Nebraska men’s basketball got back to its winning ways at home Saturday with a 68-49 win over Northwestern Saturday at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
It wasn’t the best offensive performance from Nebraska this season, particularly in the first 20 minutes. The Huskers made just 10 of their 29 shots from the field and committed 10 first-half turnovers.
“We just kept after it, that was the thing,” Fred Hoiberg said after the win. “I’m proud of the guys, even though we were not having a good offensive performance out there, they kept guarding and that led to some baskets, some good opportunities.”
The Huskers’ defense stymied Northwestern’s offense in the first half, holding the Wildcats to just 12-for-27 (44%) in the first half.
“I wish the game was 28 minutes,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “For us, two games, Michigan and Nebraska, we played 28 minutes of really good basketball, and then 12 minutes of really poor basketball.”
The 12 minutes Collins was referring to was from the 13:16 mark of the second half to the 3:48 mark.
With the Huskers trailing 38-35 with just under seven minutes left in the second half, Sam Hoiberg, Cale Jacobsen, Pryce Sandfort, Braden Frager and Berke Büyüktuncel led the team to a 27-9 extended run.
“Give Nebraska a lot of credit for that,” Collins said. “They’re an experienced group. They are a tough-minded group. I thought we did a lot of good things defensively up until that point. I thought it was a real critical stretch.”
The run happened with Nebraska’s leader in Rienk Mast — who finsihed with just three points in 26 minutes — on the bench.
“I really tried to get Rienk a little blow and then we took off and sometimes that happens, is the flow of the game will dictate your rotation,” Hoiberg said. “And that’s what happened there at the end. That group really got us going and built it up and a lot of it had to do with their defensive energy and intensity.”
The 49 Northwestern points were its second-lowest output of the season and lowest since scoring 44 against Illinois on Feb. 4. Two of the Wildcats’ three lowest scoring games of the season came against Nebraska, including 58 against the Huskers on Jan. 17.
Turnovers
It was another bad start for Nebraska on the offensive end. Getting off to a fast start has been a focus and this is two games in a row where the Huskers didn’t.
The Huskers turned the ball over seven times in the first six and a half minutes.
The 18 turnovers in the game tied a season high (previous set against New Mexico). It is now two games in a row that Nebraska has given up double-digit turnovers (14 against Purdue last time out).
“They are so good with their movement and their cutting. If you let them, they execute,” Collins said. “Fred has always run great stuff, so we tried to do some switching, which, kind of if you are doing it right and talking well, it can maybe blow up some actions with flares and double downs and things of that nature. Forced them to be one-on-one players, that was the whole goal, obviously, they beat us.”
Before the game, Northwestern was second in the country in offensive turnover percentage, 12.4%. The Huskers increased that number to 12.9% after forcing 16 Wildcat turnovers Saturday.
Glass Edge
The Huskers didn’t need to win the rebounding advantage to win the game. In the first matchup between the two teams, Northwestern out-rebounded the Huskers 30-28 and 9-6 in offensive rebounds.
Saturday, the Huskers needed a get-right game on the glass and they got it, out-rebounding the Wildcats 40-24 and 13-6 in offensive rebounds.
The plus-16 margin was its best of the season (previously plus-12 vs. West Georgia and North Dakota).
Nebraska turned the 13 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points, clearly a positive for the Huskers.
“We got 17 second-chance points, which was huge on a night where the shots weren’t falling until the end,” Hoiberg said.
Seeking Joy
There is a difference between finding happiness and seeking joy.
Although the season to this point — 22-3 and 11-3 in Big Ten play — has been a tremendous success, the Huskers haven’t been playing with joy, Sam Hoiberg said after the game.
“It’s about getting better and getting, kind of, that confidence back,” he said. “We really talked about playing with joy., We’re almost so businesslike that we haven’t been enjoying this ride and that was one of the things my dad was huge on emphasizing this week, and I thought today was a game we played with as much joy as we have in a while, and that leads to good things.”
Sometimes we go through life one game at a time, one moment at a time. We don’t look around, take a breath and realize there is joy in the mundane things we do daily.
If you seek joy, even in the face of pressure, whether that is undue or not, you are looking for the small things that may or may not put a smile on your face. After all, the ball will stop bouncing and the stories will stop being written one day.
