Livers Recaps His Triumphant Return, U-M's Stifling Defensive Performance
There were several intriguing storylines surrounding the Michigan Wolverines’ 77-68 basketball win over Michigan State today, though junior forward Isaiah Livers’ return from injury may have taken the cake.
The junior had played in just one game (the Jan. 25 loss to Illinois) since injuring himself on Dec. 21, but turned in a very successful 14-point, four-rebound performance today, while also knocking down two of his five three-pointers.
“No, not with [head] Coach [Juwan] Howard,” Livers laughed when asked if he was on any kind of minute limitation today.
“He’s a winner. I don’t believe in that anyway because you can then be a liability if you’re only at 75 percent or so. Coach agreed with me on that one.
“Around the two-minute mark, I was tired and shot a shot I shouldn’t have taken, so I have to be smarter. I sat down and got some water during the media timeout, and felt good after that.”
U-M’s defensive play was noticeably better with Livers in the lineup, with the Maize and Blue putting on one of their best performances of the year on that side of the ball.
They held an MSU offense (which had ranked a respectable 70th in the nation in field goal percentage entering the game, connecting on 45.9 percent of their shots) to just 33 percent shooting from the floor, good for the Spartans’ worst showing of the year (they had connected on at least 39 percent of their attempts in every game but one this season).
Senior point guard Cassius Winston, in particular, was held in check primarily because of junior guard Eli Brooks' efforts, with the senior only hitting five of his 18 shots.
“A lot of people overlook Eli,” Livers exclaimed. “He’s a great defender and I hate it when he guards me in practice. He doesn’t give up angles, which is something his dad taught him at a young age.
“Eli almost had a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, and that’s great for a guard his size. Our guards did a much better job on Winston, and he didn’t have many angles.
“It was about the little stuff, like creating traffic and not letting him dribble once and then drive to the basket.”
“Winston is a great player and can pretty much do everything on the offensive end,” senior guard Zavier Simpson added.
“We wanted to contain him; we knew he was going to knock down some shots, but we wanted to have a next play mentality.”
“Coach did a good job of putting together a great game plan,” senior center Jon Teske chimed in. “We knew we had to contain the ball and force tough twos.
“We knew they were going to hit shots and go on runs, and understood it was about containing those. Coach Howard figured out how we could change things up after the last time we played them.
“We wanted to jump out and make Winston feel uncomfortable and second guess himself. Our guards fought through screens and it was really a full team effort.
“We’re taking more pride in getting stops lately, whether that be a hand/ball contest or a blockout on a rebound.”
While Simpson has made a name for himself for his defensive efforts (though that oftentimes hasn’t been the case this year), it was actually his play on the offensive side of the ball that was critical for Michigan today.
He was U-M’s leading scorer with 16 points and connected on four of his seven three-point attempts, with the former statistic standing as his season high.
“I wanted to come out and play confident,” the senior explained. “I watched a lot of film from last year’s game against them and the matchup earlier this year.
“I wanted to be confident in my shot today, and we also wanted to come out with a sense of urgency. We’ve been losing lately, but something different had to start sometime — it’s great to do it at home against an opponent like Michigan State.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our newsletter, The Wolverine Now
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook