Fred Hoiberg praises Keisei Tominaga for effort vs. Michigan, previews Big Ten Tournament

Nebraska handled Michigan 85-70 on the road Sunday afternoon to improve to 22-9 on the season, locking up a double-bye into the quarterfinals of next week’s Big Ten Tournament.

Keisei Tominaga was one point shy of tying his career-high in points, finishing the game with 30 on 12 of 17 shooting as he surpassed the 1,000-point scoring mark for his career against the Wolverines.

“He got off to a great start and hit his first couple of shots. And when teams are running him off, one of the underrated parts of his game is his ability to cut and get to the basket,” Hoiberg explained postgame. “It was great to see him get off to a hot start. That’s what we needed tonight. We knew this team, coming in, they are very dangerous in this building. Dug McDaniel obviously had a role in that first half, but thankfully we had a really good offensive half to give us a lead and then second half, we extended it a little bit.

“Great job by our guys coming out here and finishing off the regular season.”

McDaniel ultimately finished with 17 points during the contest, but Hoiberg believes his team got “lucky” when he missed a few open looks in the first half. “A team problem,” McDaniel had some big moments in Sunday’s matchup, but Hoiberg believed his team’s attention to detail on him. Still, Hoiberg tipped his cap to the former four-star recruit.

Now, Nebraska can sit back and wait until Friday for their opponent as either the tournament’s three or four-seed team. From there, three wins seperate Hoiberg’s squad from an conference tournament title.

“We’ve just got to get back and get to work again,” Hoiberg said of the Huskers’ double-bye. “The thing that I’ve really liked these last couple of weeks is that I think we’re playing our best basketball this season. Guys have really been preparing well. we’ll see the matchups [in the conference tournament]. We’ll know when a couple of hours. Just kind of going out and continuing to do the things that we’ve been doing that have made us successful here in the last few weeks.”

In ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest update, he slotted the Huskers as a 9-seed in the West Region (Los Angeles).

With Nebraska finishing the regular season with a 6-1 record heading into the Big Ten Tournament — the Huskers have moved themselves away from the bubble and firmly in the field of 68.