The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 — 17

At 9:01 p.m. on Friday night, 

Chaundee Brown stood near 

halfcourt, dribbling out the 

waning seconds of the Michigan 

men’s basketball team’s decisive 

victory over Purdue in West 

Lafayette. 
His 
teammates 

danced on the sidelines behind 

him, serenading themselves with 

a chorus of cheers and high-fives. 

The final buzzer blared. Players 

and coaches bounced diagonally 

across the court, faces clad in 

smiles and disappeared one-by-

one up the tunnel. 

We don’t know when we’ll see 

them again. 

Saturday, news broke that 

all Michigan athletic teams 

would enter a two-week pause, 

beginning on Jan. 24, due to an 

influx of positive cases of the 

novel COVID-19 B.1.1.7 variant 

amongst 
several 
Michigan 

programs. At a minimum, the 

men’s basketball team will miss 

four games — against Penn State, 

Indiana, 
Northwestern 
and 

Michigan State. It could miss 

more. 

“We all just tell each other 

you gotta be grateful for every 

game we play because you 

never know, the next game can 

get canceled,” senior forward 

Isaiah Livers said on Dec. 

9, following Michigan’s win 

over Toledo. “Last year, the 

tournament stuff got taken 

away from us, so we just try 

to be grateful for each day. Be 

blessed, wake up, be excited to 

come to practice, be excited to 

see your brothers because that 

can all go away with three or 

four tests.” 

The 2020-21 college basketball 

season was always going to be 

like this. Making it through 

the schedule unscathed, with 

COVID-19 continuing to ravage 

the nation, would have required 

a near-miracle. 

Michigan now becomes the 

fourth Big Ten team to go on an 

extended pause, joining Penn 

State, Nebraska and Michigan 

State. Penn State went 18 days 

between games. Nebraska has 

been on hiatus since Jan. 10; 

Michigan State last played Jan. 

8. 

Michigan’s 
situation 
is 

unique. As of Saturday, the 

men’s basketball team didn’t 

have any active COVID-19 cases, 

according to David Jesse of the 

Detroit Free Press. Its pause is 

entirely preemptive, indicative 

of 
heightened 
concern 
over 

the novel B.1.1.7 strain, which 

is more contagious than other 

variants of the virus. 

“Health is always number 

one with me,” Michigan coach 

Juwan Howard said on Dec. 

9. “Basketball is last. And I’m 

speaking health as well as 

mental health. … Our guys are 

doing a phenomenal job of doing 

whatever they can — wearing 

their 
masks, 
washing 
their 

hands, staying away from social 

gatherings. They want to play 

basketball. They wanted to have 

a season.” 

In a best-case scenario, the 

Wolverines will return for their 

scheduled Feb. 11 contest with 

Illinois. Should that occur, 20 

days will have passed since 

Michigan last played a game. 

The earliest the team could even 

return to the court for practice is 

Feb. 7. 

The Wolverines previously 

endured a 12-day scheduling 

break 
between 
games 

in 
December, 
making 
a 

prolonged 
absence 
not 

entirely unprecedented. Still, 

unprecedented or not, a hiatus 

creates a new set of problems for 

a team that hasn’t looked like it 

had many.

“When you play a lot of games 

in a row, I feel like you kinda get 

into it a little bit,” sophomore 

forward Franz Wagner said on 

Dec. 23. “The practices before 

the games, the way you prepare. 

And now we didn’t have that 

playing rhythm … that’s the 

difficulty, maybe at the start of 

the game we’ll see that, maybe 

not. But you kinda get out of your 

rhythm if you don’t play for a 

couple days.” 

Again, this break is markedly 

different and all the more 

daunting. All Michigan athletic 

programs, 
men’s 
basketball 

including, are abiding to a strict 

quarantine: No drills, no weight 

room sessions, no scrimmages. 

The 
pause 
occurs 
at 
an 

inopportune 
time 
for 
the 

Wolverines, who climbed to No. 

4 in the nation in the most recent 

AP Poll. They sit alone atop the 

Big Ten — 1.5 games ahead of 

Iowa — and have obliterated 

their 
opponents, 
registering 

double-digit victories in seven 

of their last eight games. A 

conference title is not outside the 

realm of possibility, nor is a long 

run in the NCAA Tournament, 

provided it happens. 

Michigan has operated with 

an unspoken sense of urgency 

this 
season, 
COVID 
aside. 

Five of the eight prominent 

rotation players are seniors. 

Additionally, Wagner seems a 

good bet to enter the NBA Draft 

come May. This season posed 

as a final hurrah for a group 

largely in the twilight of their 

collegiate careers, a chance 

to atone for the crushing 

cancellations that truncated 

last season. 

COVID-19 
always 
ran 

opposite 
to 
those 
plans, 

ominously looming as a threat to 

upend them. Now, in the heart of 

the season, it has. 

