14 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan bests Nebraska in
first meet after pause
Livers at forefront of Michigan’s success
The instant that junior Natalie
Wojcik powerfully stuck the
landing of her dismount from
the balance beam, Michigan
gymnastics coach Bev Plocki’s
arms both shot like rockets into
the air with palms open and
fingers spread.
A perfect 10, she visually
proclaimed for all to see.
“She is so beautiful in that
event, and we have judged her at
a 10 so many times in practice,”
Plocki said. “And it’s so amazing
to see her put together that
routine. When she stuck the
dismount, she didn’t give the
judges any opportunity to take
anything. So I knew that it had to
be a 10.”
The judges table did not
disappoint and awarded Wojcik
with a full 10 points, adding the
exclamation point to a dominant
win for the No. 8 Wolverines over
Nebraska on Monday afternoon.
Michigan’s 197.650 to 195.300
win was expected, but it also
answered a lot of open questions
regarding the Wolverines’ form
following the University’s 14-day
practice pause and the team’s
24-day break from competition.
Michigan
impressed
many
with a win over then-No. 4
Minnesota on Jan. 22, but a multi-
week stoppage posed to halt its
momentum.
The Wolverines made sure
they picked up where they left off.
“I give a lot of credit to our
captains and the athletes, they’re
very motivated,” Plocki said. “We
have tried very hard to focus on the
things that we’re grateful for. And
we’re grateful for the opportunity
to have the support resources that
we did to help us and guide us
with some of our conditioning and
our to help our bodies (while we
couldn’t be together). And when
we came back, we were able to put
together a practice plan to ease
them back into normal routines
and just tried to build a lot of
confidence and remind them how
good they are and what they’re
capable of doing.”
Michigan came out strong and
never looked back, winning each
round, convincingly.
***
The meet began with Michigan
on vault and Nebraska on bars.
Every Wolverine who vaulted
earned a score of at least 9.800,
with Wojcik and junior Abby
Brenner earning high scores of
9.875 and 9.900, respectively.
Meanwhile,
the
Cornhuskers
struggled on the bars with only
junior Kynsee Roby earning
above a 9.775.
Michigan
ended
the
first
round with a lead of 49.375 to
48.900, and the margin only grew
from there.
Nebraska’s scores improved on
the vault as the teams swapped
events
in
round
two
with
freshman Danielle Press earning
a noteworthy 9.875, but twin
9.900’s from Brenner and Wojcik
on the bars served to quell any
thoughts of a comeback.
This
trend
continued
in
the third round, when Wojcik
earned her 10.000 on the beam,
effectively ending the match
before the final round even
began.
“I have been working to earn
the perfect 10 for such a long time
now, and I’m so happy to have
made that happen,” Wojcik said.
“The best part of it, by far, was
seeing my teammates jumping
up and down after I finished my
routine and getting to celebrate it
with them.”
Wojcik’s
words
are
very
fitting in a match that was
a celebration of team unity.
Monday was the Wolverines’
annual “Flip for Chip” meet,
which sees the team honor the
late father of former Michigan
gymnast Cailee Hills.
“Chip Hills really is the root
of our positive mindsets, our
resilience
and
confidence,”
sophomore Gabby Wilson said.
“And so really being able to
channel his energy, even though
he isn’t with us, just being able to
carry that and continue that for
generations at Michigan is super
important and was continued
tonight.”
There is perhaps no meet
where the attitude the Wolverines
take from Hills’s legacy could be
more appropriate.
Coming
off
less-than-ideal
circumstances in which some
worried about rust, Michigan
responded with a perfect 10.000
and an event sweep — a textbook
display of resilience.
Isaiah Livers knew it would happen.
The Michigan men’s basketball team
had gone 23 days between games
and two weeks without so much as
touching a basketball. Inevitably,
when the Wolverines returned, the
discourse would revolve around any
alleged rust.
So, Livers took the initiative to
try to avoid any side effects of the
prolonged break.
“That’s why I was outside, doing
jump
ropes,
doing
everything
necessary to stay in shape,” the senior
forward said. “A lot of other guys
were too. We had a program, we all
stayed true to it. … We didn’t want to
have any built-in excuses.”
