WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. The Michigan basketball team stood on the side of the court waiting. Mike Smith jumped up to touch the net. If anyone were to pull off a Rudy Gobert-style cancellation of this game, the seconds would be short-lived. Eyes turn to a Purdue mess that has yet to be broken.
Nerves?
“Definitely,” Isaiah Livers said. Initially, he did not want to be in West Lafayette tonight. He heard the news that Purdue had a positive COVID-19 test and thought it would not be safe to play. But there, he was speaking in a Zoom camera Friday night after scoring 22 points to lead Michigan to a 70-53 victory over the Boilermakers. The Wolverines are in the Big Ten in the first place. Exactly what the consequences are of playing Friday will be in focus over the next two weeks.
Purdue coach Matt Painter said after the game that Stefanovic was symptomatic on Wednesday morning, despite being negative, and he stayed in his room all day and delivered a positive antigen test on Thursday morning. The Boilermakers played in the Ohio State on Tuesday night – Stefanovic was then isolated.
At Michigan’s request, the entire team of Purdue underwent PCR tests before Friday’s game (as opposed to the antigen tests that the Big Ten runs daily), all of which were negative. Team spokesman Chris Forman tweeted before tipoff: “We feel VERY confident in our protocols.”
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