Nebraska men’s basketball will look to continue its winning ways when it travels to Indiana for an 11 a.m. tip on Saturday.
The game will be televised on Big Ten Network with Kevin Kugler and Bruce Weber on the call.
The early tip time is a first for the Huskers this season and is something that has the attention of Husker coach Fred Hoiberg.
“We haven’t played an early game for a while,” Hoiberg said. “Our body clocks have been more play the 8, 8, 8 and then 6:30 in the game at Ohio State. We’ve got to find a way to bounce back. You’ve got to find a way to bounce back. It’s hard when you play a lot of late games then you’ve got to bounce back and play an early one.”
Nebraska has extended its program record winning streak to 19, dating back to last season. The Huskers’ 15-game winning streak to start the season is also a program record after their win at Ohio State Monday.
The Hoosiers are on a four-game winning streak of their won after Wednesday’s dismantling of Maryland on the road.
Hoosiers Getting Offensive
If Nebraska men’s basketball can keep its winning streak alive Saturday at Indiana, it is going to need to continue to play on a string defensively.
“The thing that has been really impressive to me is how their numbers have gone up once they’ve played league opponents,” Hoiberg said of the Hoosiers. “They’ve got shooting all over the court. That’s where it starts with Indiana, and Darian (DeVries) just runs unbelievable stuff to get those guys open.”
In Big Ten play (four games), Indiana is the top offense in the league. According to KenPom, the Hoosiers rank first in offensive efficiency (121.9), 3-point percentage (40.5%), and turnover percentage (11.1%). They are second in effective field goal percentage (61.2%) and 2-point percentage (61.%).
Defensively, the Huskers rank fourth in league play with a defensive efficiency rating of 99.6.
The Huskers will need to have that same urgency defensively that they have had all season long. Slowing down the hot Hoosiers won’t be an easy task.
“They are a very fast-starting team with the way that they score the ball,” Hoiberg said. “We gotta come out of the game ready to go and we’ll do everything we can to have our guys ready.”
Just over 37% of Indiana’s points have come from the 3-point line, something Nebraska is very aware of.
“It’s urgency on closeouts, it’s knowing who you’re closing out to,” Hoiberg said of defending the 3-point line Saturday. “They’ve got some guys that you want to maybe close a little bit short. Don’t dare them, but not quite the shooters that some of those guys are.
“The urgency that we have to have and the awareness of where their lasers are, that’s important in a game like this.”
One of those lasers Hoiberg referred to is Lamar Wilkerson. The sixth-year senior has four straight 20-plus-point games. In the Hoosiers’ road win on Wednesday at Maryland, the Sam Houston State transfer scored 16 straight in the second half.
Indiana uses Wilkerson in a lot of screen actions to get him the ball and cut actions to get him open. Nebraska will need to be aware of him at all times on the defensive end.
“You just have to have constant awareness and you can’t lose him in transition. I think that is really where it starts,” Hoiberg said. “The range that he shoots the ball, it’s not NBA line. It’s four or five feet behind the NBA line, and you just have to have great awareness anytime you’re playing against a player like that.
“They do a great job in their screening actions and trying to confuse you. They run some misdirection stuff. Really good actions to get a shooter of his caliber going and give him credit, he’s doing his job by making them.”
Keys To the Game
Obviously, limiting Wilkerson will be a key. Nebraska has done a good job of shutting off their opponents’ top scorer this season (see what they did against Bruce Thornton at Ohio State).
Making Wilkerson work for his shots and maybe even being a little physical with him on the defensive end could be a key. In the Hoosiers’ 15 games, Wilkerson is averaging 19.2 points and shooting 42% from 3-point range.
Limiting Indiana’s points per possession is the most vital key, and Nebraska has done a great job of that recently.
The Huskers have had success holding opponents under their season average. Ten of their 15 opponents have scored under 1.0 points per possession, including six of the last eight games.
In the last three-plus seasons, Nebraska is 49-3 (.941) when holding opponents to under 1.00 PPP, and 51-5 when holding opponents under 70 points.
The Hoosiers’ points per possession this season is in the 96th percentile in the country (1.075). In their last two games, Washington and Maryland, they have averaged 1.01 points per possession.
Indiana has scored 350 points on 302 possessions in Big Ten play, good for a points per possession rate of 1.16.
