In four years at Michigan, 

Isaiah Livers has scored 987 points, 
collected 453 rebounds and assisted 
110 baskets. In 
the 
process, 

he’s won 94 
games, 
each 

one 
helping 

to 
earn 
the 

University 
hundreds 
of 

thousands 
of 

dollars 
from 

ticket 
sales, 

advertising 
revenue and TV deals. None of it has 
gone to Livers.

“I just feel like I’m being used a 

lot,” Livers, who wore a shirt with 
the hashtag #NotNCAAProperty 
throughout the NCAA Tournament, 
said in an interview with ESPN’s 
Rece Davis on March 24. “I feel 
like a university or the NCAA or 
a conference can make so much 
money off of one name, and the guy 
who’s putting all the work in to get 
to that point gets nothing out of it.” 

That much has been true for the 

last four years with Livers and of 
college athletes for decades. Even if 
Livers goes on to a successful NBA 
career and makes millions of dollars 
playing the sport professionally, 
he’ll still have been prevented from 

making the money he earned for 
four years. That’s bad enough in its 
own right. 

This week’s news made it 

even worse. On Friday, Michigan 
announced that Livers underwent 
successful surgery on his right foot 
after a stress fracture caused him to 
miss the entire NCAA Tournament. 
Buried in the press release was 
Livers’s timetable: “Recovery is 
expected to be a minimum of six 
months,” the statement said. 

For four years, Livers — unlike 

thousands of other college athletes 
— had a money-making light at the 
end of the tunnel. As an athletic 
forward with a 41.2% career 3-point 
shooting percentage, Livers was 
widely projected to be a second-
round NBA Draft pick a month ago. 

Now, few mock drafts predict 

Livers will be selected at all. One NBA 
executive said via text that Livers’s 
draft expectation was “all over the 
second round” before his injury. Now, 
according to the same executive, 
Livers is less likely to be drafted 
because of how long he’ll be out, 
though, it was added that Livers going 
“late second round (is) still in play.” 

Before the season, Livers said 

that the primary feedback he got 
from NBA teams in the pre-draft 
process last summer was to stay 

healthy. More important than any 
improvements in his play, he did 
exactly that for four months. 

Then, 
on 
the 
morning 
of 

Michigan’s Big Ten Tournament 
semifinal against Ohio State, it was 
announced that Livers had suffered 
a stress fracture, sidelining him 
indefinitely. If that had been the 
extent of Livers’s injury, it would’ve 
been sad enough — a senior, in his 
final college season, losing the event 

he’s worked toward for four seasons. 

With surgery required, Livers 

will now miss pre-draft workouts 
and the NBA Combine. He’ll 
also miss the Summer League 
and potentially the beginning of 
the regular season, reducing the 
likelihood he’ll find a Duncan 
Robinson path into making millions 
of dollars if he goes undrafted. 

The fragility of sports careers 

isn’t exclusive to college athletes. 

Every year, dozens of professional 
players have their careers derailed 
by injury. But at least they were able 
to make money while they were 
playing. Livers couldn’t. 

Right now, the Supreme Court 

is debating the legality of college 
players being unpaid by their 
schools. In Congress, Sen. Chris 
Murphy, D-Conn., introduced The 
College Athlete Economic Freedom 
Act earlier this year. If passed, it 
would allow players to profit off their 
name, image and likeness — a move 
the NCAA could also make on its 
own. 

Either solution would change 

college sports forever. A player 
like Livers would no longer spend 
four years unable to profit off the 
financial value that he provides to 
his school and to the NCAA. As a 
beloved athlete in a sports-crazed 
college town, Livers would have 
had no shortage of sponsorship 
opportunities. The same goes for 
his teammates, many of whom 
will never play in the NBA. 

Junior guard Adrien Nunez, for 

example, played just 3.2 minutes 
per game this year. But with over 
a million TikTok followers, he 
would probably have a chance to 
make more money than any other 
Wolverine. 