In
Sunday’s
emphatic
67-59
comeback victory against Wisconsin,
those efforts paid dividends with
Livers setting the tone. Through the
first 20 minutes, the team’s rust was
evident. Michigan looked the part of
a team that last played on Jan. 22, its
first half performance littered with
mental errors, poor shot selection and
jellied legs. Livers, though, did what
he could to help keep the Wolverines
afloat, scoring 13 of Michigan’s 27 first
half points.
“I knew I was gonna come out and
be aggressive cause I wanted to keep
in that rhythm,” Livers said. “But
other than that, I just wanted to lead
my team.”
He did exactly that. By the time
the final buzzer blared, Livers had
contributed a game-high 20 points
on 8-of-16 from the field and 4-of-7
from beyond the arc. He added seven
rebounds and finished as a plus-11,
the second-highest mark on the team.
At this point, 111 games and 91
wins into what is fast becoming an
illustrious collegiate career, this
level of play has become routine for
Livers. He has notched 20 points in
three consecutive games and scored
double-figures in seven straight.
Ho-hum.
“We keep it simple,” Wolverines’
coach Juwan Howard said of his
team’s offensive strategy against the
Badgers. “We kept it simple. Simple
plays.”
No one embodies that philosophy
more so than Livers. Livers’s points
come within the flow of the game.
Rarely does he force up an ill-advised
shot or hoard the ball on an isolation.
On a Michigan offense overflowing
with talent, Livers has found the
perfect balance.
“I took advantage of that tonight,”
Livers said. “I was just doing with
what the system tells me to do. Coach
Howard puts me in a spot to score, I
go score the ball. If not, then I try to
create for someone else, create so they
can get a shot, get a drive.”
Livers has made drastic strides
to his offensive game since the
COVID-19 pandemic cut his junior
campaign short. He has increased his
production while also sharpening his
efficiency. Last year, Livers averaged
12.9 points per game on 9.9 shot
attempts. This year, he’s scoring 15.1
points per game on 10.5 attempts. He
is shooting 49% from the field and a
lethal 46% from deep, compared to
45% and 40% last season.
Livers’s refined repertoire also
features a blend of jump shots
and points in the paint. When the
Wolverines stared down a 12-point
halftime deficit on Sunday, Livers
recognized that he needed to
emphasize the latter.
“They were the most aggressive
team in the first half,” Livers said.
“We had to come back out in the
second half, we had to drive them. I
thought we settled for a lot of shots.
We got to the basket more in the
second half and that kind of changed
momentum.”
It’s no coincidence, then, that Livers
notched the first basket of the second
half on an off-ball cut, slicing down the
lane and receiving a pass in stride for
an easy lay-in. Livers treated the layoff
as a quasi-All Star Break, using the
time to look in the mirror. He poured
over reams of film, re-evaluating his
performance and searching for ways
to improve alongside assistant coach
Saddi Washington.
“Just kind of tips and advice,
opinions so when I get back, I can
just add it to my game,” Livers said
on Friday. “I want to help my team
as best as possible, especially in the
future.”
One area for potential improvement
that Livers and Washington found
was on the glass. Though Livers is
averaging a career-high 6.1 rebounds
per game — up from 4.0 last year — he
aspired for more.
Against Wisconsin, the 6-foot-
7 Livers grabbed seven rebounds,
besting a stout Badgers frontcourt of
6-foot-11 Nate Reuvers and 6-foot-10
Micah Potter. The duo combine for
nearly 10 rebounds a game, yet neither
managed to grab a rebound on Sunday.
After the game, much was made in
the press conference about the team’s
turnaround and freshman center
Hunter Dickinson’s latest 15-rebound,
five-block spectacle. There was little
mention of Livers. But perhaps that’s
the point. For Livers, at this stage in
his career, this is just another day at
the office.
And as the Wolverines continue
to assert themselves as bona fide
championship contenders, they can
rely on Livers to lead the way.
