Michigan Wolverines Basketball: Howard Updates Injuries, Talks Northwestern
Michigan has two games this week it needs to win to feel comfortable about its NCAA Tournament standing, starting Wednesday at Northwestern. Junior Isaiah Livers’ return to the lineup was the spark U-M needed to handle Michigan State Sunday, and he’s expected to play this week.
Livers scored 14 points and played well on both ends against the Spartans.
“His recovery is going good. Yesterday he had some treatment, a little practice, and I got a good report that he’s feeling good today,” head coach Juwan Howard said. “So he’s going to practice today, we’ll manage his work load and hopefully tomorrow he’ll feel good and fresh to compete against Northwestern.”
Redshirt junior center Austin Davis, a pleasant surprise this season, hurt his shoulder in the first half of the MSU game but returned to provide some key minutes in the second half. He fought through most of practice yesterday and looked fine, Howard reported.
“But then towards the end of practice I could kind of tell he was grabbing it a little bit,” he said. “Hopefully he’ll be ready to go tomorrow. We want to continue to keep monitoring it day by day, see how it feels tomorrow.
“I’m staying on my knees every night and also thanking God every morning for good health, not only for myself and my family but obviously for others and then most importantly my players. We’ll see how it goes. Every team goes through it at some point of the season, and the season is pretty long. Basketball’s a very physical game. At times you can’t predict when an injury will happen. It just happens, and you hate when it happens to your team.”
Northwestern A “Competitive Team”
Northwestern has won only one Big Ten game this year, and that was at home against Nebraska, but Howard knows better than to look past the Wildcats. They’ve been in most games they’ve lost and had two of their last three on the ropes before falling.
“I see a very competitive team that has shown throughout the season its capable of putting together some wins, capable of playing hard from start to finish,” Howard said. “They’re also capable of making sure you can go home with a sad face, something we want to prevent from happening.
“I watched them play Purdue, another close game. At some point Northwestern was leading that ball game. Purdue was fortunate enough get a game winner. I watched Rutgers … Northwestern was leading in that game by a lot of points and lost a game in overtime. I also watched them vs. Ohio State, and they were leading in that game.”
He saw the same when they played Wisconsin, he added.
“It’s a scary team. We cannot afford to take anyone lightly,” Howard said. “We do not look at records of the ball club. We look at matchups, personnel, what can we do to compete at a high level from start to finish?”
Howard, a Chicago native, knows he’ll likely see many people he’ll know, and he’s already gotten requests for tickets.
“It’s not my first rodeo,” he said, noting he once had to get tickets for playoff games in Chicago when Michael Jordan was still with the Bulls. “Playing in the NBA, I know how to handle distractions.”
NOTES
• Davis DeJulius was the unsung hero against Michigan State, notching 10 points in 16 minutes and playing some inspired defense.
“David has been rock solid all year. Some would look at stats and say look at the points, how many points he scored. I don’t look at it from that point of view,” Howard said. “I look at it as far as what he’s doing out there on the floor to affect the team in any kind of way to give us the best chance to win.”
It starts in practice, he added.
“I recognize in practice each and every day that David has that approach that he comes in with the right attitude to work, improve. Just like yesterday, for example, we had a really good conversation,” he said. “He called me said, ‘hey coach …. let’s get ready for today. I’m all in. You can never second guess or think I’m not all in.’ I said, ‘David, not once have I guessed that.’”
---
• 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