Michigan 79, Nebraska 50
Shooter [Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog]
After consecutive makes from beyond the arc, everyone in the building save one man within earshot of the press area knew Zak Irvin was putting up another one. "Shoot it!" implored the fan, who must not have caught a Michigan basketball game until today.
Irvin needed no such encouragement, firing away and getting a friendly bounce off the front of the rim for his third triple in as many possessions to give the Wolverines a 28-point lead over Nebraska—with 3:35 still remaining in the first half. Irvin had already scored all 16 of his points by that juncture, hitting four of his seven first-half 3PA (he missed two in the second).
It'd be one thing if Irvin's outburst stood out as particularly unusual; it's another matter entirely when the whole team plays at that level. Glenn Robinson III led the team with 23 points (5/7 2-pt, 3/7 3-pt) while adding five rebounds and two steals. Caris LeVert finished with 16 points (2/3 2-pt, 3/4 3-pt) after opening the game with an alley-oop pass to Robinson followed by consecutive three-pointers. Nik Stauskas only attempted three shots; he still finished with nine points, eight assists, and five rebounds.
Excluding the first four minutes of the game, Michigan peaked at 1.51 points per possession a couple minutes into the second half; they'd finish at an impressive 1.26 despite scoring four points in the final ten minutes. Their eFG% reached as high as 85.7 late in the first half before finishing at a mere 62.5. They led by 41 (41!) at two different points in the second half before slowly phasing out the starters.
On the other end, Michigan stymied Nebraska's offense, limiting them to 0.81 points per trip with a 39.8 eFG%. Until the extended wind-down period, the Wolverines were on pace for their best efficiency margin in conference play in the KenPom era. By halftime, this one was over, and attention could be turned to more important matters, like certain former players in attendance:
L to R: Denard Robinson, Devin Gardner, Will Campbell [Fuller]
It was a laugher, to be sure, and a great way to bounce back from the team's first conference defeat.
NOTES
Derrick Walton continues to round out his game impressively. His eight points (1/2 2-pt, 2/5 3-pt) and three assists don't leap off the stat sheet, but Michigan didn't need him to do a whole lot tonight. In addition to hitting a couple spot-up shots from beyond the arc, he had a very aggressive fast break finish early in the first half—his improvement running the fast break is apparent and continues to pay dividends.
Glenn Robinson III had as close to a "quiet" 23 points as one is going to get; this is largely because he scored 12 in the second half when the game was no longer competitive. He got his outside shooting game going, hit his favorite free-throw pull-up jumper, and finished with authority on the break for the game's first basket. He also did impressive work defensively, helping hold Nebraska's leading scorer, Terran Petteway, to just five points on 2/10 shooting and matching Petteway's three defensive rebounds with three offensive boards.
Spike Albrecht didn't score, though he still made an impact with four assists, including an alley-oop toss to Jon Horford (7 points, 3/5 FG, 2 REBs) which marked the precise moment this game should no longer have been played. Jordan Morgan played 20 minutes without recording a point, hauling in four rebounds (all defensive) while helping limit the Huskers to a 22.5 OReb%.
February 5th, 2014 at 9:07 PM ^
...Michigan.
February 5th, 2014 at 9:07 PM ^
February 5th, 2014 at 9:11 PM ^
Robinson looked great today, which makes it all the more frustrating that he isn't more consistent against good competition. He has so much ability and disappears for long stretches, then will make a play that makes you wonder why he doesn't do that more.
Hope he can just build off of this and play more aggressive in the next gauntlet here, we could use him.
February 5th, 2014 at 9:15 PM ^
Three cheers for Bryan Fuller for that photo and his other fine work!
February 6th, 2014 at 8:00 AM ^
the new McGary and Horford!
February 6th, 2014 at 8:23 AM ^
Elated, pleased, stern.
February 6th, 2014 at 8:58 AM ^
But when is Denard NOT elated???
February 5th, 2014 at 9:31 PM ^
I might have to use that picture of BWC as my new avatar...
February 5th, 2014 at 9:56 PM ^
I was personally hoping we'd keep it going. We always seem to lag on many stats (at least according to ESPN) and it might help our recruiting effort if we blew out a game every once in a while.
February 5th, 2014 at 10:08 PM ^
Bad news- you are behind BWC.
Good news - there wasn't much to see anyway.
