Game Thread Nebrasketball Game #21: @ #3 Michigan - Tuesday, January 27th, 6:00pm Peacock

[Baron Winnebago]

Biggest positive from this game was Leo Curtis coming and showing legit development already. It's clear he's been playing hard against a great team in practice since his arrival. They honestly can rely on him in March.

Yeah. It sucked to lose, but man you gotta be bullish on the direction of the program after last night. 13 Leo Curtis minutes on the road against a top 5 team.

 

[TampaBaySkers]

As long as they can hit the 3 ball I agree. Defense is great regardless. Last nights second half was rough. Having Mast and Frager would have made a huge difference from not only a scoring threat but simply depth. We were gassed. Sandford couldn't get open. We got into foul trouble, and Jacobsen became our greatest scoring threat in the second half. And yet, still only a 3 point loss on the road to a very talented NC caliber team.

I don't know about staying at this level. But 3 straight 20 win seasons is a giant leap towards that indeed.

Offense was rough. Energy was spent on D and was awesome to watch - completely shut down Michigan’s high powered offense

 

[Boondock_St_Sker]

That was about as a big as a moral victory as they come. Even with "Brenden" Frager out, we probably would have still won. Mast out too, I was thinking a 15+ loss. But to lead for 37 minutes, basically from start to last few minutes on the road, vs #3 team, that's impressive.


They problem wasn't necessarily points lost with those 2 being out, it's the minutes that Sam (39), Berke (35), Pryce (39) had to play. They started getting tired down the stretch, leading to an extra foul or two and missed shots.


Mast would have played 30+ minutes last night and given us minimum 10-15 points
Frager would have given another 25-30 minutes and and maybe 15-20 points.

pretty sure we won every 4 minutes but the last. Lots or whoulda, shoulda, coulda's last night but the fact of the matter is the boys lost...on to the next. Get healthy, fuck the past, look forward, a lot of season left to prove exactly what Fred said last night. This team can play with ANYONE in the country and hang!!

Annoyed but very proud Nebrasketball fan.

Side note: Nik Stauskas is getting slayed on X and I'm here for it

 

[realbp]

pretty sure we won every 4 minutes but the last. Lots or whoulda, shoulda, coulda's last night but the fact of the matter is the boys lost...on to the next. Get healthy, fuck the past, look forward, a lot of season left to prove exactly what Fred said last night. This team can play with ANYONE in the country and hang!!

Annoyed but very proud Nebrasketball fan.

Side note: Nik Stauskas is getting slayed on X and I'm here for it

The last 4-minutes were marred by FTs. Sam had 3 bad fouls that cost them 7 FTs. Sam didn't get the obvious charge call and two fouls for undercutting on boxouts. Many of those things are mental fatigue.

 

[ThankGODforWVB]

What this game reminds me of, is a game that occurred when I was 11 years old. December 12th, 1964, at home in the Coliseum, Nebraska faced #1 Michigan, after losing badly to them the year before.

Nebraska was 3 - 1 so far in that season and would finish 10 - 15. However that night Nebraska was the GIANT-KILLER and took down Michigan 74 - 73. The entire state of Nebraska took note of the win, a rare one for Nebraska of that magnitude.

 

[Pipe Line]

That was about as a big as a moral victory as they come. Even with "Brenden" Frager out, we probably would have still won. Mast out too, I was thinking a 15+ loss. But to lead for 37 minutes, basically from start to last few minutes on the road, vs #3 team, that's impressive.


They problem wasn't necessarily points lost with those 2 being out, it's the minutes that Sam (39), Berke (35), Pryce (39) had to play. They started getting tired down the stretch, leading to an extra foul or two and missed shots.


Mast would have played 30+ minutes last night and given us minimum 10-15 points
Frager would have given another 25-30 minutes and and maybe 15-20 points.

My father in law and brother in law are much higher IQ "ball knowers" than myself, and they said the same in our group chat. He also mentioned the offense normally runs through Mast so that didn't help any. We'll see what happens in a month.

 

[Cavalot]

The last 4-minutes were marred by FTs. Sam had 3 bad fouls that cost them 7 FTs. Sam didn't get the obvious charge call and two fouls for undercutting on boxouts. Many of those things are mental fatigue.

Dudes were flat out spent. Im not sure what the minutes were per person but the physicality and speed of Michigan took its toll on our limited lineup. This game should add to our confidence. I don't mind the loss. I actually think it helps us in the end.

 

[Pipe Line]

I don't think you are taking into account the degree of David vs Goliath last night was. A Michigan team built in the way a classic Big10 championship team is built, focused on bigs. A Nebraska team that has decided we can not build a team like that and go toe to to because we don't have the position or the clout to attract the bigs necessary, so let's build something completely different. Let's build a very talented "team" that plays clean, hard working, fundamental basketball on both sides of the floor. The world looked at that team and thought, cute, but not gonna work at the top end of college basketball. Then we went into Michigan's house, down our ONE big (and our best scorer,) and TOOK IT TO THEM for most of the game. We weren't lucky all those minutes. We simply outplayed them and made them look silly. Then we started to run out of gas which comes when you play that hard on both sides of the court and you are missing some 60ish minutes due to illness and injury. Even then, we had enough to win until the refs saw that we weren't gonna quit, and they started TAKING IT TO US. And, EVEN THEN, we didn't quit. We slugged and slugged and slugged, really, until we died on that last rim hitting 3. If you think a Husker football team has ever shown that kind of grit.. I mean EVER, even when we were good, you'd have to remind me the game in which that happened. This Husker team deserves a statue for the way it is representing.

