Michigan basketball just lost one of the best players in the country before he ever played a real game for them. Brandon McCoy, a top-20 national recruit who was supposed to walk into Ann Arbor and start immediately, tore his ACL last week during an exhibition game in Croatia and is done for the 2026-27 season.
NEWS: Michigan star freshman Brandon McCoy will miss the season with "an ACL injury," the school announced today. The injury occurred in an exhibition game in Croatia last week. He was a Top 20 ranked player in ESPN's rankings and projected to have a huge impact at Michigan this year
Pete Thamel broke the news that the school confirmed the ACL tear, and the details of how it happened make it sting even more. According to multiple reports, McCoy exited the game against Mega Superbet after just 20 seconds. He'd already come away with a steal on Michigan's first possession, then slipped while driving to the basket in transition and had to be carried off the court.
This wasn't a guy struggling to find his footing overseas, either. McCoy was cooking in Michigan's first two exhibition stops in Lithuania, averaging 14.5 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals a game before the injury, per CBS Sports. He was a 5-star, ranked as high as No. 3 overall in the 2026 class by Rivals and No. 11 by 247Sports, with ESPN projecting him as a first-round pick in the 2027 NBA Draft. This wasn't a project. This was a guy expected to start day one.
The timing couldn't be worse for Michigan. The Wolverines are the defending national champions, but they lost 3 NBA lottery picks off that title team and are breaking in a new head coach in Mike Boynton Jr. after Dusty May left to take the Dallas Mavericks job. McCoy was penciled in to start in the backcourt alongside Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney, and now that plan is gone before the season tips off.
Michigan's options to fill the gap are limited and uncertain. Per CBS Sports, the Wolverines may lean on the eligibility status of guard Roddy Gayle Jr. to help soften the blow, but that's a hope, not a plan. Defending a title is hard enough without your most hyped freshman going down in a glorified scrimmage 4,000 miles from home.
For McCoy, the focus now shifts entirely to rehab and a return in 2027-28. Freak, early injuries like this one have derailed plenty of promising college careers, but they've also been the starting point for plenty of comeback stories. Either way, Michigan basketball just got a lot harder to figure out.