February 5th, 2014 at 11:00 PM ^
Looks like the Indiana loss did it's job, and that was to re=focus us. Missed the game tonight. Was able to listen to the first half on my way home from work but I don't get the BTN at home.
Pleasantly surprised by GR3 tonight. Hopefully this wakes him up. We will need every point we can get at Iowa.
Zak Irvin----wow
February 5th, 2014 at 11:02 PM ^
How did DG look? Does he still have a cast or crutches?
February 6th, 2014 at 8:59 AM ^
The 13 year old said that Devin went to catch a pass and hopped a little, favoring the one foot.
February 6th, 2014 at 9:57 AM ^
February 5th, 2014 at 11:34 PM ^
Saw Brian and I know he's technically part of the media, but he showed no emotion and didn't even clap once. Dude was stoic. Not an insanely exciting game but still.
Devin looked fine. No crutches or cast.
February 6th, 2014 at 8:44 AM ^
I watched the game on BTN it looked like there were plenty of seats to choose from. It was a good boring game, I needed one of those.
February 6th, 2014 at 12:20 AM ^
And Tim Miles is officially my second favorite B1G basketball coach. He seems like such a funny and nice guy.
February 6th, 2014 at 12:54 AM ^
February 6th, 2014 at 10:13 AM ^
that Zac had a chance to go off tonight. Needed to make sure other teams scouting us know that we have multiple scoring threats and with he and GRIII having good nights, hope that fees up opportunities for Nik/Watson/Morgan.
Good news all around.
February 6th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
February 6th, 2014 at 12:58 AM ^
February 6th, 2014 at 7:45 AM ^
You should watch more OSU games.
February 6th, 2014 at 8:25 AM ^
It seems like the players, especially Nik, forced stuff to get him a basket, resulting in some turnovers. Nebraska did a good job (their only one?) of preventing that. It's almost like Nebraksa went in the game saying, "We're not letting Morford beat us." That wouldn't have been my first choice of defensive strategies.
In a game like this, I'm cool with guys clikcing into extra-pass-a-notch-above-optimal mode. It promotes further tightness. In a tighter game, they'll have to eschew the extra unselfishness.
February 6th, 2014 at 8:33 AM ^
What woke up GRIII? Zak Irvin going off. It seemed like after Zak hit those 3 straight triples, GRIII was amped up for his team mate, but at the same time wanted to one up him. At least to me, it seemed GRIII fed off of the energy Zak created.
February 6th, 2014 at 9:24 AM ^
He'll get his shot the next three games.
February 6th, 2014 at 5:48 PM ^
I think that early alley-oop woke GRIII up. He also had an early curl for an easy lay up. I think that got him some confidence, because then he started hitting Js.
IMO get him involved early, and he'll have a good game.
February 6th, 2014 at 8:49 AM ^
Devin Gardner is a former player?
Wow, maybe ESPN was right.
February 6th, 2014 at 9:02 AM ^
February 6th, 2014 at 9:26 AM ^
Early on, looked like UNL was somewhat following the lead of Duke and IU and not letting Nik be the one to beat them. They stayed with that strategy even after falling way behind, but with everyone else being red-hot from the start with 3-pointers, Stauskas seemed content to make the extra pass rather than forcing his own shot.
Seemed to me both that the MW61COHC (Man With 61 Candles On His Cake) had the team well-prepared and the CWIMTJAS (Canadian Who Is More Than Just A Shooter) learned his lessons well in the aftermath of the comatose performance at Assembly Hall on Sunday.
February 6th, 2014 at 9:39 AM ^
He was better, but still visibly frustrated with his shot. He was pissed off after he bricked an open 3. Can't let it get in his head.
February 6th, 2014 at 9:41 AM ^
Stauskas seemed to be enjoying playing facilitator. His 8-9 assists were mostly due to his creating offense, I wasn't concerned watching and I'm not concerned in hindsight
February 7th, 2014 at 4:52 PM ^
He had 1 shot attempt and 6 assists like 10 minutes into the game, they were doubling him hard and he was finding open teammates, no cause for concern at all, he played great and smart.
February 6th, 2014 at 1:21 PM ^
Fun game to watch. Ace I hope we can get a gif of the alley oop from Spike to Horford: Momentary Nebraska player stuck to the court followed by Spike rodeo finger in the air.
February 6th, 2014 at 1:39 PM ^
That was just a steamrolling. You almost feel bad for Nebraska that they walked in its way.
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