Powerless, all Michigan can 

do is wait. 

The entire University of Michigan 

athletic department is on lockdown.

This 
comes 
after 
a 
Michigan 

Department of Health and Human 

Services 
recommendation 
Saturday 

that the University 

suspend 
athletic 

activities as a result 

of the introduction 

and ongoing spread 

of the newest B.1.1.7 

variant of COVID-19 

within the athletic 

department.

The variant — first 

discovered in the United Kingdom — is 

estimated to be around 40-70% more 

infectious than the current SARS-CoV-2 

strain that is COVID-19 as we know it. It 

was brought to Michigan (both the state 

and university) by a Michigan athlete 

traveling from the United Kingdom at 

the start of the winter semester.

Now, with all athletics suspended and 

the entire program subjected to a full 

14-day quarantine, questions arise about 

how this could have happened.

What it comes down to is exactly 

what’s being done right now — two entire 

weeks of isolation.

Currently, the United Kingdom is on 

the CDC’s list of countries with high 

risk travelers, and travel from the UK to 

the United States is prohibited — with a 

few exceptions. Included within those 

exceptions are F-1 student visas and US 

citizens returning to the states, one of 

which the U-M athlete almost certainly 

fell under.

Now, I’m not saying people should 

not be able to return home to the United 

States or that a student should not be 

able to visit their family in the UK and 

come back. That’s not what inherently 

caused the B.1.1.7 outbreak in the athletic 

department. Instead, it’s the inability to 

enforce quarantining on individuals.

The CDC requires a negative COVID-

19 test result one-to-three days prior 

to traveling back to the United States, 

and although that is a good procedure, 

it is the only enforceable step and not 

impervious to the transmission of the 

virus, as proven by the U-M athlete. The 

CDC recommends a 14-day quarantine, 

but at every level, it has no power to 

actually enforce it. 

A lot of the things CDC recommends 

during travel can only be enforced 

by the privately owned, for-profit 

operating airlines who wouldn’t do 

anything to discourage travel because 

they’re already struggling as is. And 

once a passenger lands, they can only 

be regulated by state protocols, which 

have a huge degree of variation from 

mandatory quarantine to not even 

requiring masks.

In Michigan? No travel restrictions. 

No required quarantine. 

At the University of Michigan, we 

can assume the athletic department 

requires a quarantine until a negative 

PCR test after arrival. Unfortunately, 

tests can come back negative despite 

the person being infected with the 

virus. For three to five days after being 

exposed, a PCR test can still turn up 

negative, meaning if a student athlete 

contracted it on any part of their 

journey back to Ann Arbor and tested 

negative up to five days later, it is not 

guaranteed they are virus-free.

But how much difference could a 

full 14-day required quarantine make? 

Honestly, quite a bit.

Just look at Australia, one of the 

more COVID-conscious countries with 

stringent policies:

“All 
international 
travelers 
are 

required to quarantine for 14 days at 

the first point of entry, unless they’re 

granted an exemption upon request,” 

per the Australian health department. 

“Quarantines 
take 
place 
in 
state-

designated facilities and fees depend 

on the state, ranging from $2500 for 

one adult in the Northern Territory 

to $3000 for one adult in New South 

Wales.”

This requires quarantine in a state 

facility, meaning it is truly mandated. 

And though it doesn’t account for the 

entire scope of reduced cases, the 

numbers speak volumes.

Per one million people, Australia has 

1,128.08 cases and 35.65 deaths. The 

United States has 74,868.97 cases and 

1,251 deaths per one million people. 

That’s 67 times the cases and 35 times 

the deaths after being adjusted for 

population.

Quarantining 
and 
other 
COVID 

protocols work, but we don’t have them 

in the state or majority of the country.

There was never a way to prevent 

the B.1.1.7 strain from coming to the 

US, and Michigan for that matter, with 

the current system we have in place. 

It’s unfortunate it came to Ann Arbor 

and is making its way through the 

athletic department, but it was almost 

inevitable.

Michigan 
followed 
all 
Big 
Ten 

protocols and violated no federal or 

state regulations, it’s just that none of 

them were — or are — enough. If the 

athletic department implemented its 

own 14-day mandated quarantine after 

the return, a system-wide pause could 

have been avoided with just one athlete 

taking a pause. 

Now, in a last ditch effort by the 

MDHHS to contain the B.1.1.7 variant, 

Michigan 
shut 
down 
the 
athletic 

department for 14 days. 

If the right regulations were in place 

and enforced, it never would have had to.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

A required quarantine period when traveling to Michigan could have prevented the 
athletic pause.