Yeah, I mean this basketball team is very impressive, and I feel like is just coming out of nowhere for what Nebraska Basketball is supposed to be. I'm not a blame the refs guy in any sport, but I was later pointed out how out of whack the free throw shooting numbers were, which certainly should be acknowledged. I guess from what I saw last night, they just couldn't close, whether that was fatigue from missing guys or those guys just being "the dudes" and being unavailable. The waiting time until Conference Tourney will take a long time, but I'm excited to watch assuming everyone will be healthy.

 

[COYS]

I am at the point where I say fuck it and let’s pull money out of football and become a basketball school. This is the most joy I have had watching any sort of husker sports in 20+ years. If anything, I hope this season adds quite a bit more money to the NIL bucket for our hoops program.

 

[djw004]

Michigan 4-5
Nebraska 2-2

So you're telling me the 2nd half was 18 attempts to 2?

For a team that on average gives up 13ish attempts again, 4th fewest in the country, to nearly double that is maddening. OF COURSE we would have more than our average - against an athletic offense + down 2 main players = tired guys in worse positions than normal. But to nearly DOUBLE our average AND have that discrepancy is wild to me.

But this isn't the reason we lost. It just adds to the frustration.

We lost because we made 2 baskets the last 6 minutes of the game. That's it. Worn down scorers that just couldn't get it to drop.

 

[djw004]

What this game reminds me of, is a game that occurred when I was 11 years old. December 12th, 1964, at home in the Coliseum, Nebraska faced #1 Michigan, after losing badly to them the year before.

Nebraska was 3 - 1 so far in that season and would finish 10 - 15. However that night Nebraska was the GIANT-KILLER and took down Michigan 74 - 73. The entire state of Nebraska took note of the win, a rare one for Nebraska of that magnitude.
View attachment 66401

You are a national treasure, and I will preserve you at all costs.

 

[TheXHerb]

So you're telling me the 2nd half was 18 attempts to 2?

For a team that on average gives up 13ish attempts again, 4th fewest in the country, to nearly double that is maddening. OF COURSE we would have more than our average - against an athletic offense + down 2 main players = tired guys in worse positions than normal. But to nearly DOUBLE our average AND have that discrepancy is wild to me.

But this isn't the reason we lost. It just adds to the frustration.

We lost because we made 2 baskets the last 6 minutes of the game. That's it. Worn down scorers that just couldn't get it to drop.

Berke 2-9 with at least 5 of those easy layups or at the rim shots he should have dunked, were the difference in the game, when we weren't spent yet. It's envitable that playing 7 guys vs their 10, we needed a lead late to win this game, and we just ran out of gas. I was afraid missing those bunnies was going to haunt us, and it did.

 

[king_kong_]

Rothstein sounds like @king_kong_

No moral victories and have to win 100% of your games, otherwise you're a loser. Haha!

Hell of an effort last night from the fellas.

And moral victories are for pussies/losers.

Apparently you’re a fan? Haha!

 

[Kinish]

You will all be happy to know we jumped from 3 to #1 in Bart Torviks rankings in conference games only. Quality losses matter. 🤣

 

[cwessel76]

Yeah. It sucked to lose, but man you gotta be bullish on the direction of the program after last night. 13 Leo Curtis minutes on the road against a top 5 team.

 

[king_kong_]

National pundits love what they saw. As should we.

This isn’t moral victory bull shit. This is proving you belong against all the odds. Team should be more confident than ever. Stay healthy and stay confident and when the real tourney arrives, unleash the anger.

Yesterday’s loss resulted in a nice Kenpom bump for us (12 to 10)

 

[ZJSARENOTFREE]

Yeah. It sucked to lose, but man you gotta be bullish on the direction of the program after last night. 13 Leo Curtis minutes on the road against a top 5 team.

Yep, and he looked like he belonged. I would like to see more of him than Garcia. Love where we are headed. Go Big Fred!

 

[Baron Winnebago]

Yep, and he looked like he belonged. I would like to see more of him than Garcia. Love where we are headed. Go Big Fred!

Bad night and matchup for Garcia, but he's given them a lot this season. Real revelation though to see Curtis out there for a long stretch scoring and doing some stuff

 

[MaxHuskers34]

Berke 2-9 with at least 5 of those easy layups or at the rim shots he should have dunked, were the difference in the game, when we weren't spent yet. It's envitable that playing 7 guys vs their 10, we needed a lead late to win this game, and we just ran out of gas. I was afraid missing those bunnies was going to haunt us, and it did.

I don't blame Berke for that loss at all. Next to Sam, Berke is the best defender on this team and can actually guard 1-5 at ease.

 

[SlumpBuster]

I don't blame Berke for that loss at all. Next to Sam, Berke is the best defender on this team and can actually guard 1-5 at ease.

For sure, he was a huge part of the reason we held Michigan down in the 2nd half