The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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APRIL 2021 THE WOLVERINE 19 day night in April, alluding to the national championship game. His players echoed those thoughts. Hail the conference championship, then go get an even bigger one. "This is only one step of the goal," graduate transfer point guard Mike Smith assured, following Michigan's title-clinching, 69-50, home blowout win over Michigan State. "Obviously, we're going to enjoy tonight. But the work's not finished." Within a week, the work became a whole lot harder. Senior forward and captain Isaiah Livers, a second-team All-Big Ten performer and a shooting stalwart, became a March casualty in the Big Ten Tournament. So did his team. Livers' stress fracture in his right foot didn't immediately break apart U-M's dreams. They still nailed down a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, with plenty of talent and high hopes remaining. But in the pre-tournament analysis by nearly everyone, Livers appearing in a walking boot may have kicked the Wolverines' MNIA (Monday Night In April) hopes to the curb. HITTING THE SLICK AT LUCAS OIL Michigan wanted to double down at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianap- olis. The No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, the Wolverines hoped to sweep three games, perhaps take revenge for a late-season loss to Il- linois, and remain in Indiana for this year's unique, one-state Big Dance. Instead, Livers' dancing shoes were replaced with the boot. His team stood over by the punch bowl during the conference title game, contemplating their punch to the gut. The senior first experienced dis- comfort in the foot all the way back at the end of December. It worsened somewhat in the loss to Illinois, then became unmanageable in Michi- gan's 79-66 win over Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals March 12. The rancor-filled contest — featur- ing Maryland head coach Mark Tur- geon screaming at Howard "Don't talk to me!" during a sideline dust- up, and Howard getting ejected for fiercely answering — featured a win- the-battle, lose-the-war scenario. The Wolverines ushered Maryland out of the building, but saw Livers limp off the court, sitting out the final 15 minutes. He didn't play at all in the semifinal contest, a 68-67 loss to Ohio State. The Buckeyes built a 63-50 lead with Livers cut out of action, but Michigan refused to given in. Led by freshman center Hunter Dickinson (21 points), the Wolverines furiously rallied back, putting themselves one make away from the Big Ten Tourna- ment championship contest. That make never arrived. Smith fired a step-back three- pointer just before the buzzer. It found rim, rather than creating a March Madness memory. "It hurts," Howard said. "It hurts when you lose. That's part of this game of basketball. At times, it can make you excited, but there's that other side. That other side, the loss column, it can sometimes bring you to your knees." The Wolverines took some solace in the fact that they didn't give in, even during one of their worst shoot- ing games of the season. The rally against the Buckeyes might repre- sent a microcosm of what Howard's team hopes to create in an extended NCAA run without Livers. "That was special, man," con- firmed Howard, who pointed to a Dickinson strip-and-score in those closing moments against OSU stand- out E.J. Liddell. "That's an example of big-time players make big-time plays in big-time moments," he added. "Hunter is a big-time player." The freshman is one of several such players on the Wolverines, ranking as the leading scorer (14.2 points per game) and rebounder (7.6) for the regular-season Big Ten champions. The question now becomes, can Dickinson, sophomore guard Franz Wagner — who suffered his first foul- out of the season against Ohio State — Smith, senior guard Eli Brooks and the host of players serving as next man up for Livers make a run? The Wolverines, one trophy in the case, intend to find out. THE HOWARD FACTOR Howard smiles when asked when the grind to the regular-season cham- pionship began in earnest. He har- kens all the way back to the early part of last summer, when the Wol- verines were just coming together. They were awaiting word on whether or not Livers would even return to Michigan. They had high hopes for their 7-1 freshman center, but no guarantee that he'd come to own the Big Ten Freshman of the Week Mike Smith on clinching the regular-season Big Ten title "This is only one step of the goal. Obviously, we're going to enjoy tonight. But the work's not finished." The Wolverines celebrated their first regular-season Big Ten title since 2014 after clinching with a 69-50 victory over archrival Michigan State March 4. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL