1. John Beilein was right. While playing an extra game runs the risk of losing that game and being eliminated right away (as almost happened against Iowa), if you do play and win that game, you're a lot more comfortable on an unfamiliar floor than teams playing their first game. It happened for Michigan and Wisconsin today, and Rutgers and Iowa yesterday. Fatigue may become an issue down the line, but early on, at least, it helps. That's part of what happened to Nebraska today.
2. The larger part was Michigan's defense, which was spectacular. Charles Matthews, after a slow start, shackled all-conference player James Palmer Jr. (side note--4 of 5 Nebraska starters were juniors, not in class, but in named after their fathers, which I can't remember ever seeing)--anyone who thinks he had a bad game because he only scored 4 points was, respectfully, not watching the game. Wagner, Teske, Simpson (as always), MAAR and Duncan Robinson all played well on the defensive end. We're a top 10 defense nationally with a 4 and 5 who were, prior to the year (and, in fact, a fair piece into it), looked at as extreme defensive liabilities. It goes to show how much Wagner and Robinson have improved, and more significantly, how good the others are on that end of the floor.
3. Jordan Poole was again, charitably, not good. If he was a diver or a gymnast, the degree of difficulty on some of his shots would have been off the charts, but that doesn't help when you're doing cannonballs into the water or falling off the parallel bars. He's got to get back to being in control. I did like though his 2 on 1 break with Robinson and his dive on the floor for a loose ball in the second half.
4. 8-8 from the line for Z and Charles. That's got to help their confidence.
5. We sold out on their 3s and did so extremely effectively. Watson hit 2 desperation heaves I was happy to see him take, and Palmer had 1 early on a push-off to create space, but otherwise, they had no room. When you're hitting your 3s and they're not getting any, today's result follows. Beilein's offensive analytics have met Billy Donlon/Luke Yaklich's defensive theories over the last 2 years, and it's fun to watch.
5. Nebraska has a lot of athletes. You need more--you need shooters and volume shooters at that (not just 40% 3 guys on 1 make or so a game). In the first game, they forced us into live ball turnovers for runout. Today, even our mistakes (9 turnovers) did not result in transition opportunities. Nebraska lives on those--they're not great in the half court.
6. We handled the switching every screen defense extremely well. We found Wagner in pick and pop (he's a different player when he makes his first 3) and on cuts, and Simpson and MAAR took bigger guys off the dribble and finished or kicked. In short, we made them pay for the switches. In Lincoln, Wagner and Robinson had a combined total of 2 points. Today, they had 36. And there was a 30+ point turnaround in the score. Imagine that.
7. Nebraska gave us some trouble late in the first half with their trap because of their length. I don't know why they went away from it. I wasn't displeased though. Yeah, if you break it, you get some easy looks, but we were getting those anyway.
8. Tomorrow's game is a playing with hours money game IMO. We're not expected to beat them twice in the same season, we don't need to win the BTT to get in, or likely even to improve our seed much, and we just won it last year. if they win, I'll just start looking ahead to Selection Sunday. But if we win...oh the angst would be fun. I think even "the survivors" would approve.
2. The larger part was Michigan's defense, which was spectacular. Charles Matthews, after a slow start, shackled all-conference player James Palmer Jr. (side note--4 of 5 Nebraska starters were juniors, not in class, but in named after their fathers, which I can't remember ever seeing)--anyone who thinks he had a bad game because he only scored 4 points was, respectfully, not watching the game. Wagner, Teske, Simpson (as always), MAAR and Duncan Robinson all played well on the defensive end. We're a top 10 defense nationally with a 4 and 5 who were, prior to the year (and, in fact, a fair piece into it), looked at as extreme defensive liabilities. It goes to show how much Wagner and Robinson have improved, and more significantly, how good the others are on that end of the floor.
3. Jordan Poole was again, charitably, not good. If he was a diver or a gymnast, the degree of difficulty on some of his shots would have been off the charts, but that doesn't help when you're doing cannonballs into the water or falling off the parallel bars. He's got to get back to being in control. I did like though his 2 on 1 break with Robinson and his dive on the floor for a loose ball in the second half.
4. 8-8 from the line for Z and Charles. That's got to help their confidence.
5. We sold out on their 3s and did so extremely effectively. Watson hit 2 desperation heaves I was happy to see him take, and Palmer had 1 early on a push-off to create space, but otherwise, they had no room. When you're hitting your 3s and they're not getting any, today's result follows. Beilein's offensive analytics have met Billy Donlon/Luke Yaklich's defensive theories over the last 2 years, and it's fun to watch.
5. Nebraska has a lot of athletes. You need more--you need shooters and volume shooters at that (not just 40% 3 guys on 1 make or so a game). In the first game, they forced us into live ball turnovers for runout. Today, even our mistakes (9 turnovers) did not result in transition opportunities. Nebraska lives on those--they're not great in the half court.
6. We handled the switching every screen defense extremely well. We found Wagner in pick and pop (he's a different player when he makes his first 3) and on cuts, and Simpson and MAAR took bigger guys off the dribble and finished or kicked. In short, we made them pay for the switches. In Lincoln, Wagner and Robinson had a combined total of 2 points. Today, they had 36. And there was a 30+ point turnaround in the score. Imagine that.
7. Nebraska gave us some trouble late in the first half with their trap because of their length. I don't know why they went away from it. I wasn't displeased though. Yeah, if you break it, you get some easy looks, but we were getting those anyway.
8. Tomorrow's game is a playing with hours money game IMO. We're not expected to beat them twice in the same season, we don't need to win the BTT to get in, or likely even to improve our seed much, and we just won it last year. if they win, I'll just start looking ahead to Selection Sunday. But if we win...oh the angst would be fun. I think even "the survivors" would approve.
