‘It crushes me’ Poor early D, late missed 3s sink Nebraska at Big Ten Tournament

CHICAGO — Keisei Tominaga can make shots anytime, anywhere, so his buzzer-beating, half-court jumper in the United Center on Wednesday night had real hope attached to it.

“I thought it was going to in,” Tominaga said after NU’s 78-75 Big Ten Tournament loss to Minnesota. “But it didn’t.”

Nope. Bounced off the back iron. And NU bounced out of the conference’s annual gathering the way it usually does — with a brief hello and quick exit out the side door before the league heavies roll into town.

The Huskers (16-16) could make the NIT, but coach Fred Hoiberg ultimately didn’t sound optimistic about his team’s chances.

“It crushes me for it to end this way,” Hoiberg said as he took the opportunity, in a nearly empty media room, to thank Derrick Walker, Sam Griesel and Tominaga seated beside him.

Nebraska (16-16) hasn’t won a conference tourney game in his era, and Wednesday night’s loss had an easy culprit: The Gophers (9-21) ran the Huskers’ D ragged, shooting 52% and logging 25 assists. UM was nails at the rim — 10 for 14 on layups — and hit 10 three-pointers. That offset Tominaga’s 23 points — in the house Michael Jordan built — and a late charge from Nebraska.

“I think they made 12 of 14 during one stretch in the first half,” Hoiberg noted. Minnesota lost twice to NU earlier this season but seemed to figure out how to beat Nebraska’s strategy of doubling center Dawson Garcia, who had 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Garcia said UM kept the ball “hot” — making Husker defenders tire of rotating after multiple passes — in search of a good shot. By the time Nebraska’s defensive “urgency,” as Hoiberg called it, had improved, NU trailed 50-39 in the second half.

A second-half technical foul incurred by UM coach Ben Johnson — who protested long and profanely enough to get the whistle with nine minutes left — cracked the door open for Nebraska.

But “we just could not get the lead,” Hoiberg said. Four times Nebraska had a chance to do so in the second half. Twice, Griesel missed three-pointers and twice more, in the final 90 seconds, Husker players were called for illegal moving screens.

When NU had a chance to tie in the final eight seconds with a two-pointer, Griesel lost his dribble — and the ball — out of bounds. Hoiberg said he declined to call timeout because Griesel — who finished 4-of-13 shooting — had a lane to the hoop. Minnesota got the ball, and Jaden Henley missed his first free throw.

Ben Johnson lamented not demanding — until it was too late — for Henley to miss the second. He made it, allowing Hoiberg, with 1.3 seconds left to call Tominaga’s number at half court.

“Keisei shoots those in practice every day,” said Hoiberg, who backpedaled, at half-court, as the shot went to the hoop. When it “scraped off the back of the rim,” Hoiberg turned toward Johnson, who was looking at his coaches in sheer relief.

He’d nearly cost his team the game with the technical foul.

Until that point, Minnesota was entirely in control, building a 34-25 first-half pad, leading 37-33 at halftime, and blasting out of the second-half gates on a 13-6 run of torrid shotmaking. When Gopher guard Jamison Battle hit a 15-foot jumper at the top of the key, UM led 60-53.

Battle had four fouls, too, and Johnson, in attempt to put himself in Battle’s shoes, decided to “let it rip” and leave Battle in the game. Griesel drew a blocking foul and Johnson, apoplectic, required assistants to hold him back from officials. He got the T anyway.

“That was on me 100%,” Johnson said. “That was probably not the smartest thing to do.”

Tominaga made two free throws, then Griesel did. The Huskers trailed by just three.

Nebraska never took the lead. It’s rarely — almost never — been Nebraska basketball’s thing, winning in conference tournaments, and it still isn’t. Routine stuff becomes hard at neutral sites. The Huskers missed 15 layups. Their drop defensive coverage had no bottom, a few times, seemingly descending to the rim.

A sizzling second half from Tominaga — who scored 15 points on eight shots — kept it fun and close, and Griesel said he didn’t think, one time, Nebraska would lose Wednesday night.

But this is the Big Ten Tournament and these are the Huskers, who have won five whole games in 12 years of such events. Memories are not often made here.

They were made in February and early March, when Nebraska won six of eight and likely saved Hoiberg’s job.

“The initial thought is sadness, but, with what this group did — and for me, personally, why I came here — it’s more of a smile that it happened,” said Griesel, a Lincoln East graduate who transferred back from North Dakota State for his final season. “Right now, it sucks, it hurts. If it is the end, it hasn’t really sunk in yet.”