What Nebraska basketball proved in first loss, Purdue’s problem and an overlooked star

Anyone else still sore from shoveling over a foot of snow?

Me too. But the silver lining to this week’s once-in-a-century snowstorm could be found in shame-free lounging and binging all of this week’s terrific games — including maybe the best of them all: Tuesday’s thriller between the Big Ten’s two top-five teams, No. 3 Michigan and No. 5 Nebraska.

This week’s 11 thoughts starts there, specifically with…

1. Michigan freshman guard Trey McKenney, whose unlikely layup with 1:07 left to play put the Wolverines ahead for good en route to their 75-72 win.

When the moment called, Trey McKenney answered. pic.twitter.com/EP4ientUzd

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) January 28, 2026

What’s shocking about that? Two things.

First, that Michigan hadn’t led before that since the score was 3-2, despite previously undefeated Nebraska being on the road and down two of its top three scorers. (Senior forward Rienk Mast (illness) and redshirt freshman Braden Frager (ankle) both sat.) Had both played, maybe Tuesday’s result would’ve turned out differently. But regardless, anyone who doubted the validity of Nebraska’s school-best 20-0 start — probably the best story in college basketball this season — was forced to eat crow as the Huskers opened up an 11-point first-half lead on one of the national title front-runners.

Fred Hoiberg’s team put up 50 first-half points — while shooting 59.4 percent from the floor and making 10 3s — against the nation’s second-best defense, according to KenPom’s adjusted efficiency rankings. Not many teams are capable of that, even if Michigan’s defense isn’t quite as Death Star-y as it was in the nonconference.

2. And yet, who still came up with the dub?

Because even on a night when Michigan clearly didn’t have its best stuff, the Wolverines again proved why they’re on the shortlist of teams that can win it all.

It didn’t matter that they went 1-for-13 from 3 in the second half against Nebraska’s no-middle defense. Or that star forward Yaxel Lendeborg shot just 3-for-10 from the field. Or that the team committed 19 turnovers — its second-highest in a game this season — and had only 15 assists.

And there’s no better example of that “figure it out” ethos than McKenney and his game-winner.

3. Entering Tuesday, guess how many spot-up drives Michigan’s five-star guard had attempted all season, per Synergy? That would be … two! Seriously: one when UM was up 25 against USC and another up 19 against Indiana. McKenney is a perimeter shooter who’s shot twice as many 3s (89) than 2-point shots (42).

That’s the list.

Moreover, per Synergy, McKenney had scored only 21 points on drives all season entering Tuesday night, accounting for about 11 percent of his total points. For reference, McKenney had 21 points in his very first college game.

Yet with the game on the line, a freshman who’s made more 3s than 2s this season drove baseline — right into the teeth of Nebraska’s no-middle — and finished over Sam Hoiberg (in perfect position) to give Michigan all the margin it needed. That’s figuring it out.

Tuesday’s win moved Michigan into a tie for first in the Big Ten alongside Nebraska and Michigan State. And lucky us: Next up for Dusty May’s squad is a trip Friday to East Lansing for another top-10 battle, this time against the rival Spartans.

4. Not to twist the knife on another Big Ten fan base, which has had a brutal past eight days, but notice which supposed contender isn’t tied atop the league standings?

That would be Purdue, which lost its third straight game Tuesday, falling 72-67 at unranked Indiana. The Boilermakers allowed their eighth straight opponent to shoot at least 50 percent from 2, with IU having the second-most-efficient 2-point shooting night (64.7 percent) any Purdue opponent has had all season. During that stretch, per Bart Torvik, Purdue is allowing opponents to make 60.6 percent of their 2s — which is the eighth-worst mark in Division I over the same period. Unsurprisingly, Purdue’s four worst 2-point defensive efforts have all come this month.

Put it all together, and it’s hard not to have flashbacks to last season’s leaky 2-point D, which doomed Matt Painter’s team.

5. So what gives?

Purdue’s positioning and rotations were all over the place — and that 2-point vulnerability, and the subsequent scrambling it induced, is a big reason the Boilermakers also allowed IU to make 12 3s.

For example: Daniel Jacobsen — who actually has the best defensive rating of Purdue’s primary center options, per CBB Analytics — simply gets lost on this routine ball-screen coverage against IU forward Reed Bailey. Jacobsen is so far in no man’s land after the second ball screen that it’s hard to determine if he was supposed to be trapping, hard hedging or playing normal drop. (You could argue No. 17 Omer Mayer needed to just help on Bailey rather than sliding back out to his original cover.)

Later in the first half, the same issue gives Bailey a free deep paint touch. Then it’s a one-on-one battle.

