Morning Distribution for Tuesday, March 30, 2021

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Tuesday, March 30, 2021 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [MM-2021-MICH-INJURIES-4×3]( [Big Injuries Often Sink National Title Contenders. But Michigan Just Keeps Winning.]( By [Jake Lourim]( On the afternoon of Friday, March 12, few teams in men’s college basketball looked better than Michigan. The Wolverines, who had just [won the Big Ten regular-season title]( entered that day ranked second in Ken Pomeroy’s [adjusted efficiency rankings]( and then delivered a [confidence-renewing win over Maryland]( to open the conference tournament. [Senior guard Eli Brooks]( was healthy after missing one of Michigan’s three losses and [leaving early]( from another. By that point, they had weathered a slew of challenges — Brooks’s injury, a [76-53 loss to Illinois]( on March 2 and a [three-week break]( in game action because of campus COVID-19 concerns — and emerged looking like a national title contender. But even 48 hours from Selection Sunday, the road to a championship is still fraught with all too many land mines. After that win against Maryland, Michigan faced perhaps its biggest setback: Senior Isaiah Livers was ruled out with a [stress injury]( in his right foot. The Wolverines lost in the [Big Ten semifinals]( against Ohio State. They still earned a No. 1 seed, but they looked nowhere near as formidable as they did when the weekend began. And yet, out of nine Big Ten teams in the NCAA Tournament field, Michigan is the only one left, rolling into the Elite Eight after a [76-58 dismantling]( of Florida State on Sunday. “We don’t make excuses here at Michigan,” coach Juwan Howard [said after the game](. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Democrats Are Struggling On Immigration Policy]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.