Michigan not taking Nebraska lightly heading into second matchup of the season

The Michigan Wolverines return to their home court on Tuesday evening to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers for their second matchup of the year.

Nebraska has had a rough season, to say the least. The Cornhuskers are 6-15 overall and 0-10 in Big Ten play. You read that correctly — they have yet to win a conference game. That includes being blown out by Michigan on their home court earlier this season, 102-67. But they have kept their last three games really close — 78-71 against Indiana, 73-65 against Wisconsin and 63-61 against Rutgers.

Despite all that, the Wolverines are not going into this game thinking they will get an easy win, because no win is easy in the Big Ten.

“They’re doing a great job of continuing to come out and play hard every night,” assistant coach Howard Eisley told the media Monday morning. “Actually, I thought last game against Rutgers was a game that they were gonna pull off. You can’t look at their record right now and say, ‘This is a bad team,’ because that’s not really the case. They’ve been in games, had opportunities to win against Rutgers, so we have to come out and be really ready to compete and not look at them as a team that hasn’t won a game in the league. I think that would be a very bad mistake that we would make.”

The Cornhuskers, despite what their record says, have talent on their team, especially in their back court. Bryce McGowens is among the most talented freshmen in the conference. He leads their team in scoring at 16.7 points per game, good for ninth in the Big Ten. Then there is senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr., who put up 31 points and eight rebounds against Michigan their first game.

Eisley mentioned McGowens by name and stated Nebraska is “really at their best” when they are in transition.

“They have very athletic wings that can get out and run the floor and they have guys that can space the floor as well. McGowens back from injury, I think that’s another aspect that he brings to that team athletically,” Eisley said.

Nebraska at Michigan tips off from Crisler Center at 9 p.m. Tuesday.