JACOB COHEN
Daily Sports Writer
JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Writer
BECCA MAHON/Daily
Natalie Wojcik’s perfect 10 was the highlight of the Wolverines dominant win over the Cornhuskers.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Isaiah Livers’s consistency has played a pivotal role in Michigan’s success this season.
In comeback win, Michigan shows its championship mettle
MADISON — Shutdowns in college bas-
ketball may be a temporary phenomenon, but
enough of them have happened by now for an
expectation to form. Teams come out lacking
offensive
sharpness.
Their shooting touch is
gone. Defensively, they
miss assignments. After
all, no one has ever pre-
scribed sitting locked in
an apartment for 14 days
as an effective midsea-
son practice strategy.
And for the open-
ing 20 minutes Sunday
afternoon at the Kohl Center, Michigan was
no exception. In the first half, the Wolverines
shot an anemic 34.4% from the field. Their
offensive strategy seemed to consist of passing
the ball around for 20 seconds and then letting
someone play hero ball. Only senior forward
Isaiah Livers was remotely effective in the
role. On defense, they made Wisconsin look
like the antithesis of the team that lost, 77-54,
in Ann Arbor a month ago.
To put it simply, Michigan looked pret-
ty normal. Losing on the road to a top-25
team after not playing a game in 23 days
isn’t a crime. Clemson — an excellent, 13-5
team — lost its first three games after its
COVID-19 outbreak by an average of 24
points. 12-4 Oregon lost its first two games
back to a pair of teams that rank outside of
the top 100 in KenPom’s adjusted efficien-
cy metric.
But this Michigan team isn’t normal. It’s a
national championship contender. Anything
less than a Final Four appearance would be
a disappointment. That’s the statement the
Wolverines made Sunday afternoon.
“I’m grateful, I’m blessed to be on a team
like this,” Livers said. “Coach (Juwan) How-
ard kinda touched on it, he talked about how
it’s just special to have guys who go on a pause
and then come back, go on the road to Wis-
consin, who’s playing great right now, and just
be locked in and be together. I think we’re the
most connected team.”
A month ago, it was Livers who called
this iteration of Michigan his “favorite” that
he’s been a part of. Livers, if you’ve lost track,
was on the team that finished as national
runner-up in 2018. A year later, he and the
Wolverines started 17-0 — the best mark in
program history.
So when Livers, of all people, says this team
is special, you listen.
You listen and then you watch. You
watch them outscore Wisconsin by 20 in
the second half. You watch them identi-
fy their issues in the space of a 15-minute
halftime break and come out an entirely
different team. You watch them in a situ-
ation they’ve seldom been in — tied with
five minutes to go — and handle it like it’s
a weekly occurrence.
Through it all, you realize you’re watching
a team answer the one question it hadn’t been
asked: How well does it handle adversity?
“Winning a game like this on the road does
a lot,” Howard said. “It says a lot about the
character of this group.”
More importantly, it says a lot about its
March credentials. From here on out, adver-
sity is inescapable. On the schedule in the last
five games of the season are No. 4 Ohio State
and No. 15 Iowa. Last week’s cancellation
against No. 6 Illinois will likely be resched-
uled, too. All three are in the KenPom top 10.
After that comes the small matter of the
NCAA Tournament. Only one team in the
past decade has won a national championship
without a single-digit scare in the dance.
On Sunday, Michigan proved that such
nerve-wracking games won’t phase it.
“I think this was a great experience for us,”
freshman center Hunter Dickinson said. “We
haven’t had too many close games, usually
they’re 10 points or more. I think this will be
really beneficial to us at the postseason when
the games are not as separated in points.”
So no, Michigan still hasn’t played a top-10
adjusted efficiency team. And yes, its three
biggest challenges of the regular season may
lie ahead. But what it has done is overcome a
situation it hadn’t faced all season. And that’s
enough to call these Wolverines national
championship contenders.
Mackie can be reached at tmackie@umich.
edu or on Twitter @theo_mackie.
THEO
MACKIE
LUKE HALE/Daily
By defeating Wisconsin on the road after a 23-day break, Michigan solidified itself as a championship contender.