‘They all felt comfortable’: why Michigan played on Friday night

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Michigan basketball team stood on their side of the court waiting impatiently. Mike Smith jumped for the net. If anyone had to undo a Rudy Gobert-style cancelation of this game, they were running out of seconds. Eyes turned to a group of Purdue that had not yet been broken.

Nerves?

“Certainly,” Isaiah Livers said. At first he didn’t want to be at West Lafayette tonight. He heard the news that Purdue had tested positive for COVID-19 and believed he wouldn’t be safe to gamble. But he was there Friday night, speaking into a Zoom camera after scoring 22 points to lead Michigan to a 70-53 victory over the Boilermakers. The Wolverines are in first place of the Big Ten. The consequences, if any, of Friday’s game will be highlighted over the next two weeks.

Purdue coach Matt Painter said after the game that Stefanovic was symptomatic Wednesday morning, despite testing negative, and had been in his room all day, returning a positive antigen test Thursday morning. The Boilermakers played at Ohio State on Tuesday night – Stefanovic was isolated after that.

At Michigan’s request, the entire Purdue team underwent PCR testing before Friday’s game (as opposed to the Big Ten’s daily antigen testing), which all came back negative. Chris Forman, the team’s spokesperson, tweeted before the report: “We feel VERY confident in our protocols.”

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