Michigan Basketball: Wolverines season officially in crisis mode

Michigan basketball’s once-promising season is now going down the tubes. Here’s an in-depth breakdown at what happened and if it can be fixed?

Just last Saturday, Michigan basketball looked like it had hope. Despite being on a three-game losing streak, the Wolverines got their star forward back as Isaiah Livers returned against Illinois after missing six games with a groin injury.

Despite being 2-5 in the conference, Livers’ return provided hope for a basketball team that looked lost without him, yet early in the season looked like a top-five team when playing at their best.

But then Saturday’s game happened. A last-second, heartbreaking loss against the Fighting Illini in a game Michigan had every chance to win but did not capitalize on any of those chances.

Then, to add salt to the wound, Livers went down in the second half after a dunk attempt where he seemed to re-aggravate the groin injury (although there have been conflicting reports about the specificity of the injury).

All of a sudden, as soon as it looked like the Wolverines had regained some hope for the season, it vanished in an instant. At 2-6 in the conference and on a four-game losing streak with Livers getting hurt again, the ceiling for this team looked like a bubble NCAA tournament team at best.

But things couldn’t possibly get any worse, right? Wrong.

On Monday afternoon, Michigan coach Juwan Howard announced senior guard Zavier Simpson would be suspended for the Nebraska game due to a “violation of team policies.”

It is unclear what policy Simpson violated and how long he will be suspended for. But either way, this is the last thing Michigan needed in the middle of a four-game losing streak while desperately needing any type of win they can find.

So the Simpson news makes it official: The 2019-20 Michigan basketball season is officially in crisis mode, with maybe even an NIT berth, let alone an NCAA tournament berth, slipping away fast.