isaiah livers is a next-level just a shooter

Michigan looked every bit of a team coming off a three-week layoff. They fell behind by 14 points at the infamous Kohl Center. Eli Brooks had one of the worst games of his career. Hunter Dickinson made 33% of his shots. Isaiah Livers missed a free throw. Chaundee Brown scored one point. Brandon Johns barely saw the floor.

The Wolverines won.

Even as the rest of the team got off to a shaky start, Livers came out hot and never cooled off, leading all scorers with 20 points and going 4/7 from beyond the arc. Wisconsin had a scorching start all around, drilling 5/7 threes in the first half—Aleem Ford hit three of those and made all five of his attempts from the field. Michigan's offense looked ragged, missing a series of midrangers they don't normally take at such high volume, while the defense had some uncharacteristic breakdowns to open up the perimeter.

On the final play of the half, the Badgers blew up Michigan's initial set out of a timeout. Livers created something out of nothing with a pullup 18-footer to beat the horn. That basket cut the Wolverine deficit to 12 points, and it was easy to see a similarly rough second half leading to an understandable, unpleasant loss.

Instead, Michigan opened the second half with a gorgeous set that led to a Livers layup. Juwan Howard found a way to make the points come easier on that play and he also made adjustments to stymie the Badgers on the other end. The Wolverines started switching on screens and trusting their defenders to hold up on cross-matches; they did so spectacularly, particularly Dickinson, who recorded five blocks and stopped multiple forays to the rim by point guard D'Mitrik Trice, who went 1/5 from the field in the half.

As the defense held strong, the scoring came around. Franz Wagner scored ten of his 14 points in the half with some strong finishing around the hoop and a couple timely triples. Livers kept up his scoring. Austin Davis had a patented four-point burst in five minutes, going to work on Micah Potter in the paint. Dickinson was a monster on the boards, pulling down four offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive and grabbing seven on the defensive end—again, just in the second half!—to make sure the Badgers went one-and-done.

Potter and Nate Reuvers, the two Wisconsin centers, combined for zero total rebounds in the game. While Dickinson didn't have his best scoring output, his rebounding and defense changed the game, and his 5/6 mark on free throws also proved critical. Brooks made only 2/11 field goals but also was money down the stretch, helping ice the game with his own 5/6 mark from the charity stripe, and his defense was outstanding, as usual.

Michigan was given every reason to accept a moral victory. They didn't have it going early in a tough place to play, allowed a big run, and had a built-in excuse for the performance. Instead, they won the second half 40-20, chipping away at Wisconsin until they cracked. Given the circumstances, there haven't been many more impressive victories in recent memory, and this program hasn't been short on recent impressive victories.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]

Michigan never trailed in a dominant performance at Mackey Arena, ending Purdue's four-game winning streak and cementing their hold on first place in the Big Ten.

Let's hope the victory doesn't come at a cost. This game never should've been played. Less than two hours prior to tipoff, Purdue's official men's basketball account tweeted a "Roster Note" that Sasha Stefanovic, who played in Tuesday evening's game against Ohio State, would sit out the next three games after testing positive for COVID-19. The Boilermakers would play, however, and their communications guy was so "VERY confident" in the team's protocols that he tweeted such while locking the responses. This passed as protocol, evidently:

Some further info on Michigan-Purdue going forward.

A Purdue official says the school is confident Sasha Stefanovic's positive test is an isolated incident with limited spread and it's been almost 67 hours since anyone had contact with Stefanovic (Tuesday, 11 pm).

— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) January 22, 2021

Sasha Stefanovic to miss 17 days/3 @BoilerBall games due to testing positive for COVID-19. Reason Boilers aren't on pause? Purdue says extensive protocols followed: no cumulative 15 minutes of contact, masks everywhere, no eating on bus/planes, everyone own room, daily testing.

— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) January 22, 2021

The Big Ten didn't step in. The game went on as scheduled. I hope they get away with taking this needless risk. That's what it was, though: needless.