 One way or another, a two-week quarantine was necessary

Men’s swim and dive sends off 

Spartans in dual meet win

Implications of 14-day pause 
for the men’s basketball team

Before Friday night’s dual 

meet against rival Michigan 

State (0-1), Michigan coach Mike 

Bottom lectured his team about 

gladiators:

“We talked a little bit about 

in the amphitheaters when they 

used to battle man-on-man, the 

old warrior coming in and the 

new warrior coming in; the old 

warrior knowing that this is his 

last round, the young warrior’s 

going to beat him up,” Bottom 

said. “We talked about what that 

warrior would have said. What 

a true gladiator would have said 

was ‘Give me your best.’ ”

That story played a heavy hand 

in the No. 9 Michigan men’s swim 

and dive team’s (2-1) final regular 

season bout against the Spartans 

due to Michigan State cutting 

the program. During the meet, 

the Wolverines concentrated on 

honoring more than a century of 

competition with their in-state 

foe, focusing not on their 159-77 

victory but rather the meaning 

of the last meet against the 

Spartans.

“I think anybody that looks 

at the Michigan State program 

over the years has got to respect 

them,” Bottom said. “We’re far 

beyond selfish in understanding 

that we wouldn’t be where we are 

without Michigan State.”

That respect took centerstage 

as Michigan put its best efforts 

forth for Michigan State. While 

midseason dual meets can see 

lighter competition, the meet 

had the air of a championship 

grudge match.

For a program devastated by 

transfers, the Spartans came 

close to victory early in races. 

The thinness of their roster 

showed 
down 
the 
stretch, 

though, as Michigan swimmers 

took more commanding leads.

Michigan, in an effort to avoid 

running up the score against an 

undermanned opponent, chose 

not to score many of its racers, 

having them enter as exhibition 

instead. The Wolverines often 

only counted their victor in each 

event, all of which were won by 

Michigan.

“We want to make sure that 

we’re playing on a level playing 

field,” Bottom said. “And when 

Michigan State has lost some of 

their best because of the decisions 

of their administration, we want 

to be able to respect that.”

Winning 
the 
200-yard 

butterfly, junior Jared Daigle 

raced an event he hadn’t swam 

since he was 16. Michigan 

State’s Cristofer Gore pushed 

for victory, coming close to 

overtaking Daigle at the third 

turn 
but 
falling 
behind 
in 

one of Michigan State’s best 

performances of the night. 

Daigle also swam on the 

second-place team in the 400-

yard medley relay. The team that 

won that race included junior 

Will Chan and freshman James 

LeBuke, two swimmers who 

made a significant impact in the 

meet.

Winning the 50-yard freestyle 

and contributing to a victory 

in the 200-yard freestyle relay, 

LeBuke gave a sneak peak 

of Michigan’s future as the 

swimmer flexed his adjustment 

to American swimming.

“(LeBuke) is just getting his 

feet under him right now and 

learning,” Bottom said. “He’s not 

a yard swimmer. From Canada, 

he’s 
a 
meter 
swimmer. 
It’s 

important for him to learn how to 

swim in the short pool and enjoy 

his time here.”

While LeBuke gave Michigan 

a first glimpse at what he could 

do, Chan seemed to be one of 

the Wolverines’ best swimmers 

overall with a victory in the 200-

yard breaststroke.

“(Chan) has already made such 

a huge impact in his freshman 

and sophomore years,” Daigle 

said. “I think this year a lot of 

our breaststrokers … are going to 

have a huge breakout season.”

Michigan sophomore Danny 

Berlitz made the NCAA “B” 

cut in the 400-yard individual 

medley, meaning he can enter 

the 
NCAA 
Championship 

once all “A” cuts are in. Other 

swimmers came within striking 

distance of the cuts in their 

own races, including freshman 

Wyatt Davis and LeBuke.

The Wolverines may have 

vanquished the Spartans in the 

arena, but like the gladiators 

Bottom referenced, that did not 

affect their respect for their 

foes.

“I know all these last meets, 

everything they go to — their 

last home meet, their last away 

meet, their last time in the 

University of Michigan pool — 

it’s special for them,” Daigle 

said. “And it’s special for all the 

teams that came before them.”

Members of the Michigan 

team threw their full support 

behind their visiting rivals, 

chanting “Go green, go white” 

across the pool to close out the 

meet. The Spartans also brought 

masks emblazoned with “Save 

our Sport” for the Wolverines to 

wear.

“We 
told 
them 
to 
keep 

fighting at the end,” Daigle said. 

“We know they will.”

With its third meet under 

its belt, Michigan made key 

steps in its ability to hold leads. 

While the end to the in-state 

rivalry brings intense feelings of 

sorrow, the Wolverines seemed 

to leave it all in the pool for the 

Spartans.

CONNOR EAREGOOD

Daily Sports Writer

JARED GREENSPAN

Daily Sports Writer

BECCA MAHON/Daily

Junior Jared Daigle won the 200-yard butterfly and came in second on 
the 400-yard relay team.

JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily

The Michigan men’s basketball team had won seven of its last eight 
games prior to the shutdown by double figures.

NICK 
STOLL