“It doesn’t even have to be 

about how good of a player you are 
compared to this other player and 
you’re getting paid just because you 
average 20 points a game,” Livers 
told ESPN. “Now, guys could focus 
on art, music, selling clothes. … 
We’re not just basketball players, 
we’re human beings too.” 

None of this is to say that there 

isn’t value in college sports. Livers 
needed his four years at Michigan to 
develop into an NBA prospect. But 
even a player like Gonzaga’s Jalen 
Suggs, who has used this season to 
jump from a low-lottery prospect to 
a consensus top-five pick, is being 
exploited by the NCAA.

Against UCLA on Saturday, 

Suggs hit a shot that the NCAA 
will use in advertising campaigns 
for generations. On CBS, 12 
million people watched along. If 
the NCAA would allow him to, 
Suggs could go back to Spokane 
on Tuesday morning and sign 
an advertising deal with every 
business in town.

Fortunately for Suggs, though, 

his multi-million-dollar payday is 
only a few months away. Thanks 
to an unfortunately-timed stress 
fracture, Isaiah Livers isn’t so lucky. 

With one rule change, it wouldn’t 

have to be this way.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, April 7, 2021 — 15

With a one-goal lead and two 

minutes left on the clock, the 
Michigan women’s soccer team 
prepared to defend a corner. Rutgers 
lined up in the box, leaving only one 
player forward, and the Wolverines 
assembled to protect their precious 
lead. The ball fluttered into the near 
post and bodies flew toward it. In 
the middle of the scrum, Scarlet 
Knights forward Nneka Moneme 
headed the ball into the back of the 
net. Tie game.

Neither team scored in overtime 

and the end result was a 1-1 tie 
between Michigan (5-3-3 Big Ten) 
and No. 24 Rutgers (6-2-3) after 
double overtime. 

The 
Wolverines’ 
offense 

operated 
smoothly 
during 
a 

scoreless first half. They easily 
passed 
through 
the 
Scarlet 

Knights’ press, especially from 
the back. The defensive line 
maintained 
their 
composure 

and found the passes needed to 
move the ball up the field. After 
passes from the defenders broke 
Rutgers’s first line of defense, the 
Michigan midfielders had plenty 
of space to turn and find the next 
pass, creating several scoring 
opportunities.

The Wolverines’ best chance 

came in the 17th minute after a 
throw-in 
combination 
between 

sophomore 
forward 
Danielle 

Wolfe and senior midfielder Nicki 
Hernandez gave the latter time for 
a shot that hit the far post. A few 
minutes later, Hernandez drove 
down the left flank and set up Wolfe 
with a chance just in front of goal, 
but a frantic block from Rutgers 

kept the score level at zero. 

In 
the 
second 
half, 
the 

Wolverines had more difficulty 
breaking down the Scarlet Knights’ 
defense. Rutgers marked players 
more closely, making it harder for 
Michigan to find space with the 
ball. However, in the 60th minute, 
after giving the ball away with poor 
first touch at the top of the box, 
Hernandez quickly won it back, 
spun to her left and scored.

“I 
figured 
out 
where 
the 

defenders were, and since they were 
both on one side, I could just do 
one move,” Hernandez said. “With 
the goal being wide open, I always 
love going far post, and luckily that 
worked.”

With a strong defensive effort 

through the first 60 minutes, 
Michigan looked likely to hold onto 
that lead. In addition to helping 
Michigan build out of the back, 
senior defender Alia Martin was 
crucial to keeping Rutgers contained 
with multiple clearances and tackles, 
constantly communicating to help 

the team keep their shape. 

“We’re 
continuing 
to 
try 

and improve on our defensive 
organization to make sure that we 
make it difficult for other teams 
and predictable for ourselves,” 
Michigan coach Jennifer Klein said. 
“We want to find our opportunities 
to regain the ball.”