As for the basketball itself, the two most heralded Wolverines combined to shoot 5-for-17 from the field, both true centers battled foul trouble against a team with a 7'4 backup, and only two M players finished in double figures. I deign to point out the officiating could easily be described as one-sided towards the home team. Yet this game was never particularly close.

a more literal floater than most [Campredon]

While Hunter Dickinson and Franz Wagner never got their offense going, Isaiah Livers was on the mark from the outset, finishing with a game-high 22 points on 17 shooting possessions. Livers crammed the rest of the box score with ten rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and only one turnover in one of his best all-around games of the season. Eli Brooks added 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting with some tough finishes around the basket.

Michigan's stout defense held the Boilermakers to their lowest point total of the season, which made effective secondary scoring somewhat unnecessary; Purdue also had only two double-digit scorers. Star center Trevion Williams needed 21 shooting possessions to tally 14 points. Guard Jaden Ivey was even less efficient in his first start replacing Stefanovic, going a wild 3-for-14 from the field but getting to the line for half of his dozen points. As a team, Purdue shot 20-for-65 with 11 assists and 14 turnovers.

well contested [Campredon]

Sticky perimeter defense and solid contributions from Austin Davis (six points, 3/6 FG) and Brandon Johns (four points, an offensive rebound, an assist, and a steal) helped weather early foul trouble by Dickinson. Juwan Howard even got some solid first-half minutes with Terrance Williams playing next to Johns and, for a brief stretch, using him next to Wagner with the latter defending Trevion Williams in the post. The Boilermakers rarely got all the way to the basket, got a clean look at the rim even less often, and couldn't hit their jumpers.

Thus, another blowout in another fashion. Michigan heads into the weekend 13-1 overall and 8-1 in the Big Ten, 1.5 games clear of Iowa and Wisconsin, which are tied for second at 6-2. They've won every game they've played with all their starters and every victory since Christmas has been by at least 11 points.

The upcoming round of COVID tests may be all that can stop this team. At full strength, they've been amazing. I hope the so-called adults in charge of all this don't ruin it by ignoring the lessons we should all have learned in the ten months we've dealt with this pandemic up close.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]

Previously: Preseason Hoops Mailbag, The Story, Big Ten Roundtable Parts One and Two, Schedule Release, Guards

This is where the roster starts to get fascinating. Michigan features four experienced, versatile wing-type players (one of whom, Brandon Johns, will be covered with the bigs) who could all conceivably slot their way into the starting lineup; there's also a chance two of them come off the bench.

One of them, Isaiah Livers, nearly departed for the NBA Draft before coming back to play his senior year. He's not even the headliner, at least around these parts.

#21 Franz Wagner

Year: Sophomore
Height/Weight: 6'9/220
Key Counting Stats: 30.7 MPG, 11.6 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.5 TOPG, 1.3 SPG, 0.6 BPG, 61%/31%/83% (2P/3P/FT)
Key Advanced Stats: 18.5% usage, 16.8 DR%, 5.9 assist rate, 15.0 TO rate

Wagner is the player most likely to be responsible for taking this team from good to great, should they reach that level. He finished in a three-way tie for the fourth spot on the unofficial Big Ten media poll's all-conference first team. No other Wolverine received a vote.

There are a number of reasons to be bullish on Wagner's outlook. He shot over 60% on two-pointers both on the whole season and in Big Ten play. Only 14 freshmen in Bart Torvik's database (which dates back to 2007-08) have cracked 60% on twos in Big Ten games (min. 50 attempts); almost all were high-level college players and several were NBA prospects, including Cody Zeller, Glenn Robinson III, Kaleb Wesson, Jaren Jackson Jr., Sam Dekker, and Thomas Bryant.

Wagner also pulled a rare statistical feat on the other end of the floor, recording block and steal rates over 2% in conference play. The list of Big Ten freshmen to accomplish that since 2007-08 is 20 players long and also features a number of notable names, Robbie Hummel, Joe Wieskamp, Ethan Happ, Justin Jackson, Branden Dawson, Mitch McGary, OG Anunoby, Evan Turner, and Aaron Henry chief among them.

The only player to make both lists is Franz Wagner.

[Hit THE JUMP for more Franz, Livers, Chaundee Brown, and the rest.]