michigan’s roster.
Injuries happen in sports, and teams are defined by how they respond to them. Having to respond to a serious knee injury in August isn’t where any team wants to be, but here we are.
1. Heartbreaking on an individual level
Brandon McCoy Jr.’s season is over before his college career even started, and that’s the heartbreaking part of this. It’s absolutely brutal to tear your ACL in an exhibition game on the other side of the world in August before your first semester begins.
Not to mention the long-term implications involved for a five-star freshman with one-and-done aspirations who is one of the best athletes in the incoming class. This is going to fundamentally alter his basketball journey in a way that’s hard to predict right now.
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