Isaiah Livers and the fate of the Michigan men’s basketball team

 Isaiah Livers shouldn’t have 
been in the game. In fact, for over 
half of it, he wasn’t. 
 But despite suffering anoth-
er injury in the second half, the 
Michigan men’s basketball team 
knew who it needed on the floor.
 The Wolverines were down by 
two points to Illinois with half a 
second and one chance, maybe, 
to pry a victory away from the 
Illini (15-5 overall, 7-2 Big Ten). A 
victory they desperately needed 
for both their record and con-
fidence. After all, this was sup-
posed to be the one.
 Livers was back. After initially 
suffering a groin injury on Dec. 
21 against Presbyterian, Livers 
missed six games and the re-
maining Wolverines lost four of 
those. Simply put, they were in 
freefall, and Livers was to be the 
massive inflatable mattress to 
catch their fall. 
 But freshman wing Franz Wag-
ner fumbled the pass. The clock 
drained out allowing the red 
LED lights to flash and obnox-
ious buzzer to sound and signal 
another bruising loss for Michi-
gan (11-8, 2-6), 64-62.
 Frustrated, saddened and per-
haps a bit defeated, sophomore 
guard David DeJulius then saun-
tered over to Livers and spoke a 
few words to him that were rat-
tling around his mind all game.
 “Thank you,” DeJulius said to 
Livers. “We appreciate you. 
We’re gonna have your back 
because we know you’re 
gonna have ours.”
 To the fans, Liv-
ers’ injury per-
haps just rep-
resents 
a 

broken 
s e a -

son. To the team, his injury rep-
resents a broken spirit.
 Livers is a core component of 
this basketball team and is often 
pegged as perpetually placing 
the team’s needs and desires be-
fore his own. After all, Livers is 
the guy who asked coach Juwan 
Howard to come back into the 
game to make the last-second in-
bounds pass after reinjuring his 
groin. He just wants to win.
 Perhaps that’s what got DeJu-
lius so emotional.
 “It just took the air out of us,” 
DeJulius said, holding back tears. 
“When you know got somebody 
who care about the game, and 
he’s a better person than he is a 
basketball player, to see him go 
down again is unfortunate.”
 The circumstances of Livers’ 
second injury make sense the 
more you think about it. Did the 
injury occur during a freak in-
stance where Livers was away 
from the action?
 Of course not.
 Early in the second half, Liv-
ers caught the ball in transi-
tion and rose for a monstrous 
dunk. The noise level grew 
in anticipation of the fero-
cious slam, but it never came. 
Livers was fouled by Illinois 
guard Da’Monte Williams 
and landed awkwardly.
 Running away from 
the 
basket, 

L i v e r s 

grabbed his left groin area to an 
audible groan from the crowd. 
The savior was bruised.
 It didn’t help that Livers was 
also playing great basketball. 
Aside from just being this amor-
phous force that could come 
back and resuscitate a strug-
gling offense, Livers entered 
the game and played valuable 
minutes, ending the game with a 
team-leading plus-minus rating 
of three.
 While Livers — along with the 
rest of the team — started the first 
half a bit slow, he really showed 
what he brings to the program in 
the second.
 The junior secured his fifth re-
bound early, shoring up defense 
in the post and bringing ener-
gy to the boards. Then, with 17 
minutes left to play, he caught 
the ball from senior guard Zavier 
Simpson, elevated and buried a 

3-pointer to 

t h u n -

der-

ous applause from Cris-
ler Center. He would 
finish 
with 
seven 

points and five boards.
 The forward was back, 
and he was cooking. 
The shot was a momen-
tum play, giving Michigan 
its first lead since early in 
the first half.
 Then, disaster struck.
 “When he went 
down, all of us were in 
tears for the guy,” De-
Julius said. “We know 
how bad he wants to be 
out there for his broth-
ers. That was tough for 
us to see that and then go 
out there and compete still.”
 Now with Livers’ timetable for 
return unclear, the rest of the 
team has to stare down the mon-
umental task of winning basket-
ball game without No. 2. A task 
they’ve faced — and failed atww 
— before. On top of that, they 
have to elevate their team-
mate 
who’s 
undoubtedly 

frustrated with his situation.
 “Because you worry about 
how he doin mentally,” De-
Julius said. “If we take a 
loss without him, that’s it, 
but I just want my brother 
to be in a position where 
he’s happy and in a com-
fortable place, 

and I know he’s in a dark place 

right now, and it’s just our job 

to pick him up.”

 With the support of his 

teammates and coach-
ing staff, Livers will 
undoubtedly make as 
speedy a recovery as 
possible, hoping that 
the team doesn’t 
continue to bleed 
out while he’s gone.
 Because if they do, 
the next time the 
name Isaiah Livers 
is announced to roar-
ing applause at Cris-
ler Center, the games 

might start to matter 

less and less.

JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Editor

Monday, January 27, 2020

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