But the defense started to show 

some cracks after the Wolverines 
took the lead, with senior goalkeeper 
Hillary Beall needing to make 
seven saves. Effective crosses from 
the Scarlet Knights threatened the 
back line, and in the end, Michigan 
conceded the tying goal off a corner 
with two minutes remaining. The 
game 
remained 
deadlocked 
in 

overtime, and after a dominant first-
half and an early second-half goal, 
Michigan had to settle for a tie in its 
last game of the regular season. 

“Unfortunate to give up a goal 

in the last little bit,” Klein said. 
“Hopefully it will be a learning 
experience for us now going into the 
postseason.”

MATTHEW CHANG

Daily Sports Writer

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Senior forward Isaiah Livers injured his foot during the Big Ten Tournament.

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily 

Michigan senior midfielder Nicki Hernandez scored in the 60th minute.

Throughout 
the 
Michigan 

men’s lacrosse team’s season, the 
Wolverines have often relied on 
only a few players for scoring. 

Sunday told a different story. 

Eight different players reached the 
back of the net, including hat tricks 
from sophomore attackman Josh 
Zawada and sophomore midfielder 
Jake Bonomi, making it an all-
around team effort, as Michigan 
(2-5 Big Ten) used strong second 
and third quarters to propel it to 
a 13-10 road victory over Johns 
Hopkins (2-5). 

The first quarter was evenly 

matched with both teams finding 
chances. Scoring came in spurts, 
including one 15-second stretch 
during which the Wolverines 
and Blue Jays combined for three 
goals. The game looked to be a 
back and forth scoring affair after 
a 3-2 Blue Jays first quarter lead. 

The first five minutes of the 

second quarter followed the same 
script, with each team scoring two 
goals. But Michigan took over the 
remainder of the quarter by scoring 
the next two goals while junior 
goaltender John Kiracofe made five 
of his 16 saves in the quarter. 

“I give John a lot of credit, 

he’s really grown into that role,” 
Michigan coach Kevin Conry 
said. “We always knew John had 
the talent and the intangibles. 
His leadership is why we went 
with him in the first place. And 
now you are starting to see the 
confidence kind of come out. He 
has worked incredibly hard to put 
himself in a position to be a high 
caliber goaltender, and he showed 
it today.” 

Going into halftime, Michigan 

led the Blue Jays 6-5. But with 
14 turnovers in the first half, the 
Wolverines wanted to reinforce 
their game slightly. 

“I give a lot of credit to Johns 

Hopkins as they were doing some 

nice things that they were able to get 
to our hands,” Conry said. 

Michigan’s halftime adjustments 

worked as it was very effective 
with the ball, committing just six 
turnovers in the second half as 
well as converting on all nine of 
its clearing attempts. In the third 
quarter, the Wolverines added three 
more goals to make for a 6-0 scoring 
run, resulting in a 9-5 Michigan 
lead. 

“The guys played not to lose, but 

to win,” Conry said. “When you 
start playing to win you just kind 
of feel the mojo. You snap the ball a 
little bit more and you run to space 
and so it was just more efficient.” 

Johns Hopkins settled in, going 

on a 5-2 scoring run to cut the 
Michigan lead to just one with four 
minutes left. But Michigan regained 
the momentum, scoring the final 
two goals to secure the victory. 

“(Junior attackman Bryce Clay) 

didn’t really show up in the stat 
sheet that much, but his ability to 
move off the ball was a big reason 
why Jake Bonomi gets open or 
(grad student midfielder Avery 
Meyers) gets a shot,” Conry said.“It 
is more about our unselfish play 
and how hard we work. I think at 
the first meeting, we felt offensively 
we were very stagnant, and I give 
(assistant coach Justin Turri) a lot 
of credit for getting these young 
kids to good spots where they are 
moving effectively.” 

Michigan hopes to learn from 

this win as it goes up against 
Maryland next weekend and looks 
to establish a winning streak. 

