Nebraska fans showed up in droves and Pinnacle Bank Arena was electric for the better part of a half Sunday night, even when Michigan countered two Cornhuskers points with a 14-2 run to open the game.
To their credit, they did their best to try to give the home team a lift throughout. But with 14 minutes remaining, the only doubt left was how big the spread would be.
It turned out to be 36, their largest home loss in school history, passing its 79-45 defeat to Ohio State on Jan. 21, 2012.That marked U-M’s sixth win in eight games, its only two losses road setbacks at Minnesota in controversial fashion and in the last second at Northwestern. The Wolverines proved once again they could bounce back from disappointment and put the recent past in the past.
“I had no idea how we were going to play tonight. That Northwestern loss was so disappointing for these guys, but they handled like they always handle it,” head coach John Beilein said.
“… I’m so proud of them. When I walked out here, this place was electric at the beginning of the game. I said, ‘we’re in for one today.’ We came out right at the beginning with a 10-2 lead, our kids made great plays and they guarded at this [defensive] end.”
They finished with five players in double figures and 20 assists, led by senior point guard Derrick Walton’s single-game record 16. The Wolverines handed a seventh team their worst loss of the year, and as it stands today, they’ve become the team nobody wants to face in the postseason.
They very likely punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament with this one, and might have been in, regardless. While it took 10 games to finally jell and play with consistency … well, better late than never.
Credit Walton for leading the turnaround. His play has been outstanding, his leadership even better.
“Derrick Walton was excellent," Nebraska coach Tim Miles said. "I just voted him first-team all-league today before the game, and then had complete regret for putting karma on ourselves for that.”
He’s starting to call plays on the court, Beilein said, something former Michigan All-American Trey Burke used to do. At the end of the game, he told Beilein, ‘we’ll think about the NCAA Tournament later. We want to go win that Big Ten Tournament.’
And nobody should think they can’t. They get Illinois first as the eight seed, only because of tiebreaker rules and an unbalanced Big Ten schedule, and would have to play Purdue in the second round … a team they handled at Crisler Center this year and gave their worst defeat of the year, 82-70.
You think Purdue is excited about that match-up?
While it took a while for this team to jell defensively, it’s made huge strides. Boilermakers coach Matt Painter pointed out how far they’d come after his team’s loss, and it was on display again in Nebraska.
“Credit coach [Billy] Donlon and Saddi [Washington] on ball screen coverage from the defense,” Beilein said. “They scored 85 last time. I was really concerned. We got better in some areas. We talk better, feel each other and are more connected defensively than we were at that time of the year.”
If the Big Ten season started over again today, this team would probably be right up there with Purdue as the one to beat. There are no do-overs, of course, but there is the Big Dance, and U-M showed again it could be — probably should be — a force to be reckoned with.
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