Maurice Hurst’s NFL Draft 

Combine didn’t go the way he 
planned.

The former Michigan defensive 

tackle didn’t run the 40-yard dash 
or get on the bench press. He 
was held out of every drill due to 
an irregular electrocardiogram, 
which 
measures 
electrical 

activity in the heart. Despite 
being cleared from the same 

issue by the Wolverines, per NFL 
Network, Hurst’s draft stock has, 
at least temporarily, taken a hit. 

That much is out of his control. 

If Hurst is eventually cleared, 
as he expects, according to Kim 
Jones, the part he can control — 

his play on the field — makes him 
a first-round pick.

Hurst has elite get-off speed 

and a quick twitch from the line 
of scrimmage. His 6-foot-1 height 
ranks in the 17th percentile for 
incoming defensive tackles, his 
292-pound weight the 15th, per 
MockDraftable, but Hurst has 
turned it into an asset. He can fire 
off the line of scrimmage with 
gusto, consistently creating easy 
leverage that turns into pressure. 

Michigan 
defensive 

coordinator Don Brown utilized 
Hurst last season by consistently 
moving him around the line of 
scrimmage and stunting — having 
him start a play lining up over one 
gap, then moving to another after 
the ball was snapped. Hurst’s 
versatility is a major asset at the 
next level. Though I’d argue he 
fits best playing at 1-technique — 
shading the inside shoulder of the 
guard — you could easily get away 
with playing him at 3-technique, 
on the outside shoulder of the 
guard. Brown did both and got 
results, as well as lining Hurst 
up at nose tackle regularly and 
4i-technique on occasion.

Hurst’s run defense is a tad 

more refined than his pass 
rushing. Once he gets leverage, 
Hurst can easily control any 
blocker, putting in grade-A work 

with his hands and moving off 
linemen when the time comes. 
His most impressive plays on tape 
last year came when opponents 
ran inside zone, which calls for 
double-teaming interior linemen. 
Hurst often plowed through the 
double-team and stuffed the 
running back before he could get 
anywhere. That could change in 
the NFL, where the linemen are 
bigger and more precise with 
their blocks, falling off less often, 
but Hurst has still shown an 
uncanny ability to shed double 
teams throughout his career.

It’s hard to find a flaw in 

Hurst’s run defense. His size 
may give teams some pause as 
to whether he can fill space in 
the middle of the line the way a 
1-technique traditionally does. 
Compare him to 6-foot-5, 332-
pound Vita Vea — the likely top 
pick at defensive tackle — and 
that’s 
understandable. 
But 
it 

didn’t seem to matter on tape. 

Hurst’s speed allows him to 

make plays you rarely see from 
interior linemen. He can fly across 
the field to shut down a screen 
and has the sort of determination 
scouts love, never giving up on a 
play.

As a pass rusher, there’s some 

development left for Hurst. He 
consistently goes to the same tune 

— firing into the A or B-gap and 
hitting some poor unsuspecting 
guard with a swim move or hand-
swipe. That worked wonders 
for him in college. In the NFL, 
though, opposing linemen will be 
ready for it.

That doesn’t mean the swim 

move won’t work in the NFL. 
You could make a mixtape from 
the success Hurst had with it 
in college, and it’s completely 
unstoppable if the guard can’t 
shuffle to the gap quickly enough.

When Hurst did break out 

other moves, he had varied 
success. He could easily turn his 
bull rush into a weapon, but it isn’t 
there yet. Whether the bull rush 
develops will depend on whether 
Hurst learns to convert speed 
into power. Right now, it’s an area 
where being undersized makes 
a difference, as it’s tough for 
Hurst to create leverage rushing 
with the sheer force a bull rush 
requires. 

Hurst is going to have success 

in the NFL, assuming his medical 
situation gets sorted out. He 
should 
be 
an 
effective 
run 

defender almost immediately. Size 
will keep him from going too high 
in the first round, but if he turns 
out to be the best defensive tackle 
in this draft class, it shouldn’t be a 
surprise to anybody.

6A — Thursday, March 8, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Notebook: Livers OK after ankle injury, ‘M’ moving up in bracket projections

Asked about where he thinks 

Michigan deserves to be seeded, 
fifth-year senior forward Duncan 
Robinson instead summoned a 
different sport — with a much 
smaller ball — for comparison.

“There’s a week left, so there’s a 

lot of moving pieces still,” Robinson 
said after winning the Big Ten 
Tournament on Sunday evening. 
“But we’re in the clubhouse, I guess 
you could say.”

And if the No. 7 Michigan men’s 

basketball team is comfortably 
perched in the clubhouse, it is 
waiting anxiously as the rest of 
college hoops makes the turn down 
the back nine.

Sunday evening, the 68-team 

NCAA Tournament field will be 
unveiled, and the Wolverines will 
head back out on the course. And 
after a torrid run through the Big 
Ten Tournament last week, their 
stock is soaring in many bracket 
projections.

Joe Lunardi, ESPN’s leading 

bracketologist, has Michigan as 
a 3 seed in the East region. Jerry 
Palm of CBS Sports penciled in the 
Wolverines as a 4 seed in the South 
region. 

BracketMatrix.com 
— 
a 

website that compiles a total of 
102 different bracket projections 
— currently lists Michigan as the 
final No. 3 seed, with an average 
seeding of 3.22.

Michigan 
currently 
sits 
at 

13th in RPI with a 6-5 record in 
“Quadrant I” games — matchups 
against RPI top-25 teams at home, 
top-50 on neutral sites and top-75 
on the road. The quadrant system 
is a new criteria the committee is 
expected to utilize this season for 
the first time — a quantitative way 
to evaluate “good wins” and “bad 
losses” and place a weighted value 
on winning away from home.

