Michigan Basketball: More signs Isaiah Livers will play vs Michigan State

Michigan basketball star Isaiah Livers was reportedly seen in pre-game warmups, wearing game shorts, which sounds like a good sign.

Over the past few days, you got the feeling that injured Michigan basketball star Isaiah Livers was getting closer and closer to returning.

He practiced this week, according to what Juwan Howard told the media and Friday, Livers even talked to reporters. While he didn’t say for sure that he was going to play, you could tell he was getting closer. Here is what he said via The Michigan Insider:

"“Hope so,” He said about Saturday “I’m just working with (athletic trainer Alex Wong), doing the best that I can, trying to lean towards getting back on the court soon. But you never know with day-to-day injuries. Hoping I get positive results, and work on my range of motion and see how that goes first. Because if that’s not there, then I obviously can’t get on the court.”"

That sounded promising and after Howard said he practiced this week and was looking better, you got the same feeling as before the Illinois game, that he was going to go.

Either way, we know now that Livers is indeed going to try to play as Dylan Burkhardt of UMHoops tweeted that he was warming up and that he was wearing game shorts.

Obviously, that doesn’t mean that Livers is going to play. It will likely be a game-time decision based on how things go in warmups, but this seems like the first real chance to see him on the floor since he re-injured himself in the loss to the Fighting Illini.

And with the Wolverines sitting at 4-7 in the Big Ten, squarely on the bubble and with Michigan State coming to town, Livers presence is desperately needed, not just on the offensive end, but on defense and on the boards.

Michigan can win this game without Livers, as long as it gets extraordinary efforts from guys like Zavier Simpson, Jon Teske and Franz Wagner, but getting Livers back would be huge. Soon enough, we will know for sure.