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.