Regardless of the seed line, 

though, the Wolverines will be a 
group any NCAA Tournament-
bound teams will hope to avoid in 
their bracket come Sunday evening.

“We have Michigan as a No. 3 

seed,” Sports Illustrated’s current 
bracket projection reads, “but 
even if they end up as a No. 4, or 
somehow a No. 5, they’re going to 
be a team no top seed will want to 
see in its region.”

Livers 
(ankle) 
expects 

to be ready for the NCAA 
Tournament

When freshman forward Isaiah 

Livers lay near midcourt just over a 
minute into the second half against 
Purdue, the worst-case scenario 
rushed to mind.

Cutting toward the ball to 

receive an inbounds pass, Livers 
stepped on the foot of Boilermaker 
forward Vincent Edwards and 
immediately fell to the ground, 
grabbing his left ankle, clearly in 
agonizing pain.

“I 
must 
have 
overstrided,” 

Livers said after the game, “and I 
stepped on his foot and pushed off.”

Livers made his way to the 

locker room shortly after, limping 

noticeably on his way down the 
tunnel.

The freshman first sprained his 

ankle in an early February loss at 
Northwestern. He returned eight 
days later against Iowa, missing 
only one game.

The trainers told him Sunday’s 

injury was similar to the one he 
suffered against the Wildcats, 
though he told reporters the pain 
was worse.

And while instant reactions 

seemed grim, it seems the injury 
is not as bad as it may have initially 
seemed. Livers came back to the 
bench midway through the second 
half, though he did not play the final 
19 minutes of the championship 
bout.

“I could (have gone back in),” 

Livers said. “Duncan (Robinson) 
was just playing good.”

After the game, Livers vowed 

to 
be 
ready 
for 
the NCAA 

Tournament. Aided by the extra 

week off, he will, at minimum, 
have 10 days to regain his health in 
preparation for the Tournament.

Livers took over as the starter 

at the ‘4’ in mid-January against 
Michigan 
State 
and 
hasn’t 

relinquished it since. While he 
remains the starter — and likely 
will the rest of the season, health 
permitting — due to his defensive 
capabilities 
and 
rebounding 

prowess, 
the 
freshman 
has 

increasingly ceded minutes to 
fifth-year senior Duncan Robinson. 
Robinson has eclipsed Livers’ 
total in minutes in all of the last 
12 games, including each Big Ten 
Tournament contest.

The case for Detroit
The third round of Michigan-

Michigan State might be slated for 
Sunday afternoon, just not on the 
court this time.

The 
Wolverines 
dispatched 

the Spartans in the Big Ten 
Tournament semifinal Saturday 

afternoon, completing the sweep of 
their in-state foe.

But with Detroit slated to be 

one of the first-round sites of the 
NCAA Tournament next weekend, 
the battle of the two résumés may 
determine who gets to trek tens 
of miles to Little Caesars Arena 
instead of hundreds or even 
thousands.

This year, the NCAA has 

re-emphasized 
a 
desire 
to 

accomodate teams and their most 
convenient travel situations.

Lunardi affirmed this in his 

Bracketology page FAQ.

“For the 16th time, the NCAA 

men’s basketball committee will 
not predetermine the regional 
designation of each of the eight 
sub-regional sites (what it calls 
the 
“pod” 
system),” 
Lunardi 

writes. “This gives the committee 
increased flexibility to reduce 
travel for teams and fans, as well 
as create more local interest at 

sub-regional sites that may not be 
traditional basketball areas. For 
example, the sub regional site in 
Pittsburgh could send its winners 
to Los Angeles (West Regional) 
instead of, say, the East Regional 
in Boston, if the committee thinks 
it makes more geographic sense for 
the teams involved.”

But given Xavier and Purdue’s 

proximity to Detroit as well, it 
may come down to Michigan 
and Michigan State for that final 
preferential spot.

The Wolverines, of course, 

have beaten the Spartans head-
to-head twice this season, both 
games away from Ann Arbor. They 
are currently 13th in RPI to the 
Spartans’ 15th, have six Quadrant 
I wins to the Spartans’ three, 
played the toughest schedule in 
the Big Ten this year to Spartans’ 
13th-ranked conference strength 
of schedule and, of course, won the 
Big Ten Tournament title.

But it’s not that simple. 
Most bracket projections still 

list Michigan State ahead — with 
that coveted spot in Detroit — for a 
few reasons. For one, the Spartans 
lost just four games all year en 
route to compiling a sparkling 
29-4 record and the regular 
season Big Ten title. Michigan 
State played a far tougher non-
conference schedule, including a 
more notable non-conference win 
over North Carolina, a team the 
Wolverines lost to handily. And to 
top it off, the Spartans haven’t lost 
a game outside Quadrant I all year. 
Michigan State’s marquee non-
conference win is better and they 
have no bad losses, in short.

All of this comes down to what 

the committee values and doesn’t, a 
fruitless task to even ponder. If they 
choose to look at the head-to-head 
matchups and/or RPI, Michigan 
will take precedent. If they want 
the more consistent team, it will be 
Michigan State.

But if you know how the 

selection committee will evaluate 
this — and every — decision, maybe 
you should stop focusing on college 
basketball and start playing the 
lottery.

ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer

Film study: If Hurst is healthy, he can be NFL star

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Former defensive tackle Maurice Hurst Jr. was one of the nation’s most productive defensive linemen this past season.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Freshman forward Isaiah Livers suffered an ankle injury for the second time this season in the Big Ten Tournament Championship against Purdue.

MAX MARCOVITCH

Daily Sports Editor