There is a ton to cover today. Let's start with a weekend re-cap.
Michigan beats a feisty Maryland team on Friday afternoon. Michigan looked bad in the first half again, as slow starts have been common place for the Wolverines since the Ohio State game in Columbus. Juwan gets thrown out because Maryland's coach acts like that kid in Elementary school that always runs to the Principal office because someone threw the ball to hard at him at recess. Michigan plays well at the end of the first half and does enough to win the game in the 2nd. Mike Smith carries the Wolverines on offense.
Michigan Post-Game: As the story line was "what happened between the coaches" quickly moves to a rumor that Livers has a broken foot. Social media is blowing up and people are re-watching the game to see why he didn't play in the 2nd half and see if he limped off the court.
Prior to the OSU game: Michigan announces Livers is out indefinitely with a foot injury that needs time to heal. CBS reports Livers hurt his foot against Illinois.
A shorthanded Michigan plays hard against OSU but couldn't hit an outside shot and loses the game when a Mike Smith jumper hits the back of the rim. The Wolverines showed heart as they were down double digits in the 2nd half and could of laid down and gotten blown out.
Livers injury: Michigan fans went into the tournament worried about Brooks ankle. He played a ton of minutes this weekend and Livers didn't. I haven't had to second guess Juwan too often as Michigan coach, but the way the Wolverines handled his injury has me doing jsut that. I don't understand why Livers was playing after the first MSU game. He should have rested and tried to heal that injury. Here are his stats since the IU game: Illinois 7 points, MSU 9, MSU 9, and Maryland 0. He has clearly been struggling with the injury and needed to be resting in my opinion. This situation reminds me of LeVert and his final year at Michigan.
Michigan gets a #1 seed in the East. With Alabama, Texas, Florida State and LSU. Sounds like a good football match-ups.
Now what? Johns started on Saturday and maybe Chaundee will be in the future. Juwan likes to use Brown as a backup 2 guard. The issue is replacing his scoring. That has to come from 3 people, Brown, Smith, or Brooks. Johns can't do it. He can give you defense, rebounds, and few baskets in the paint. Michigan needs 16 a game from one of the 3 guys I mentioned.
The Livers injury is going to test this Michigan coaching staff and see if they can come up with an offense that has talent but guys that haven't shot the ball a ton this season. Franz also needs to shake this minor slump. He has to play like a lottery pick if they are going to make a long run. He needs to play like his brother did in the tournament!
- Michigan plays on Saturday at 3:00 @ Mackey Arena (Purdue)
- OSU's Washington is from Grand Rapids? Yikes would of been great to have him!
- Former Boilermaker Drew Brees retires.
2 comments:
. . . I haven't had to second guess Juwan too often as Michigan coach, but the way the Wolverines handled his injury has me doing just that.
I think that you also have to ask if and when Livers mentioned anything about his foot to the coaching staff. From what I have seen and heard of Juwan and his interactions with the players is that putting an injured player out there for the team's benefit is something that would never happen.
This is from an interview that Isaiah Livers had with Sam Webb over at WTKA on the Michigan Insiders show.
https://247sports.com/college/michigan/LongFormArticle/michigan-wolverines-basketball-ncaa-tournament-isaiah-livers-interview-transcript-sam-webb-wtka-1050-162458531/#162458531_9
ON WHETHER HIS INJURY WAS FEELING WORSE AS GAMES WENT ON OR DID HE REAGGRAVATE IT?
Maryland aggravated it. Rehabbed and just ignored it, foot soreness, whatever. You know how that goes. Played again, must’ve tweaked it. I don’t know when. My dad did mention, I forgot all about the Illinois game when I twisted it or did something to my foot. I didn’t even think about that. That could’ve been where it got reaggravated again. There’s a series obviously with practice, playing games still. That play against Maryland where people were talking about, in transition, definitely played into it. Honestly, I wasn’t 110% in warmups before the game. The transition play kind of made it worse and that’s when it made me really realize that I needed to sit my butt down and that I need to go get this looked at because this doesn’t feel right. In my head, I never had a stress fracture so playing with it, or whatever I was doing, I didn’t really know what was going on. I didn’t have that feeling. I thought it was bruised or whatever, foot soreness. That was definitely a key play to it.
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