VS Nebraska Hoops Snowflakes
Michigan really turning it on, putting up 102 against an overmatched Nebraska team. Huge game for Johns and Williams putting up 20 a piece after a shaky start for both of these guys.
When you go 15-32 from 3, good things tend to happen. Still work to be done, particularly against better competition later on, but definitely the best the team has looked all year.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:06 PM ^
The blue pants are undefeated in Big Ten Basketball play.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:07 PM ^
Winning is way better than losing.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:07 PM ^
Hung 100 on them.
/Ryan Day takes notes.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:10 PM ^
Diabate sure has been holding this team back.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:10 PM ^
Welcome back, Zeb.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:12 PM ^
While 1 game make not a season, the team looked really good today.
December 7th, 2021 at 10:42 PM ^
The signs began pointing in the right direction against SDSU. The good carried over nicely into this game. Corner turned? One can only hope.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:13 PM ^
Unreal shooting from the perimeter, but took place through amazing offensive sets. Houstan is developing confidence FAST. I have no clue what Juwan said to BJJ, but it worked...kid was out of his mind tonight. I've seen some Beilein stinkers at Nebraska, but that was not the case tonight. Credit to coaching and players taking the time to listen, because two straight good 2nd halves against decent (not good/great) teams has helped with discovering some identity. Not much to complain about this game. Even TWill looked like a potential "6th man" down the line. Just so happy, and GO BLUE!!!
December 7th, 2021 at 9:13 PM ^
We learned who's gonna finish last in the B1G.
Nice easy blow-out to start the conference season. Confidence booster for the boys.
Great to see an aggressive Johns.
My lord, Nebraska is bad. Yikes.
Go Blue! On to bigger and better things!
December 7th, 2021 at 9:31 PM ^
Fred Hoiberg’s got to be thinking, “Why did I come here?”
December 7th, 2021 at 9:13 PM ^
Nebraska is a bad team but they still have put up a fight against everyone they've faced, so UM running them off their own court does speak highly of Michigan. They really have looked better these past couple of games; even against UNC that felt like a winnable game that turned when Dickinson got two quick fouls and Love just started canning long 3s. Hopefully they can keep it going against Minnesota and the rest of the OOC slate and head into the new year revitalized.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:23 PM ^
Did you watch that game, bronx? Nebraska was unbelievably bad.
Maybe they put up a fight against other teams, but tonight? That team had zero fight, zero skill, zero size.
I've never seen such poor defense. Seriously. They literally did not cover most of our guys. Just left them out there to shoot threes. And when we drove, they said "ole!
In the game thread someone said they must practice their 15 foot defense - perfectly put.
And their offense? Yikes. Soooo many horrific bricks. So many bungled layups. No scheme, no floor spacing.
I really, really want to talk about all the good things Michigan did tonight (and they did!) - but my eyes are burning from the horror I witnessed by Nebraska.
I honestly cannot remember a worse performance in a B1G game - and I've been watching a LONG time.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:36 PM ^
i'm guessing they decided to pack the paint in order to make it difficult for HD, hoping we would fire up bricks from the outside. i don't think that's a bad strategy given our shooting woes. unfortunately for them, our shooting never regressed back down to the mean.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:46 PM ^
I suppose they were doubling HD, but Johns and Williams had tons of room to operate down low, and anyone who drove got a clear path to the hole.
The paint wasn't packed, so if that's what they were trying to do, they failed miserably. Also, their "bigs" were neither tall nor wide.
It really did seem like they were told to play off the arc and just let Michigan shoot uncontested threes. "Interesting" strategy.
December 8th, 2021 at 12:22 AM ^
Hoiberg is in Year 3 and he's 5-36 against Big Ten competition. He'll be fired before Frost.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:13 PM ^
They actually looked like an organized basketball team that had a strategy and ran plays and shared the ball. Without sharing it too much with the other team.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:14 PM ^
Johns needs to play with that confidence all year long. Williams too. Both looked great
PG play looked somewhat shaky on both ends
Pretty remarkable that we shot that great from 3 even with Brooks being 0-6 at one point. Nebraska is just plain bad. Unfortunately not much to take away from this except looks like we got guys that can shoot if left wide open
December 7th, 2021 at 9:15 PM ^
Nebraska did go to four overtimes against NC State I believe at their place and did ok against Indiana at their place so yeah they’re not great but they’re still a 150 Net team and the team did this at their place. We’ll see if the performance translates against Minnesota who has been doing pretty well so far though we’ll know more about them when they take on MSU tomorrow.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:16 PM ^
First time this year they looked like a materially more talented team than the opposition.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:17 PM ^
Figure it out, Juwan!
In all seriousness, a strong showing. This team is coming together.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:17 PM ^
Nebraska is fucking awful
Thats it that’s the snowflake
December 7th, 2021 at 9:17 PM ^
The team just has to get better every game. Just have Cade come in for a few minutes after he leads the football team to the National Championship over Alabama on January 10th. He'll guide them in the right direction.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:18 PM ^
I just kept watching their pg dribble right past our guys and think "wtf?". Then I would look at the score and we'd be up 20. A minute later it would happen again, only when I looked at the score again we were up 30. Weird.
December 7th, 2021 at 11:47 PM ^
Haha. Same here. I kept shouting, "Can we find someone to stop him?" every time Verge drove to the bucket....as we continued to stretch the lead. It was very weird.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:20 PM ^
The amount of late calls by officials to appease Nebraska fans was really annoying.
