It wasn’t always breakneck speed that led to Nebraska men’s basketball’s 90-55 win over Oregon Tuesday night in Lincoln.
However, the pace was near flawless in the final 36 minutes of the game. The lead ball handler in the multi-ball handler system for Nebraska, Jamarques Lawrence, finished with four assists and zero turnovers in the game.
“We knew we could attack that and we were getting easy open looks in transition, so we just kept attacking that and obviously, Jamarques is the head of that,” Braden Frager said after the win. “Bringing it up with pace, you just open up a lot of things when we ran up the court.”
The secondary lead ball handler option, Sam Hoiberg, is among the best in the country in ball security. Over the last eight games, Hoiberg has 32 assists and just four turnovers in 238:07 of game action. With five assists and, once again, zero turnovers against Oregon, Hoiberg now has the nation’s fourth-best assist-to-turnover ratio (5.25).
Pace can be defined in various ways. It can be getting a shot up as quickly as possible or within 10-15 seconds of the possession starting, or it can be what Fred Hoiberg defines as “smart.”
The smart pace would be getting the offense into sets or actions quickly in the halfcourt and not forcing shots too quickly just for the sake of playing fast.
“I thought Jamarques’ pace was outstanding,” Fred Hoiberg said. “I was really pleased with our transition game today.”
In the official box score, Nebraska outscored Oregon 10-0 in fast break points. Fast break points are universally defined as when a team has a numbers advantage after a change of possession.
Nebraska outscored Oregon 23-4 in points off turnovers as well, which can often include fast break points after live-ball turnovers.
Nebraska’s Pace
After a deeper dive into the pace at which Nebraska scored, you can make a case that they scored 14 more points in transition.
“We always talk about playing with pace, but with smart pace, and I thought we did that tonight,” Hoiberg said. “We didn’t force it. Played in a crowd a little bit in the first half, but overall, I thought our pace was smart, and it was really good.
“I thought we got the ball up the floor even after a couple of Oregon makes. Jamarques hits Pryce, throwing it up the floor for 3 and then he gets the answer back coast to coast for a layup.”
Those two situations Hoiberg referenced were in the first half. The Lawrence layup and ensuing free-throw came after one of the 16 Duck turnovers, officially in the box score as a fast break point and not one of the 14 points referenced above.
After Oregon 7-footer Nate Bittle made a wing 3-pointer with 15:23 on the clock, Pryce Sandfort answered back with a 3-pointer just six seconds later (15:17).
From 11:13 to 3:40 of game play in the second half, Nebraska had five field goals within 15 seconds or less of Oregon’s possessions.
An Oregon 3-pointer from Wei Lin at 11:13 was followed by a Husker 3-pointer from Pryce Sandfort at 11:01. With 4:26 remaining in the second half, Oregon’s Kwame Evans Jr. made a free throw, and 15 seconds later (4:11), Braden Frager answered with a 3-pointer of his own. On the very next Duck possession, Devon Pryor dunked home a basket at the 3:48 mark. Just eight seconds later (3:40), Frager made his seventh 3-pointer of the game.
“We were struggling to score there for a little bit, but what really got us going was Jamarques’ pace,” Hoiberg said.
Nebraska actually rates slightly below the average in tempo according to KenPom, ranking 184th. The Huskers are 101st in average possession length. They don’t necessarily run every possession and look for the first shot that presents itself regardless of quality, but looking for smart opportunities to push the pace has been and will continue to be a point of emphasis from Hoiberg and his staff for the 17-0 Cornhuskers.
