Now that the Huskers are back at home, who better to play than a team that is 2-8 on the road this year. Texas Tech came to the Devaney Center on Saturday with hopes of easing their road woes under new coach Pat Knight.  Things looked pretty good for the Red Raiders early as they jumped out to their largest lead of the game when the score was 19-11.  Nebraska buckled up the defense and started to create plays for their shooters, as well as Maric, and NU turned in an impressive 21-2 run which led to a 6 minute scoring drought for TT.  The Huskers led 40-28 at the half, but more importantly was how they led.  Maric, who was playing in front of his mom and dad, was very aggressive.  There were a lot of dunks and not very many of those sky hooks he has been shooting lately.  He put the ball on the floor and made a few moves.  When he was doubled he kicked it out to an open teammate.   Steve Harley, who finished with 12 points, had 10 in the first half in arguably one of his best games as a Husker, as he was able to hit the open shot and protect the ball on offense.  Ryan Anderson, who in my last post I asked where has he gone, showed up in a BIG way on Saturday.  R.A. hit 8-9 from the field and 3-3 from behind the arc in tying his career conference high of 19 points.  He was relentless on defense with pressure and steals and on offense he was hitting open shots and was aggressive on the glass with 7 rebounds.  He was the player we all thought he could be and NU needs that 1-2 punch with Maric to be successful.

NU opened up it’s lead in the second half to 18 points when TT went to a full court press and started to make a ball game out of it, down only by seven, at 62-55.  The Red Raiders were sparked by Mike Singletary and Alan Voskuil, but couldn’t overcome a 9-3 run by the Huskers that put the lead back to 71-58 with 2:05 to play.  NU continued to play hard even though the outcome was already clear.  It was a good win at home, and with 2 of the next 3 at the Devaney, NU can try to make a late season run for a strong conference record.

Next up is Missouri at home on Wednesday at 7 P.M.   This game is not televised but will be broadcast on 1110 KFAB, which has an internet stream available also.

[see the box score courtesy of Huskers.com]

Nebraska travelled to #20 K-State on Wednesday and in the process aquainted themselves with possibly the number one overall pick for next year’s NBA draft.  Michael Beasley was effortless in scoring 35 points and pulling down  13 boards on 15 of 21 shooting, while leading his cats past the Huskers 74-59.

Nebraska took an early 4-0 lead only to watch as Beasley scored 10 points in under two minutes to cap a 12-0 run by K-State.  Nebraska’s perimeter defense was a step behind in the first half as the Wildkitties hit 43% of their three point attempts and 54% of their total shots.  Just like the Creighton game, when NU let them score at will and build up a huge halftime lead, Kansas State also had a commanding 45-30 lead heading into the locker room.  Beasley led all ( and almost NU ) with 23 points and Dagunduro led the Huskers with 9, followed by Maric with 8.

The similarities to the Creighton game didn’t stop there.  Just like in that game, NU found it’s defense, this time, going to a box-in-1 on Michael Beasley.  The result let NU back into the game, cutting a once 15 point lead down to 5 twice, at 55-50 and then 57-52.  That is as close as it would get for the Huskers as the offense stalled for NU and started to heat up for K-State.  Turnovers and rebounds plagued NU during this stretch, but they played hard until the end, so you couldn’t really ask for anything else.

A few afterthoughts after watching the game are:

1. I wonder why, with K-State’s size advantage, Doc  didn’t tinker with having Maric, Balham, and Ping in the line-up at the same time.  I think Ping is in the Doc dog house, or maybe it’s just Balham’s finally starting to come into his own.
2. Steve Harley made 3 really bad turnovers in a minute span that led to 6 quick KSU points when NU was clawing back.  He also didn’t seem to have his shooting touch all night, as nothing was really even close. 
3. Alecs Maric continued with the sky hooks and lay-ups all game long and I continue to wish he would just put the throwdown on one of those balls.  He did have 16 points and 15 rebounds but many were put backs or lay-ups and rebounds that came right to him.  Balham is much more physical all while giving up 3 inches and 40 pounds.
4. Sek Henry needs to start!  With Harley and Dagunduro struggling, Henry continues to impress with defense and quick slashes to the hoop.  Sek has come a long way this year defensively, and I say give the kid the ball!
5. I would love to have a whole team of Cookie Miller!  I love this kid.  Nobody leaves it all on the court more than C.M.  I get tired of watching him sometimes, that is how hard he works, non-stop.  In high school, he set the record for most points scored, so we know he can do that, but what impresses me the most is he is full speed all the time.  When you are the smallest guy out on the court every game and you still find ways to get rebounds in traffic, hit the open shot, create off the dribble and steal as many balls as he does, that is impressive!  When he finds his scoring touch again, look out!  During the game on Wednesday he messed up and didn’t rotate on a pick.  Doc was yelling at him from the sideline, and like a seasoned vet, Cookie pointed his hand to his ear as if to say “what Doc, can’t hear you”. 
6. Ryan Anderson, where did you go?  Last year R.A. averaged 10.1 points while shooting a respectable 47% from the field and 43% from behind the arc.  This year he averages 8.8 points, shooting 42 percent from the field and 38% behind the arc.

