Michigan basketball appears to have suffered another injury in Europe, this time to standout freshman Brandon McCoy Jr.
The five-star recruit out of Chatsworth, California (Sierra Canyon), went down in the first minute of U-M's final game of its overseas trip against Mega Superbet in Croatia.
The 6-foot-6 shooting guard stole a pass at midcourt and took the ball on a fastbreak when he slipped and his right leg appeared to collapse under him. He grabbed at his right knee.
Was wrapping up football coverage from this afternoon, but this is a potentially very bad development for Michigan hoops. Five-star freshman Brandon McCoy Jr. went down in today’s game in Europe and had to be carried off the court by staff and players. pic.twitter.com/8XsTlwlASG
— Tony Garcia | Detroit Free Press (@RealTonyGarcia) August 27, 2026
After he stayed on the ground for a few moments the officials stopped play and trainer Chris Williams, strength and conditioning coach Matt Aldred and Mike Boynton Jr. all came onto the court to check on him. Players surrounded him as he sat up from the floor, which included center Moustapha Thiam (who injured his lower right leg in the first game of the trip and was not listed as available for this game), who hobbled over to check on him.
McCoy was unable to put any weight on his leg as the coaches ended up carrying him off the court.
McCoy is expected to be a key contributor to the Wolverines this season, possibly starting as the small forward or potentially coming off the bench in a sixth-man role like Trey McKenney did last year. (If that happens, it likely would be because U-M was able to add Roddy Gayle Jr. to its roster.)
"He's probably different — in terms of the collective skill and athleticism that he has — than anybody we've had the last two years, to be honest," Boynton said earlier this summer. "Just the size. He's 6-6. He's got a 7-foot wingspan. He rebounds it as well as anybody that we've probably coached here other than Morez [Johnson Jr.] in the last two years."He's really smart, he's competitive, he's unselfish and he's a winner — he's a three-time gold medalist already at his young age. So he's going to bring some pop and some experience to us."
McCoy, who was a McDonald's All-American and a five-star prospect ranked as a top-10 player in the nation in the class of 2026, flashed his explosiveness in the first two games on the trip for the Wolverines, averaging 14.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in two games in Lithuania.
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Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Brandon McCoy injury has him carried off court in Michigan basketball game
