Two teams that want to recover from defeat will collide Monday night when No. 12 Michigan visits Nebraska for a Big Ten competition in Lincoln, NEB.
Wolverine’s recovering from a tough home loss (75-62) Friday night to competing Michigan State in what was a struggle for first place in the conference.
Wolverines (20-6, 12-3) is still square in the race for a league title, but instead of being in firm control with a victory over Michigan State, they are half a game behind Spartans entering their last five games of The regular season.
Michigan will start with a game in Nebraska; Wolverines is 6-2 on the road this season.
“This group has proven all year that we answer and unite when things are not going well,” said coach Dusty May, who agreed to a multi-year contract extension with Michigan before Michigan State game tipped. “There is no reason to expect anything else.”
Michigan has relied on the entire season at no doubt the best Frontcourt tandem in the country in 7-foot Danny Wolf-As average is 12.8 points and 9.9 returns per match and Vladislav Goldin (15.9 PPG, 6, 1 rpg).
Although Wolverines won six games in a row before the loss to Michigan State, a major concern has recently been their perimeter.
In his last six matches, Michigan shoots 30 percent (40 out of 133) from 3-point intervals, which has made it easier for opponents to clamp on the wolf and Goldin in the lane.
“We really haven’t shot it well in probably three or four weeks,” May said.
Michigan hopes to break out of his sliding funk against a Nebraska team that comes from a leaning loss (89-72) at one of the league’s worst team, Penn State, on Wednesday.
Cornhuskers (17-10, 7-9) are still in the hunt for an NCAA tournament, and playing Michigan will present another opportunity to get a Quad 1 victory to paddle his resume.
Helping the cause will Nebraska will be home, where it is 10-3 this year. But Cornhuskers first wants to get the taste of the loss to Penn State out of his mouth.
“We are playing for something right now,” said Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg. “We still have our goals ahead of us. We can turn this around. We still have an opportunity to achieve what we mean. But we have to fix it in a hurry. We have some self -seeking DO.”
Nebraska has one of the top corps at the conference in Brice Williams, which on average was 19.4 points per match. Juwan Gary (13.3 PPG) and Connor Essegian (10.8 ppg) are also on average double figures.
Nebraska has won the last two meetings against Michigan, although Wolverines has dominated the rivalry since Nebraska joined the Big Ten 2011 and owned a 16-3 record against Cornhuskers.
-Field level media
