Turnovers doom Huskers in blowout loss at Michigan

Coming in as a loser of its past 14 games and a 17-point underdog at No. 19 Michigan on Thursday night, Nebraska was already facing daunting odds to get its first win in nearly two months.

Things then somehow got even worse when it was announced an hour before tip-off that standout point guard Cam Mack had been suspended for the game for a violation of team rules.

As expected, things did not go well once again for the Huskers in an 82-58 defeat that was close for a half and then quickly went off the rails.

Nebraska committed a season-high 22 turnovers and let a four-point halftime deficit explode into getting outscored 50-30 after the break, as the 24-point final margin was NU’s most lopsided loss of the season.

The Huskers fell to 7-23 on year and 2-17 in Big Ten play, while Michigan picked up an important win for its NCAA Tournament resume on its Senior Night and improved to 19-11, 10-9.

“Obviously you don’t have to look much further than the turnovers tonight with 22 of them,” head coach Fred Hoiberg told the Husker Sports Network. “I thought for the first half – we had 12 turnovers at halftime, and I really thought we went out there and competed through that and hung in there and kept competing…

“Then the second half we came out, and kind of the same old story with second halves.”

The Wolverines got things going right off the bat by opening the game on an 11-2 run, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Thorir Thorbjarnarson and Jervay Green pulled Nebraska within 21-18 with just under 10 minutes left in the half.

The Huskers switched to a 2-3 zone that forced UM to miss 12 of its next 14 shots and allowed the Huskers to go on a 10-2 run and cut the deficit down to 23-22.

From there on, however, Nebraska would score just six more points with five turnovers over the final 6:52 of the first half and trailed 32-28 at halftime.

The Huskers held Michigan to 34.2 percent shooting and held a 24-18 rebounding advantage in the first half, but they also committed 12 turnovers that resulted in 12 Wolverine points.

“We just couldn’t recover from those turnovers, and that was the story all night long,” Hoiberg said.

Michigan again sprinted out of the gates with a 21-6 run to start the second half, which was aided by four Nebraska turnovers in the first three minutes.

That would be all the Wolverines would need to coast to the victory from there, as the Huskers never got any closer than 13 points and UM led by as many as 27 before all was said and done

Michigan shot 59 percent from the field in the second half and scored 24 points off of Nebraska’s 22 turnovers.

“We had a stretch where we just went crazy in the second half and trying to drive into seams and trying to go one-on-one,” Hoiberg said. “When we had movement, we had some pretty good possessions, but just not enough of them.

"We just kind of lost our minds there for a stretch and tried to get it all back at once, and that’s when we’ve had our issues this year.”

Haanif Cheatham had a game-high 19 points and five rebounds while Dachon Burke scored 16, but they were the only Huskers in double figures. The Wolverines, on the other hand, had five players with 10 or more points, led by 18 and 10 rebounds from Isaiah Livers.

The Huskers will wrap up the regular season on Sunday when they travel to take on Minnesota for a noon CT tip on Big Ten Network.

1. More trouble for Mack

As impressive as Mack has been on the court, his first season has a Husker has been marred with a series of off-the-court issues.

Thursday was the worst yet, as he didn't even travel to Ann Arbor with the team after being suspended for a violation of team rules.

Mack had been disciplined three previous times by being removed from the starting lineup, two of which a result of being late for a team film session or to the team bus.

Like every other player on Nebraska’s active roster, Mack has gone through his ups and downs this season on the court. But he's been far and away the Huskers’ most all-around productive player, averaging 12.0 points, 6.4 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.

However, there is legitimate concern about whether Mack’s ability to be equally reliable in other aspects beyond basketball. As a point guard, especially in Hoiberg’s system, leadership is such an important trait

When your point guard has to be disciplined for a lack of accountability as much as Mack has, especially this far along into the season, you have to wonder when he’ll figure it out.

Hoiberg did not elaborate on what Mack did to warrant his suspension but confirmed that Mack would be back in the lineup in Sunday’s regular-season finale at Minnesota.

2. Turnovers have suddenly become a serious issue

Nebraska has had plenty of shortcomings this season, but one area where it’s generally been pretty good has been ball security.

In the Huskers’ first 28 games of the year, they only turned the ball over more than 15 times just once, when they had 18 at Georgia Tech on Dec. 4.

For whatever reason, though, that has gone out the window over the past two losses.

After setting a season-high with 21 giveaways in Sunday’s loss to Northwestern, NU topped that mark with 22 at Michigan. Those opponents turned those 43 total turnovers into 44 points.

You can chalk up some of Thursday night’s struggles to not having Mack, but he was on the floor against Northwestern and had three turnovers of his own in that game.

3. Arop was a bright spot

The Michigan loss was ugly in so many ways for Nebraska, but there was at least one positive in the career night by Akol Arop.

The true freshman forward had by far his most impactful game as a Husker, setting career-highs in minutes played (20), points (5), and rebounds (6).

Arop also posted the highest +/- rating on the team at +3, making him one of only two Huskers (along with Green’s +2 in 19 minutes) to finish in the positive.

Hoiberg went out of his way to praise Arop during his post-game radio show, saying that type of effort definitely did not go unnoticed on an otherwise forgettable night.

“I thought Akol played his best game in a Husker uniform tonight,” Hoiberg said. “He was really going out there flying around and playing within himself.”