6. But it wasn’t just the bigs. Early in the second half, with Purdue already down double-digits, Oscar Cluff provides the help inside he’s supposed to — but neither of the Boilermakers’ four-year starting guards covers his back, ceding an easy basket by not helping the helper.

Braden Smith is arguably the best point guard in the country, but these sorts of defensive misses cannot happen when you’re trying to rally. Watch Smith’s head; he has no clue where Lamar Wilkerson is, as he runs from off-camera to the dunker spot.

There’s time for Painter to tighten the wrench — but the more these sorts of issues compound, the tougher it is to imagine this veteran team making the Final Four in its backyard in Indianapolis.

7. Speaking of elite guards, which of these three players would you rather have? Longtime readers know I love a good blind test:

Player A is Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner, whom our staff at The Athletic voted as a midseason first-team All-American. Player C is Alabama’s Labaron Philon, a midseason second-teamer. And Player B?

That would be Arizona’s Jaden Bradley: more specifically, his stats from the Wildcats’ four ranked wins over Florida, UConn, Alabama and BYU. In Arizona’s toughest test in over a month Monday vs. the Cougars, Bradley had 26 points, three assists and three rebounds on the road, helping the nation’s unanimous No. 1 team outlast a furious (and questionably officiated) BYU comeback attempt down the stretch.

Arizona fans have been in my comments for weeks, wanting more love for Tommy Lloyd’s team. I highly recommend this Lindsay Schnell piece on Arizona’s unselfish veterans, who have been key to the Wildcats’ depth. It’s not that the Wildcats weren’t deserving of their flowers, but rather that before BYU, they just hadn’t played a top-40 opponent since Dec. 13. Monday, obviously, was different.

And also, despite the final 62 seconds, there’s confirmation that UA can beat any team in America.

Bradley is as big a reason why as anyone. He may not have the gaudiest every-game counting stats because of the talent surrounding him, but with the game on the line, there’s not another guard in the nation I’d rather have with the ball in his hands.

8. Well, except maybe Bradley’s teammate, freshman Brayden Burries, whose in-season growth has been one of this season’s more underrated storylines.

Burries — a five-star, top-10 recruit in the 2025 class, who was actually ranked above fellow freshman star Koa Peat — entered college with the reputation as one of the best bucket-getting guards in his class. But in his first five games in Tucson, the 6-foot-4 guard averaged a meager 7.8 points per game, shooting 33.3 percent overall and 29.4 percent from 3.

Since then, Burries has been a supernova, averaging 17.6 points while shooting 53.8 percent overall and 39 percent from 3. That includes Monday’s masterclass, when he had a career-high 29 points, plus five rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks — the last of which clinched Arizona’s win.

BRAYDEN BURRIES BLOCKS THE POTENTIAL BYU GAME-WINNER 😳

ARIZONA ESCAPES UNDEFEATED 🔥 pic.twitter.com/y9CJev1oej

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 27, 2026

That play, in which Burries breaks away from his cover to provide the game-sealing help, is the perfect representation of understanding time and score. But it’s also decisive, which is what has impressed me most about Burries’ turnaround from his first few games.

9. According to Synergy, Burries is in the 91st percentile nationally as a pick-and-roll scorer, which rates as “excellent.” Among all players who attempt at least four such possessions per game, he’s 10th in efficiency at the high-major level and 17th across Division I.

And the biggest reason why? His decisiveness — and most times, knowing what he wants to do with the ball before he even gets it.

That’s been a massive change from earlier this season, when Burries was still adjusting to the pace of college hoops. He didn’t fly off ball screens, instead hesitating to try finding the perfect angle — and, instead, letting his windows pass him by. Here’s a great example from Arizona’s second game this season against Utah Tech. Burries gets a screen, pauses, gets rescreened, pauses again, before finally driving with no discernible advantage. The result is about what you’d expect.

10. Compare that with Monday, and how Burries flies off ball screens and immediately gets downhill:

Or, later in the second half, how he decides to reject a ball screen before catching the pass. That allows him to effortlessly drive past his defender and draw a foul going to the rim:

It’s like Burries has gone from playing in slow motion in November to 1.5x speed now.

And Arizona is the biggest beneficiary. Between Bradley and Burries, there’s arguably no more clutch backcourt in the country. If the Wildcats are going to make their first Final Four in 25 years, it’ll be because of these two standout guards.

11. Finally, as the Charles Bediako saga/legal wrangling continues at Alabama, with a new judge assigned, it looks like he will be allowed to play again in Sunday’s game at Florida. This, despite having left Alabama early to declare for the 2023 NBA Draft, then signing a two-way NBA contract and spending most of the past three seasons competing in the G League.

Adding to the drama: Florida coach Todd Golden drew headlines for criticizing an Alabama judge for allowing Bediako’s return and noting: “We’re going to beat them anyways.”