On Wednesday morning, it was announced that grad transfer Olivier Nkamhoua has already played his last game of the season. The Michigan basketball star suffered an injury to his left wrist and underwent surgery. Coach Howard alluded to the fact that Nkamhoua could have gotten surgery earlier, saying, “He was a true warrior playing with this injury; however, it was just time to do something. We know this will pass and he will return to have a successful playing career. We are so grateful to have been a small part of his journey.”
This will sideline Nkamhoua for approximately 3-4 months, well past the end of the collegiate season.
What Michigan basketball will miss
The 6’9″ forward was one of the key pieces to this struggling Michigan basketball roster both on and off the court. On the court, Nkamhoua averaged 14.8 ppg (51.2% from the field), 7.1 reb/g, and 2.7 apg. Off the court, he garnered the respect of the locker room, quickly becoming one of the team’s captains after transferring to Ann Arbor from Knoxville. This is a tough blow to say the least for a team that has not had much go their way this season.
How Michigan basketball proceeds
Like it has been all season, there will be a next-man-up mentality for the Wolverines. Sophomore Will Tschetter has greatly improved this season after a somewhat lackluster freshman campaign. Despite this, Tschetter has only played the fourth most percentage minutes at the forward position. Tschetter is shooting a very strong 55.6 percent from 3. Looking optimistically, extended minutes for Tschetter can be a spark for the ninth-best offense in the Big Ten.
If there was a time to experiment for the future, it is now. The very unfortunate Nkamhoua injury does open up opportunities for younger guys to get some Big Ten experience. In a lost season for the Wolverines, the goal at hand should be to make sure that it is an outlier in what has been a great historical run for Michigan basketball.
The (8-18, 3-12 Big Ten) Michigan Wolverines will play their first game without Nkamhoua on the road tomorrow against the (18-8, 9-6 Big Ten) Northwestern Wildcats at 9:00 pm EST on FS1.
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