Wrong Ball Cookie!!! 

There is no such thing as a moral victory, in my opinion, but according to Doc Sadler Nebraska has built momentum in the right direction.

“There’s so many positives. The score is what it is. I’m not happy about it. I’m not pleased, but I still think there were some good things about what we did. We have to have Ade (Dagunduro), Steve (Harley) and Ryan (Anderson) and we didn’t get it tonight on the offensive end. Our defense is good enough. There’s not question about it. It’s just that offense that separates and gives you a chance to win ballgames. We’re not good enough offensively right now.”

Nebraska got beat 79-58 Saturday at the Devaney Center but it was not a flat out domination of the Huskers.  KU made every open shot they put up and outside of Alecs Maric’s 7-12 shooting the Huskers just plain stunk it up offensively.  Leaving Maric out and just counting the four other starters, Henry, Anderson, Miller and Dagunduro then adding in Strowbridge and Harley because they contribute the most, their tally from the field was 9-34 or 26%.  After hitting the first 8 free throws of the game, NU was just 3-12 the rest of the way and shot only 55%  11-20 for the game.  For whatever reason, NU just couldn’t buy a basket.  During warm-ups,  Anderson and Velander were sinking almost every 3 they tried but when the game started up, Anderson was in Bricksville looking to buy a house.  Velander provided a spark going 3-3 off the bench, including 2 three pointers, but that was pretty much it for husker highlights of the game, other than Bo Pelini and his coaches taking a halftime curtain call. 

Nebraska did play hard and only gave KU a few chip shots during the game.  As soon as the Huskers gave just one inch of space for an open shot,  the Jayhawks alway hit them.  Brandon Rush, after being called out by Coach Bill Self, responded with a season high 19 points for KU and was one of four Jayhawks in double figures.

I would say the atmosphere of the game was OK at best.  The biggest cheers of the night were for the new football coaches and Bo Pelini, but that is all right, at least people got out to see what NU basketball is all about.  NU never gave up and played hard all night, even when it looked like the outcome was well in sight.

Dizzturbed and I took the game in and on the way home, here are some of the things we talked about.

1. Rebounding.  It seemed every time someone from NU put a shot up our entire team would instantly run to the other end of the court, leaving all 5 Jayhawks to claim a rebound.  After seeing it 2 or 3 times, I though maybe it was an aberation, but nope, it happened all game long.  Doc needs to improve on this if he wants to be competitive in the Big 12.
2. After 4 years on NU’s campus, Alecs Maric needs to show dominance.  Like I said in a previous post, I was surprised to hear he finished with 19 points because watching the game, he was being man-handled for the majority of it.  I believe the exact rated PG phrase I said was ” He’s from Australia with Serbian blood flowing through him for Pete’s sake.  He has played Ball for world champions in the U20 National Team of Australia, He’s 6′11″ and 270 and he should play like it.  I did feel a little badly when I found he got some stitches on his eyelid after bouncing his head off the floor, but hey it’s the truth. 
3. Somewhat ties into number two, but NU needs more productivity from it’s guards.  Shaq had Kobe and then Wade.  Jordan had Pippen and Bonnie had Clyde.  Maybe too much is put on Maric and with a little help from his friends, he could be the player I think he could be.  Twenty-six percent shooting from every other regular contributor is not going to cut it.  Maybe it’s time to work on offense, Doc.  They seem to have your defense down pretty well.

I don’t claim to be a coach, but I have learned a few things in my day.  Work on what is giving you fits.  On my daughter’s 4th grade team I help coach, every week at practice we spend less time on the things we understand well and more on the things that gave us problems the previous game.  This helps up grow as a team, and watching it in action, I say it works. 

I have changed the batteries on the crystal ball.  It had the 79 right, but that was it.  I should be back up and running at full speed in no time.

[see the Box Score courtesy of Huskers.com]