Rise and Shine: The Week of Nebraska

Sam Federman
6 days ago
2 min read

By Sam Federman

I saw 'em standing

In that top five

Just a keeping

The streak alive

Big Red and Blue went

For a ride...

And the story

Will not die

From the town of

Lincoln, Nebraska

With the younger Sandfort

And Rienk Mast

To the snowy

hills of Ann Arbor

They killed everything

In their path

I CAN say that I'm sorry for the things that I've wrote. That was bad.

But No. 5 Nebraska takes on No. 2 Michigan in the first ever Top 5 AP matchup in the history of Cornhusker basketball. Michigan isn't a stranger to these types of games. Each of these teams kick off what could be the most important week of their seasons to this point in front of a raucous Crisler Center crowd.

The matchup to keep an eye on in this one is how Nebraska deals with Michigan's assault of size in the paint. Rienk Mast and Berke Buyuktuncel will have their hands full trying to guard Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, and Morez Johnson, and the Wolverines will likely win the battle of the glass. However, Nebraska should be able to protect the ball and hit outside shots, spreading out Michigan's bigs and potentially forcing a change in lineup construction.

Now, Michigan is a double digit favorite, so if Nebraska were to win, this story would immediately jump from simply the biggest in college basketball to an Indiana football level story, as the Huskers would be a ridiculous 21-0 heading into their matchup with Illinois at Pinnacle Bank on Sunday.

Meanwhile, I've been saying that Michigan will lose on January 30 at the Breslin Center to Michigan State all year. My line was that "even if Michigan wins every game by 70 until then, it will lose to Michigan State." And I still believe that. The Spartans are up to 4th in KenPom after drubbing Maryland, and will have an insane home court advantage on Friday night.

The Big 12 has taken center stage with some marquee matchups early in the conference slate, including last night's Arizona/BYU game, the Kansas/Iowa State game, both Houston/Texas Tech games, as well as Texas Tech/BYU. But this week is all about the Big Ten.