Hoops vs Nebraska

[thewolverines24]

A Michigan team that has won just two games since Christmas wraps up its regular season at home on Sunday (noon, BTN) against Nebraska. The Wolverines will honor their seniors, play their final 40 minutes of regular season basketball, and mercifully close the book on a season that everyone is eager to move past.

Nebraska arrives in Ann Arbor with plenty to play for. The Cornhuskers have struggled away from home — winning just one Big Ten road game all season — but have a chance to wrap up an NCAA Tournament bid and earn a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

The first meeting was one of many non-competitive road defeats for the Wolverines. Michigan fell behind 43-13 with over five minutes left to play in the first half and was dominated in every facet of play. Sunday will be one final chance to go out on a more positive note in a season that started brightly but fell woefully short of expectations for the last three months.

KEYS​

• Show any fight: The last month has been brutal for Michigan on the floor with the combination of McDaniel’s suspension, Nkamhoua’s injury and all-around poor basketball. It’s also clear that the schedule has helped take things from bad to worse. Michigan has only played two of its last seven games at home and six of those seven games have been KenPom Top 50 games. Nebraska is a quality team, but this is arguably the easiest game on Michigan’s schedule since early February.
• Deal with big lineup matchups: It’s odd to talk about size and rebounding when Nebraska is the worst offensive rebounding team in the league but the Huskers pummeled the Wolverines on the offensive glass in the first meeting. Nebraska hauled down 43% of its misses, and there seemed to be a size and athleticism gap throughout the frontcourt. Those issues should only be more significant with Nkamhoua sidelined.
• Make some shots: Nebraska will shoot a lot of threes but also let you shoot threes. Michigan is going to need to make threes up and down the lineup to end the season with a home upset.

BOTTOM LINE​

There’s limping to the finish line, and there’s whatever this is. KenPom sets Michigan as six-point home dogs, projecting a 78-72 Nebraska win with a 31% chance of a Michigan upset.

This is likely going to be the last game at the Crisler Center for quite a few players, so there’s at least some incentive for the Wolverines to be competitive.

Go Blue!

 

[thewolverines24]

We held them under 90!!!

 

[thewolverines24]

That concludes the worst hoops regular season since the Cretaceous Period. We made it to the end.

 

[wlvrnstlr4life]

Definitive proof over last 2 months that Howard lost the team. As an AD you canNOT have a coach back that loses their team like this. Howard has to be let go. If he is not let go, this team will be made up of walk-ons. The vultures will pick this team apart.

 

[thewolverines24]

Definitive proof over last 2 months that Howard lost the team. As an AD you canNOT have a coach back that loses their team like this. Howard has to be let go. If he is not let go, this team will be made up of walk-ons. The vultures will pick this team apart.

If Howard is gone, then we are definitely losing our best recruit in Khani Rooths. I'm guessing Dug is gone no matter what. Tarris might stay if Howard is retained.

Basically, we're looking at needing 5 B1G level starters and another 2 B1G level rotation guys from the portal. If it's Howard or a new coach, we're pretty much fucked for next season from a roster standpoint.