December 7th, 2021 at 11:03 PM ^
If the home cooking from the officials was any more obvious, they would have served biscuits.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:21 PM ^
Kobe Bufkin is the fastest kid alive.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:22 PM ^
Well. This is what Michigan fans were looking forward to, in terms of free-wheeling and uptempo basketball. Are we just going to have to accept that in order to get the space necessary to get the offense going Michigan must shoot 40% or better from three? Or are we seeing the emergence of Williams + maturation of Houstan? (Latter, I hope.)
December 7th, 2021 at 9:25 PM ^
Houstan has been stringing a few good games together now. He seems to have gotten over his slump and is shooting a good percentage from three. Hunter seems to at least be dangerous out there which helps with spreading the floor and of course we’ve got Eli. Many players on the team are popping it’s just putting it all together consistently.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:24 PM ^
Hopefully the victory against SDSU will be seen as the official turning point of the season and future performances will be closer to this than they will be the Arizona or UNC games. Looking through the box score, I don’t know what stat is more impressive. Michigan scoring over 100 in a road B1G game? Jones recording 8 assists, 0 turnovers, and only two fouls? Houstan scoring 16 while shooting 4/7 from 3? Johns scoring 20 while shooting 2/3 from 3 and 6/7 from the free-throw line? Williams scoring 20 on 8/11 shooting? At least stat-wise, Eli was the “worst” starter in the game, and even he scored 10 points. And Diabate didn’t even play! Now the test will be can they string together multiple games in a row in which they play like this.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:31 PM ^
What i loved about Johns and T Will tonight was that they were both willing to bang down low in the lane and do some post moves to go along with their outside shots. Caleb actually driving and scoring or facilitating passes was nice as opposed to just standing on the three line.
Only thing tonight I could pick on is our rebounding and blocking out fundamentals are not good. We try too many no contact and try to arm grab rebounds.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:38 PM ^
Johns was the best player on the floor tonight. He was really aggressive. Shot well, rebounded, attacked.
Jones was fine, but he wasn't really a factor - those 8 assists were whisper quiet. Houstan is coming on. He's got a pretty stroke - though most shots from everyone were completely uncontested. Williams looked good.
Eli was WAY off in the first, and fire after halftime.
Nebraska was horrifically bad.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:41 PM ^
Jones defense will be a factor going forward. He’s slow laterally. Nebraska can’t shoot for shit but he caused a lot of layups and rotational defensive lapses because people have to step over towards his man. The assists to no turnovers was a nice bonus though.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:27 PM ^
When I was watching the last 6-8 minutes of the game, I can now see where the athleticism and speed is at for the future. Zeb, Kobe and Frankie were driving anywhere they wanted on the court and sharing the basketball. All of them need to continue to get stronger but I can see talent that is there. Johns and T Will had excellent nights. Eli and Hunter were solid as usual. I’m still not sold on Jones playing more than 8 minutes a game, much less starting. Zeb may ultimately end up in that role over Frankie going forward. Zeb has the length and size against bigten guards and can score in the lane as well. If Diabate had been out there that last 6-8 minutes with those super athletic young kids, damn!!!
December 7th, 2021 at 9:28 PM ^
As someone who grew up in the Omaha area, it really warms my heart anytime the Wolverines beat the piss out of Neb-trash-ka.
Go Blue!
December 7th, 2021 at 10:03 PM ^
Is it possible for us to be a basketball school AND football school?
December 7th, 2021 at 10:33 PM ^
Last two games have been much better. Conference road wins are like gold.
December 7th, 2021 at 10:47 PM ^
I am getting dizzy and a bit anxious watching this gif. It's a zoom in that never zooms in.
December 8th, 2021 at 3:09 AM ^
You guys arent paying attention. After football Harbaugh and Howard pushed the slider all the way to Basketball. We are good for a few weeks. Thanks for your sacrifice so far this season Juwan!
December 7th, 2021 at 10:49 PM ^
I think we get it together this year. PG position will find it’s place to be at least decent with Collins and Zeb. Houstan is going to be fine. We have seen what Moussa is capable of. We’re going to need Johns and/or Williams to be consistent contributors. Would like to see an expanded role for Bufkin too
December 7th, 2021 at 11:13 PM ^
0 turnovers for Jones! What a development. I'm very happy for him getting a little success after a few rough games.
December 8th, 2021 at 12:08 AM ^
Two good games back to back... gotta hope that the coaches and the players are now on the same page.
Lots of guys shooting better than expected, like BJJ, Williams, Zeb... have to hope this is reasonably sustainable and not an aberration.
I think Houstan's shooting is sustainable however. And even HD's good for one a game I think...hoping that the players have their mojo back.
December 8th, 2021 at 2:13 AM ^
This team is going to continue to improve. There is just too much talent not to. It takes time for a team with this many newcomers to gel correctly. The next 5 games should be easy wins before the home game against MSU. Let’s keep the train rolling
December 8th, 2021 at 9:41 AM ^
Nice win. They really got it going by going to HD early and letting him pass out of the doubles. Nebraka was pretty meh on rotations, so they got a lot of open looks. I'd like Michigan to keep playing through HD first. Other than that, you saw the path to this team being good, shooting. They need Johns, TWIII, and Houstan to hit open looks. If they can, Michigan cooks if they play through HD. If they don't play through HD or their shooters struggle....Well, we saw what that looks like already.