The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1222671
APRIL 2020 THE WOLVERINE 19 At some point, Howard pushed the ultimate mo- tivational button with Livers. The head coach tapped into the junior 's abiding Chris- tian faith, asserting that "He" — the celestial He — "wouldn't challenge anyone He didn't think was ready." "When you have a belief that you believe in very strongly, it helps you get through the day," Liv- ers acknowledged. "It helps you wake up with a smile. It helps you go to bed with a smile. I can honestly say I can wake up and go to bed with a smile, even though it's not the best of circumstances that I want to be in or should be in." That stance got put to the test again, when the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments went away. Suddenly, his chance for a second season to make up for the injury-marred first evaporated. Livers, perhaps more than anyone on the team, stood ready to play. "I've got to play through it, espe- cially right now," he said before the cancellations. "It's win or go home. It's definitely something that I'm playing through, although I try not to show it, as much as possible. "I'm just going to be positive about it. Every day, just wake up and tell myself, I'm good, I'm okay. They said it was nothing that could be dam- aged any more. It's more just the range of recovery time." Livers' injuries proved costly, not only for Michigan's overall effort this season but for the junior 's bottom line. He wound up honorable men- tion All-Big Ten by the conference media, getting no recognition from the coaches. Meanwhile, the Wolverines fin- ished 10-10 in the Big Ten. That's no major black mark, given the depth and prowess of the conference. But it falls short of where the Wolverines likely would have been had Livers remained intact. Livers on his 2019-20 season "It's definitely the most challenging. I've never had the amount of injuries I've had this year in all my years of playing basketball."