12/7/2021 – Michigan 102, Nebraska 67 – 6-3, 1-0 Big Ten

You don't want to take too much away from a game against Nebraska, because there are two kinds of games against Nebraska: one in which they hit a bunch of garbage and you have a mildly competitive game, and 35-point blowouts. After Keisei Tominaga hit two tough threes—one a relocation, the other a stepback over a Brooks contest—to give the brief semblance of the former, this one quickly settled into the blowout.

Nebraska's always been a team with huge roster turnover and this year is no different, so you have things like Michigan casually walking the ball upcourt and still getting what's more or less an open transition three for Caleb Houstan:

Jason Benetti is depressed on behalf of all basketball coaches everywhere who had to witness this. At some point even the partisan observer is asking Nebraska to show some sort of organization so that maybe this can be a better measuring stick

But! Nebraska has been reasonably competitive this year and this performance was far better than others against similar (or worse) levels of competition. At this point anything that suggests Michigan is working some things out is more than welcome. Bullets ahoy:

BULLETS

Shot quality: a thing. It's conventional wisdom in the land of the tempo-free stats that three point percentage against is largely random. This game set out to disprove that, with Michigan getting uncontested looks more or less whenever they wanted them and Nebraska throwing up piles of crap—step-backs, 30-footers, transition attempts on which the shooter never comes to a standstill, blindfolded HORSE shots. If you were to re-run this game over and over again there might be a few iterations where the teams came out with similar numbers from behind the arc, but the heart of Michigan's distribution would probably be 40% while Nebraska's was 20%.

The conventional wisdom is likely because most games against similarly matched teams have a similar quality of look from a similar quality of shooter. Over time things tend to even out. This does not mean that there are not individual shots that are good or bad. Usually the quality gap is much, much smaller.

[After THE JUMP: TEBJJ]

The Enigmatic Brandon Johns Jr. I may never refer to Brandon Johns as anything other than The Enigmatic Brandon Johns Jr from now on. After a disastrous start to the season, Johns went off for 20 points on 12 shot equivalents, though he did offset that with a couple turnovers. Guys have good and bad games but I don't know if I've ever seen a player who alternates between "unplayable on a high-major team" to "NBA maybe?" like he does. So when a game opens up with Johns canning a pick and pop three…

…you're in for a good time. Back in the Moe Wagner days it felt like Wagner's first attempt from three was worth 10 points. This is similar.

Two things: Johns has clearly been yelled at to take open threes. His hesitation to do so has always been a little inexplicable given his career numbers, which are firmly in the "take open threes" bin. He hit 2/3 in this game and only had one moment of hesitation where he likely should have shot but elected not to. Progress.

The other thing was Johns getting to the short corner and posting up.

This is something he did with frequency during the post-Livers section of last year. While he doesn't get to the rim a ton his combination of size and lift makes him really hard to check when he gets into short post hook range. Johns had an outburst of FTAs after moving into the starting lineup last year; in this game he got 7, which is one fewer than he'd had all season.

Here's the part where I say "if": if Johns can be some version of this guy that significantly changes Michigan's season trajectory.

Also in surges. Terrance Williams II was your Kenpom MVP in just 22 minutes with 22 points on12 shot equivalents, a couple OREBs, three assists, and one TO. This was his first double-digit scoring outing since the opener and as with Johns a slightly jaundiced eye must be cast over the box score given how discombobulated Nebraska was.

8/20 from three is some distance away from last year's 1/14, so we have some early indications offseason talk was on point.

Five star vs five star. Caleb Houstan decisively won his individual matchup with Bryce McGowens. The most surprising thing about this was not Houstan finding his shooting touch against a team that has more or less elected not to contest threes but the fact that he held McGowens to eight points. Hell, he held McGowens to 7 shooting possessions inside the arc. Two of the successful ones (an OREB putback and a trip to the line) came when Brooks got switched onto McGowens, a third was a drive at Zeb Jackson. This looked like a spot where Houstan was going to get roasted; he more than held his own.

Here's hoping this is the 2021-22 version of Mike Smith going from major defensive liability to a guy who had limitations but generally forced people to shoot over him.

Meanwhile on offense, 4/7 from behind the line brings him up to 38% from deep on the season and there are flashes in there of a guy who can be a secondary playmaker. This dribble handoff setup to Johns was *chef's kiss*:

And he's beginning to hit some threes that make you think this is going somewhere. The ability to say this possession is going nowhere, lol whatever…

…is an important one for any basketball team to have. Jury's still out about how ruthless Houstan can be once he's got his feet under him at the college level. Signs and portents so far.

Verge'd. Alonso Verge torched Michigan's point guards all night. Verge has a tendency to do this on occasion, and boy does he have experience driving to the hoop with no help, but this was just too easy. I think we have to repudiate those offseason takes from the NBA G League camp where Devante' Jones was proclaimed the best defender there:

back-to-back torchings here

Collins didn't do a whole lot better but at least it felt like when he was on the floor Verge had to finish through him most of the time. At that point he was on fire and he just continued to finish.

Collins didn't continue his performance from the SDSU game, though he did have three assists versus no TOs, and is currently shooting 40% on free throws, so the needle swung a little bit toward Jones after this game. PG is going to be an issue. Maybe we should have kicked the tires on Verge.

The baby hook. Derrick Walker did a good job walling up against Dickinson, preventing him from getting to the rim on most of his post ups. It didn't matter because I think literally all of these went down:

Dickinson hit one of these with his right hand, as well. Also in Dickinson developments: he hit a three from the top of the arc when his defender elected not to check him. He missed a couple others but he's now 5/11 on the season, and this is on the verge of being a Thing.

[Campredon]

Zeb? Zeb Jackson had a brief, unpleasant cameo appearance in the SDSU game. Here he came in and immediately set up Williams for a layup and then hit a three. Later he attacked a closeout for a hoop at the bucket; that was two steps to the rim and then elevation that was impressive. I'm dubious that Jackson's going to stick around since these days the portal beckons all but I hope he does because I think he might turn into something next year or the year after. Ibi Watson vibes: that guy couldn't play at all at Michigan but was an impressive athlete and then he was the second-best player on that elite Dayton team that was headed for a one-seed before COVID canceled the tournament.

Hummel and Benetti. For my money, the best announce duo in any sport right now. Both are great individually, and together they're even better. Benetti sarcastically promised that something riveting would happen in the last three minutes of this one, and then they managed to cobble together a reason: Michigan was one player away from tying an NCAA record for the most players with a made three in one game at 9. When Michigan dumped it down to Jaron Faulds for a post hook they were crushed.

Also enjoyed Benetti referring to one Verge drive that Collins defended as the two guys "trading paint."