2023-24 nebraska #2

Michigan Men's Basketball closed out their regular season of the 2023-24 campaign with an eighth straight loss, the team's 13th in 14 games and 18th in 20 games. Matched up against a Nebraska team who eviscerated Michigan's defense in the first meeting between the two teams back in early February, the defense of the Maize & Blue did no better this time. They allowed 50 points in the first half and Nebraska shot 28/36 (77.8%) from two for the game, scoring at a 1.21 PPP clip for the contest. Michigan hung around in the first half but like so many other games this season, were blown out of the water in the second half and the final minutes ticked down without any intrigue. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

The first half was the Keisei Tominaga show, as the Japanese guard piled up 23 points (nearly half of Nebraska's total) on a sizzling 9/12 shooting. Tominaga had his way with the Michigan defense, lethal from downtown with four triples, plus gobs of easy scores inside at the rim. Tominaga led the Nebraska offense that bulldozed the Michigan defense throughout the first half, scoring 70% from the floor and 15/18 from two, numbers that only cooled off slightly in the second half. Even for a Michigan defense that has had plenty of ugly halves this season, this first half effort had to have been among the ugliest. Josiah Allick and Rienk Mast each chipped in seven points as well on a combined 6/7 shooting as Nebraska hung a half-century in the first half. 

To Michigan's credit, they had a lot of offensive success as well in the first half against a Nebraska defense that had been pretty sharp in recent weeks. It wasn't enough to keep up with the way their defense was hemorrhaging points on the other end, but it gave the game a competitive feel, as Michigan only trailed by seven at halftime. While Tominaga dazzled for Nebraska, Dug McDaniel was the star for Michigan, shooting 5/6 from three on his way to 17 points in the first half. There were a couple instances of Tominaga drilling a shot at one end, only for McDaniel to pull up from three and swish it at the other end. Michigan didn't get a ton else of note offensively outside of McDaniel in the first half, but it was enough to keep them within striking distance at the half. 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Michigan was going to need to defend better in the second half and while they did somewhat, their offense also bogged down and were unable to close the gap. Nebraska's three point shooting cooled off dramatically and Tominaga was held in check, but with Tominaga on the perimeter drawing attention, the Huskers were still able to get inside for too many easy layups and dunks. Nebraska was 11/18 on 2's in the second half, with Josiah Allick standing out as the star in the latter 20 minutes. Allick played good defense, with an excellent recovery and close-out to block a Burnett three early in the second half hanging in the memory. He scored 8 points in the second half to lead the team, same as Brice Williams, as Nebraska put together a rather ensemble offensive performance in the second half. 

For Michigan, the biggest story was the three point shooting vanishing. They made just one out of 13 attempts from deep in the second half, missing a number of pretty wide open looks, Terrance Williams II making their only triple of the second half. McDaniel in particular was ice cold, 0/5 from the floor in the second half and Michigan's best sequence of the second half, when they trimmed the Nebraska lead from 20 back to 12, came with Dug on the bench. That briefly looked like it could give Michigan an opening to charge back into the game, but Nebraska wrestled control back and the two teams were rather lackluster and sloppy late in the game. Michigan never got it back to single digits after Allick's layup to make the score 59-48 and the end of the game was again marked by walk-ons in the game and discussion from the broadcasters of how good Michigan's opponent is playing recently.  

Michigan ends the B1G regular season at 3-17, last place in the conference by four games. Their only conference wins were over Iowa, Ohio State, and Wisconsin, just one coming on the road. Seven of their last eight games have been losses by double digit margins. Last season was a year of repetitive pain after meltdowns in the final minutes of close games. This season, the team was so bad in calendar 2024 there haven't even been close games to meltdown in. Each game is a similar shade to the last one and my recaps have grown shorter and shorter because there are only so many ways you can describe how nonexistent Michigan's defense is or their one-dimensionality sans Olivier Nkamhoua on offense. 

Michigan will play in the (14) vs. (11) game in the B1G Tournament on Wednesday night, with one more loss to end their season. It is not clear who the opponent will be, but we will know by the end of the evening tonight. What we do know is that game will be at roughly 9:00 pm EST and will be broadcast on Peacock. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]

THE ESSENTIALS

WHAT	#124 Michigan (8-22, 3-16 B10) vs #34 Nebraska (21-9, 11-8 B10)
WHERE	Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, MI
WHEN	Sunday, NOON
THE LINE	Kenpom: Neb-5 Torvik: Neb-5
TELEVISION	BTN (link)

THE OVERVIEW

Before Michigan was eviscerated on the road by Ohio State and Rutgers, Nebraska did the same thing. Most years the third on that list would seem like the most surprising, but this year the Huskers are firmly in the Tournament. It took three miserable seasons, one just-bad one, and the entire Big Ten East collectively sacrificing their basketball programs to the football gods, but Nebrasketball has reached a point where they should be able to travel to Michigan without much fear of a loss. Or they would if they didn't turn into Michigan when they're on the road. Torvik:

HOME vs B10	ROAD vs B10

I mean…

NEBRASKA ROAD vs B10	MICHIGAN HOME vs B10

…there's a chance.

However, Hoiberg's Huskers avoided a perfect home/road W/L dichotomy by beating a bad Indiana team on 2/21, and Michigan is now without Nkamhoua. So if there is any trepidation on the trip from Lincoln, it's that Michigan might use the opportunity to court Hoiberg.

But for that to happen they'd have to fire Juwan Howard. And for that to happen, as I understand it, Santa Ono would have to fire Warde Manuel. And what's standing in the way of that happening? At this point, I don't know.

[After THE JUMP: Nebraska hasn't changed, but Michigan has.]