That’s what we are saying.
Before the game, there was not a single thing that shouted “bad matchup” for Nebraska.
In fact, quite the opposite.
Nebraska should have been able to dust off the Indianus game plan and pack the paint and mitigate one or two rebounders while aTm, the worst 3 point shooting team in the country shoots brick after brick.
Further, aTm hadn't defended the 3 well all year and didn’t again tonight.
Had you told me Nebraska scores 83 I’d probably have told you they win by 7-15 points.
Had you told me aTm was going to shoot 55% from 3 I’d have laughed you out of the room.
That right there is what lost this game. That right there is what opened up driving lanes that had we not had to try to chase them off the 3, wouldn’t have been there.
So being at a serious athletic disadvantage is not something that we should have been concerned about?
Or playing the top O rebounding team in the country?
Sure, no one thought we would get out-shot from distance from Turd & M. But we did. Had we had our usual advantage from the long distance shooting area, you bet it evens things up a lot. But we couldn't contain their athletes. Mast is skilled, but not physically athletically talented. A physically talented team - and one that works hard and plays together like Turd & M's club does - will make it tough on lesser physically talented squads.
So I disagree. This was a bad matchup for us. A well coached, talented team, that had a rough first half of the season, but came on very strong late in the season, was a bad matchup for our teams talent.
Fred got a lot out of a group that had some real limitations. Sometimes those limitations are a worse matchup with a team like we faced tonight. The fact that a bad shooting team from distance shot double their normal yearly average, did indeed doom us to this game being a very tough one to win.
Fred now knows the holes in the roster that need to be filled. I am sure he knew already, but a game like this only solidifies that fact.
I am still proud of our team and coaches. Great year, made excellent progress towards continuing to build a better, stronger, more well-rounded club. Sucks we lost, but that's life. Adjust and improve or don't and stay mired in our perpetual state of where we have been as a program.