Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from crippling loss to Kentucky

The Wolverines played hard but wound up short against Kentucky in a nonconference matchup in London.

Juwan Howard’s bunch played stride for stride with Kentucky in the first 40 minutes. They kept it going in the second until Cason Wallace hit a late three that gave Kentucky a narrow win in London. It’s Michigan basketball’s second consecutive loss to a ranked team and third in its last five of the young season that is quickly getting away from them.

Here are the three takeaways.

1. Jaelin Llewellyn’s injury should be lengthy

It sure didn’t look good when he was laying on the court and wincing in pain. He’s had a rough transition to Michigan basketball so far and this just makes it worse. We won’t know the significance of the injury until coach Howard reveals it. He returned to the bench later with ice on his knee so maybe it won’t be as bad as it originally appeared.

Llewellyn has been criticized for how poorly he has been playing in 2022 and that’s fair to mention. He’s only averaging 7 a contest and went over the double-digit mark in scoring just twice this year. This will prolong his transition and force freshman Dug McDaniel into the starting lineup. Who will back him up at point guard will become a major concern now.

Some folks have been clamoring for McDaniel to start anyways to see if he can fair any better than Llewellyn has. They’ll get exactly what they want for the young man. To his credit, he has had some moments that he has shown that he can succeed, but he has also provided some that show he is still just a freshman and makes awful mistakes.