{"id":5786,"date":"2026-07-14T06:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/l-j-cason-enters-transfer-portal-will-not-return-to-michigan\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T06:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:49:10","slug":"l-j-cason-enters-transfer-portal-will-not-return-to-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/l-j-cason-enters-transfer-portal-will-not-return-to-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"L.J. Cason enters transfer portal, will not return to Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the wake of Dusty May\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/dusty-may-leaving-michigan-for-dallas-mavericks\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/dusty-may-leaving-michigan-for-dallas-mavericks\/\">departure<\/a> from the Michigan men\u2019s basketball team, newly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/mike-boynton-jr-named-head-coach-of-michigan-mens-basketball-program\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/mike-boynton-jr-named-head-coach-of-michigan-mens-basketball-program\/\">appointed<\/a> Wolverines coach Mike Boynton Jr. almost managed to maintain his entire projected 2026-27 roster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JoeTipton\/status\/2076841442266300894\">reported<\/a> by Joe Tipton of On3 Sports Monday night, Wolverines guard L.J Cason is entering the transfer portal for his junior year. Cason becomes the first and only Michigan athlete to do so during the 15-day portal window granted upon Boynton\u2019s hiring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cason arrived in Ann Arbor following May\u2019s departure from FAU, where Cason was previously committed to begin his collegiate career. His debut came for Michigan in a clash against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/michigan-lights-up-the-scoreboard-101-53-in-opener-against-cleveland-state\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/michigan-lights-up-the-scoreboard-101-53-in-opener-against-cleveland-state\/\">Cleveland State<\/a>, a game in which he scored 14 points off the bench \u2014 a performance very telling of his career to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although he never started a game for the Wolverines, Cason grew comfortably into his role as a plugged-in offensive spark in all 58 of his appearances. He aided Michigan to a Big Ten Tournament championship in his freshman season, setting himself up for a much-expanded role in the eventual 2026 national-championship campaign.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cason\u2019s on-court contributions to the banners now hanging in Crisler Center were cut <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/l-j-cason-out-for-the-season-with-an-acl-tear\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/l-j-cason-out-for-the-season-with-an-acl-tear\/\">short<\/a> in a contest against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/no-3-michigan-plays-to-strengths-no-10-illinois-doesnt-in-84-70-big-ten-clinching-win\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/no-3-michigan-plays-to-strengths-no-10-illinois-doesnt-in-84-70-big-ten-clinching-win\/\">Illinois<\/a> in February, when he hit the deck hard near the end of the first half and tore his right ACL. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/l-j-cason-injury-leaves-questions-in-michigan-rotation\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/l-j-cason-injury-leaves-questions-in-michigan-rotation\/\">Prior<\/a> to the injury, Cason was averaging 8.4 points and 2.4 assists per game. Before going down against the Fighting Illini, Cason knocked in a 3-pointer, making it his ninth consecutive game with a field goal from downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps Cason\u2019s most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/l-j-cason-sparks-michigans-second-half-comeback-over-northwestern\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/l-j-cason-sparks-michigans-second-half-comeback-over-northwestern\/\">memorable<\/a> effort of the Wolverines\u2019 historic season was his career-high 18-point night that spearheaded an unlikely second-half comeback against Northwestern in February. Double-digit performances like the one in Evanston peppered Cason\u2019s stat sheet in what was shaping to be a breakout season before it was cut short.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s possible that Cason will use a medical redshirt for the upcoming 2026-27 season as he finishes recovery on his ACL, but what he was able to put on display before the injury will most likely be enough for a healthy amount of offers to come in regarding his future at the college level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cason quickly became a cornerstone of Michigan\u2019s offense off the bench last season, and he still has plenty of time left to make waves in a starting role. It just won\u2019t be as a Wolverine.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of Dusty May\u2019s departure from the Michigan men\u2019s basketball team, newly appointed Wolverines coach Mike Boynton Jr. almost managed to maintain his entire projected 2026-27 roster. First reported by Joe Tipton of On3 Sports Monday night, Wolverines guard L.J Cason is entering the transfer portal for his junior year. Cason becomes the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3790,541,3789,222,456,954,455],"class_list":["post-5786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cason","tag-enters","tag-l-j","tag-michigan","tag-portal","tag-return","tag-transfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5788,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5786\/revisions\/5788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}