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Michigan’s Juwan Howard, Isaiah Livers discuss potential of playing 11 games in 22 days

Spenser Davis

By Spenser Davis

Published:

Michigan’s men’s basketball team hasn’t played since Jan. 22 due to COVID-19, so now the Wolverines are trying to play catch-up.

But in order to play the standard 20 conference games, Michigan would have to attempt to play 11 games in a 22-day stretch, and then immediately enter the postseason.

Michigan coach Juwan Howard isn’t a big fan of that idea.

“That would be very challenging,” Howard told reporters on Friday. “Challenging on a lot of levels. Let’s start with school. We’d miss a ton of classes. Let’s also look at the mental health standpoint … This is our guys’ team and their schedule and their college experience. Would they want to play 11 games in 22 days? From a health standpoint, I’m not sure if it would be smart because of the long layoff.”

Michigan senior forward Isaiah Livers is also weary of the idea.

“That doesn’t sound fun,” Livers said. “As much as I would like to, we don’t have robotic legs. I wish we didn’t feel game-soreness, or I’d be all for it, but that would be very sore. And going into a postseason, I don’t know if that would be the best idea. But again, I’m not the one making decisions, so I’ll have to suck it up if that’s the case.”

Here’s the full quotes from Howard and Livers:

As it stands today, Michigan is rated as one of the best teams in the country. The Wolverines have maintained their status as a top-5 team according to KenPom, and are very much in play for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan will re-start its season on Sunday against Wisconsin.

 

Spenser Davis

Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.