Up next is Texas Tech at home Saturday at 3 P.M. which will be on ESPN Plus.

[See the Box Score courtesy of Huskers.com]

More server maintenance tonight. Huskerzone.com will likely be unavailable for a good portion of overnight hours (Midnight-6:00 am CT) while the server is being physically moved from one datacenter to another.

My apologies for the inconvenience but it should speed some things up around here.

Future Husker lineman, Baker Steinkuhler from Lincoln Southwest, was ranked 8th best recruit in the land this year by Rivals.com.

Baker is the first five-star player ever from the state of Nebraska, according to Rivals.

[UPDATE] Lincoln Journal Star is running a feature on the Steinkuhler family. Ty Steinkuhler will be a senior defensive tackle at Nebraska this coming season. Baker and Ty’s dad, Dean, a.k.a. The Burr Oak, was an All-American for the Huskers in the early 80s. He went on to play eight seasons in the NFL., after being selected by the Houston Oilers with the second overall pick in the 1984 NFL Draft, right behind ex-Husker teammate Irving Fryar.

  Ok, so it was after an 0-4 start, but we are back on track to at least have a respectable showing in the Big 12.  Nebraska, after that o-4 start, has wins against a suspension depleted Missouri and an injured Iowa State.  If they could have only hit some free-throws, NU very well could be 4-2 and sitting in a tie for third behind KU and KSU.  The Huskers showed the right amount of will and drive on Saturday to get them over the shooting slump they have been in for more than a month, but the meat of the conference schedule is just about to start, and there is no time for pats on the back just yet.

Nebraska didn’t look good at the start of Saturday’s game, falling behind 5-0, before finally playing together and pulling ahead 13-12 on a Ryan Anderson jump shot.  The score jumped back and forth the rest of the first half.  Nebraska had only one basket in the final 6 minutes of the half and if it weren’t for Iowa St. fouls, NU wouldn’t have been able to pull it even at 29 apiece going into halftime. 

According to Doc Sadler, there was no mention of X’s and O’s at halftime, but instead he challenged  his team to play better, smarter, and more aggressive.

I really liked our effort the second half. I thought they (Iowa St.)  were the aggressor in the first half. That’s what we talked about at halftime. We didn’t talk about X’s and O’s. Not that we were that much more aggressive (in the second half) than they were, but at least we were aggressive, especially on the basketball.”

Whatever was said worked and the Huskers built leads of 35-29, 48-43, and 55-46 in the second half.  Nebraska held Iowa St. scoreless for a seven minute stretch of the half which contributed to the final score, 64-56. 

Sek Henry was aggressive for the second consecutive game as he put up 11 points, 5 boards, and a block.  This rubbed off , and Dagunduro too, slashed to the basket and tried to get  his shot in a rhythm for the first time since conference play started.  It worked as Ade went 5-10 from the field for 10 points, but however he did not get one rebound.  Ade was a major player in the Huskers non-conference scoring, so it is nice to have him contribute again after only scoring 18 points in his first 5 conference games.  On the outs seems to be Shang Ping, as he saw no action in this game and has played limited action his last 2 games.  In his place, Chris Ballham brings an uncontrolled energy to the floor (that is sometimes late on defense), but he can work the 2 man game to get a quick dunk and for the most part, knows what his job is.  I continue to become a Cookie Miller fan for  his heart and toughness.  Sometimes on the floor it looks like he is going to have an asthma attack, but he just keeps going and going.  He has shown better control of the ball lately and is shooting the ball a little better now that he is trying to pick his shots and not force them.  Alecs Maric had his second double double in a row with 14 points and 13 rebounds but I am growing tired of seeing the Maric hook over and over again.  With Ade and Sek starting to find some lanes to drive in, maybe this will open up Maric for some dunks.  I  really thought Doc would try to develop a short jumper will Maric, 8-10 footer, but they never have.  If Maric could post up, this would add another dimension to defend.  Either way, a win is a win and after that start, I’m sure we will all take them.

[see the Box Score courtesy of Huskers.com]

ROBURT SALLIE

On a side note, the Omaha World Herald did a story on Roburt Sallie today and like I have said before, next years team will have some serious scoring options on it that this team doesn’t have.   It’s a good read and should get you pumped up for next year with McCray, Edwards, and Sallie all looking to contribute.  Enjoy the SUPER BOWL!  I really don’t like Eli Manning, but I almost hope they win.  Rooting for the underdog is always fun to do.  However, I like NE too much to do that.  I say Pats 37  Giants 17.