The pregame availability report for Indiana vs. Michigan on Tuesday night has been made public by the Big Ten. Jakai Newton, a freshman guard for the Hoosiers, is still sidelined. Both sophomore guard CJ Gunn and senior guard Xavier Johnson are graded as doubtful. Given that Newton has missed the entire season due to a knee ailment, his designation was anticipated.
Johnson did not participate in Friday’s 65-53 Indiana victory over Maryland. His injury is related to the victory Indiana had over Wright State on November 16, when he seemed to injure his ankle
while attempting a steal. Johnson played through the injury despite being listed as questionable for the next three games. He iced his ankle on the bench during the second half of Indiana’s game against Harvard on November 26, although it looked like he had reaggravated it in the first half.
Freshman guard Gabe Cupps will probably start his second game of the season if Johnson is unable to play at Michigan on Tuesday. Gunn’s appearance on the injury report was unexpected because, despite playing 15 minutes against Maryland on Friday, he did not appear to be hurt during the contest. Gunn has came off the bench in all seven games this year, averaging 12.3
minutes for each match. In the event that he is unable to play on Friday, Cupps, Trey Galloway, Anthony Leal, Kaleb Banks, and Mackenzie Mgbako should see more playing time. Conversely, Michigan guard Jace Howard is not available. The names of those deemed suspicious include Olivier Nkamhoua, Jaelin Llewellyn, Nimari Burnett, and Tray Jackson. This year, Howard has not participated in any games.
This season, the eight Wolverines labelled as questionable for Tuesday’s game have all played. Burnett plays shooting guard, and Nkamhoua plays power forward. Both of them are starters
. Nkamhoua is Michigan’s second-leading scorer with 16.9 points per game, while Burnett ranks fourth on the team with 10.0 points per contest. This season, 6-foot-9 forward Jackson has averaged 6.4 points and 3.5 rebounds.
The 6-foot-2 guard Llwellyn played 10 minutes in his first game of the season on Saturday against Oregon. Eight games into the previous season, he tore his ACL while leading the team in scoring with 7.0 points per contest in eight starts. After starting all three years at Princeton and averaging 14.0 points per game, Llwellyn transferred to Michigan prior to the 2022–2023 season. Llwellyn should play, according to interim Michigan head coach Phil Martelli’s statement on Monday.
