Livers' baseball past comes in handy

ANN ARBOR — Few Michigan fans realized they had a fireballer on the team.

Michigan forward Isaiah Livers (4) celebrates making a three-point basket in the second half of Monday's game in Ann Arbor.

After Isaiah Livers delivered a fastball to Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman Monday, the secret was out. Livers’ half-court pass was on the money and led to Michigan’s dramatic last-second win over Maryland.

One person in Kalamazoo wasn’t surprised.

Scott Spada, the baseball coach at Kalamazoo Central, was familiar with the accurate strike Livers unleashed.

“The way Isaiah threw it is exactly how we do it. It was textbook,” Spada told MLive, describing a drill known aptly as drill No. 1.

Michigan coach John Beilein said on the FS1 broadcast after the game that he was glad a former baseball player was on the team because of a loss the Wolverines suffered to Wisconsin when they needed to execute a long pass.

Incredibly, as Spada was watching the game on television, he predicted Beilein would have Livers throw the pass. During his junior year of high school, Livers’ fastball was timed at 88 miles per hour.

In a postgame interview with MGoBlue.com, Livers didn’t forget his past.

“First, shout out to my high school coach, coach Spada,” Livers said. “That last play, it felt like I was actually playing football because I used to play quarterback, too.”

Contact Kyle Rowland at krowland@theblade.com, 419-724-6110 or on Twitter @KyleRowland.