Michigan basketball's Jaelin Llewellyn seeks to help off the court as he rehabs torn ACL

Jaelin Llewellyn had one final message for reporters as he signed off his most unwanted Zoom call on Tuesday afternoon.

"Croatia is getting it done today," the injured Michigan basketball point guard said, making his pick in Tuesday's World Cup semifinal with a smile.

"No way, man, Leo (Messi and Argentina) all the way," one reporter responded.

"Nope, Croatia is taking them down," he said, laughing. (Argentina later defeated Croatia, 3-0, to advance to the World Cup final for the first time since 2014.)

Minutes earlier, he had talked about his middle name, Blaze, and thanked his parents for giving him a "cool name" and went as far as to say he wishes he had gone by that nickname.

"I guess it's too late for that," he joked.

Llewellyn has done his best to keep his spirits high over the past 10 days since suffering an ACL tear in Michigan's 73-69 loss to Kentucky in London on Dec. 4, but the sadness in his eyes was apparent.

THE INJURY:Llewellyn suffers ACL injury, out for the rest of the season

THE REPLACEMENT:Dug McDaniel stars in first start, a 90-75 win at Minnesota

He wasn't meeting with the media to talk nicknames or soccer, though. Instead, the Zoom call was because — for the third time in as many years — his basketball career is on hold for an extended time.

Michigan was down by six points with less than eight minutes to play against the Wildcats in England when the transfer point guard from Princeton had the ball in his hand for the final time this season.

"It was late in the shot clock, I went to take a pull-up and felt something popped right when I planted," Llewellyn said. "I kind of knew right then what had happened, but it was definitely a shock factor, and painful as well."

The official diagnosis: torn ACL. His season, just eight games in? Officially over.

Llewellyn was averaging seven points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

Still, Llewellyn said he's going to lean on what he has learned in recent years to get through this process, because there have been hard times before.

He was at Princeton when the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the end of the 2019-20 season. The following season, the Ivy League was the lone Division I conference to cancel the entire 2020-21 season as well giving him more than 18 months between competitive games.

He told the Free Press in October that was the toughest stretch he'd ever gone through and now, he's at another crossroads.

"It's definitely challenging, because it's not what I wanted from this year," he said Tuesday. "I wanted to play the rest of the season with these guys. But I've been in a long rehab situation before, so I'll be able to bounce back"

That previous rehab came during the COVID shutdown, nearly as soon as he was able to play basketball again in Virginia. He suffered a torn Achilles in his first workout indoors. Although it didn't cost him a collegiate season, it slowed his growth in the game.

Now, Llewellyn is looking to grow in other ways.

"I think I can be the team's biggest supporter," he said Tuesday. "Even though I can't be on the court, I've played a bunch of college basketball, I can provide insight where I think I need to give input.

"Just telling guys what I see out there, because when you watch from the sideline you can notice more things sometimes, so just being as involved as I can be."

That involvement will likely include mentoring point guard Dug McDaniel. The freshman from Washington looked sharp in his first career start, a 90-75 Michigan win at Minnesota last week, with 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting (including making all three 3-pointers) and three steals to earn Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.

Llewellyn doesn't have an official surgert date set, but the first week of January appears likely. In the meantime, he said, he's focusing on strengthening his quads so he can begin his rehab with as much strength as possible.

"They've been all right, not too good, not too bad, just trying to get through the beginning stages," Llewellyn said of his mental state since the injury. "My teammates have been great supporting me, a lot of people have reached out and wished me well.

"It's just the beginning of it, but I'm hopeful to keep working through the rehab process."

Llewellyn passed up two separate chances to comment on his future. With only eight games played, he'll qualify for a medical redshirt. That's on top of the extra year he gained from the NCAA's COVID waiver, meaning he still has at least two years of eligibility remaining. But for now, he's focused on getting healthy.

"I'm not really sure yet," Llewellyn said. "I've said before, I'm taking things day by day because I've got a long road ahead of me, and I don't want to get too far ahead in the future."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball's Jaelin Llewellyn to be 'as involved as I can be'