Wolverines trio reach the century mark in victories
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Feb. 28—Isaiah Livers, Eli Brooks and Austin Davis have been a part of plenty of wins throughout their Michigan careers.
So many, in fact, that they joined an exclusive club following Saturday's 73-57 triumph at Indiana by recording their 100th career victory.
Livers said reaching such a milestone was never on his radar when his first arrived in Ann Arbor four years ago.
"I didn't even think about that," said Livers, who is 38 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career. "Coming to Michigan and being at the college level, everything was thrown at me at once. I'm here now and I'm embracing it.
"I'm just blessed. I couldn't have done it without the past coaches, the current coaches, past teammates, current teammates and obviously family support. I just credit them because they push me every day to be where I am. Me, Eli and Austin have been in the trenches for a while. We worked really hard for it."
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While Davis is a fifth-year senior, his redshirt season doesn't count toward program records. In addition to the trio, four-year players and senior walk-ons C.J. Baird, Luke Wilson and Rico Ozuna-Harrison share the achievement.
The group played a role in two of Michigan's five 30-plus win seasons, including the 33-8 campaign in 2017-18 that set a single-season program record for wins. The six were also part of teams that won back-to-back Big Ten tournament titles and reached the national title game in 2018.
With 100 career wins, the sextet joins a short list that features former teammates and program greats in Zavier Simpson (2017-20), Jon Teske (2017-20), Jordan Morgan (2011-14), Glen Rice (1986-89), Mark Hughes (1986-89), J.P. Oosterbann (1986-89), Rob Pelinka (1989, 91-93), Gary Grant (1985-88) and Steve Stoyko (1985-88).
Simpson and Teske hold the program record for career wins with 108. Morgan, Rice, Hughes and Oosterbann are tied at second with 104, while Pelinka, Grant and Stoyko each sit at 100.
With three regular-season games left before the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, it's possible Livers and company could keep climbing and even surpass Simpson and Teske, who set the mark before the 2020 postseason was canceled.
"Man, these guys have done an amazing job of representing the Block M," coach Juwan Howard said. "I'm just happy to be a part of it. I've been a fan of watching it from afar and seeing guys like Zavier Simpson, Jon Teske, Isaiah Livers, Eli Brooks, Austin Davis. They did an amazing job of representing what this Michigan vision, this Michigan experience is all about.
"Now it's their turn to pass the torch to the young'uns — Hunter Dickinson, Terrance Williams, Zeb Jackson and Jace Howard — and letting them know what this culture is all about so they can share this knowledge with our incoming freshmen."
Fighting words
If Tuesday's matchup between Michigan and Illinois — the top two teams in the Big Ten standings — didn't have enough juice, Fighting Illini coach Brad Underwood added to it.
Following Illinois' win at Wisconsin on Saturday, Underwood appeared to take a verbal jab at the Wolverines when asked about his team's schedule challenges and having to play three games in five days.
"It's a life lesson. Life doesn't always give you lemonade. Sometimes it gives you lemons and what you make of them is up to you," Underwood said. "This team has resilience, this team has grit, this team has fight. Like I said many times, we've been perfect through COVID since August. It's not our fault that the games got canceled were road games.
"We're going to honor those (postponed games) because we're a member of this league. We're not going to be the teams that pick and choose what we play for whatever. We're going to show up. I think it's about character and this team has a ton of it."
Michigan was originally scheduled to face Illinois on Feb. 11 in its first game back from the athletic department's two-week COVID-19 shutdown. But due to Michigan's return-to-play plan, the contest was postponed and eventually rescheduled for Tuesday.
Illinois is on track to complete its 20-game league slate, while Michigan is on course to play 17 conference games after three of its postponed games — at Penn State, vs. Indiana and at Northwestern — weren't rescheduled.
Assuming the Big Ten regular-season title is determined by winning percentage, Michigan can clinch it with one more win.
Slam dunks
With Saturday's win, Howard picked up his 23rd Big Ten victory. That's the most by a Michigan coach in his first two seasons, per Big Ten Network.
... Michigan's 13-1 start in conference play is tied for the best in program history, matching the 1964-65 team.
... Next Sunday's regular-season finale at Michigan State has been scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. tip.
Twitter: @jamesbhawkins