“The biggest thing is to learn 

from a win,” Conry said. “I think 
this young team’s handling of 
success is something that we haven’t 
been great at. Learn from a win.”

MARK PATRICK

For The Daily

Late equalizer leads to double-
overtime draws against Rutgers

Wolverines ride mid-game stretch 

in win over Johns Hopkins

SportsWednesday: Livers’s injury epitomizes need for NIL reform

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily 

Michigan junior goaltender John Kiracoffe protected the net in its win.

The Michigan football team’s 

underwhelming 
2020 
season 

didn’t 
sit 
well 
with 
senior 

linebacker Josh Ross.

Since arriving in Ann Arbor 

in 2017, Ross helped establish 
a 
winning 
program 
under 

coach 
Jim 
Harbaugh. 
He 

was an All-Big Ten selection 
when Michigan came within 
a game of the College Football 
Playoff in 2018, and he made 
three starts in 2019 before an 
injury sidelined him until the 
Wolverines’ New Year’s Six 
bowl appearance.

Then came the disastrous 2020 

season.

Ross was a senior captain 

on last fall’s 2-4 team that lost 
as a three-touchdown favorite 
against Michigan State, fell to 
Indiana for the first time in 
three decades, suffered its worst 
halftime deficit in Michigan 
Stadium 
history 
against 

Wisconsin and lost to an 0-5 

Penn State team by double digits. 
Before last year, the Wolverines 
had never finished a full season 
without a home win. That 
changed, too.

Ross wasn’t going to let his 

career end on that note.

“My decision on coming back, 

it was unfinished business. That 
was pretty obvious,” Ross told 
reports via Zoom on Thursday. 
“Last year was not good enough 
for myself, not good enough for 
our team. I felt I had to come 
back. I had to come back, and we 
had to prove something and have 
a chip on our shoulder and go get 
it. That was my main reason.

“I didn’t know what coaches 

we were getting yet. Before all 
that, of course it was a blessing to 
get the guys we have in the staff 
now, but at the same time, for me, 
coming back was about proving 
myself and proving ourselves as 
a team and getting better, just 
building our football knowledge 
and building everything cause 
last year wasn’t good enough.”

Ross is returning for a fifth 

year to try to prove that Michigan 

is better than its 2020 record. But 
after Harbaugh hired an almost 
entirely 
new 
defensive 
staff 

during the offseason, Ross now 
finds himself at the center of a 
schematic overhaul.

Gone are the days of former 

defensive 
coordinator 
Don 

Brown’s blitz-happy aggression. 
Harbaugh 
brought 
in 
Mike 

Macdonald from the Baltimore 
Ravens 
and 
Mo 
Linguist 

from the Dallas Cowboys as 
co-coordinators 
to 
replace 

Brown, signaling a shift toward 
an NFL-style defense.

To Ross, that change offers the 

chance to immediately improve a 
unit that allowed the third-most 
points in the Big Ten last season. 
It also presents an opportunity 
to build on a career that has seen 
him rack up 136 tackles across 35 
appearances.

“As far as myself, I feel like I 

haven’t really shown everything I 
can do yet,” Ross said. “But more 
so not about myself — as a team 
we haven’t shown what we can 
really do yet. This year is gonna 
be big for us.”

There’s no guarantee he’ll 

return to his 2018 All-Big Ten 
form after a dropoff in 2020, but 
Ross could become a centerpiece 
of the Wolverines’ defense this 

fall. Whether that translates 
to 
winning 
will 
ultimately 

determine if Ross is happy with 
his decision to return for a fifth 
year.

“Last year wasn’t good enough 

as a team,” Ross said. “It wasn’t. 
I felt that for myself a lot, so I 
had to come back. There was no 
option, to be honest, for me.”

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Editor

‘Last year wasn’t good enough’: Josh Ross return to Michigan to win

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily 

Michigan senior linebacker Josh Ross’s return to Ann Arbor was for one reason: winning.

THEO 
MACKIE