Nebraska Basketball: View from the Cheap Seats – NKU Edition
The Nebraska basketball team ran their Pinnacle Bank Arena regular season win streak to nine games (16-1 overall) against the Norse of Northern Kentucky. It was a solid outing, albeit clearly a little sloppy as one would expect from an early season game. Even with some of the early season mishaps, the Huskers showed flashes of brilliance.
So from the tip-top of Pinnacle Bank Arena how did game one look?
– Welcome to the regular season, Terran Petteway! While looked a bit off in the exhibition game, Terran was back to his old self dropping 25 points on seven from 15 shooting and six from nine from three point range.
He added six rebounds in 33 minutes of work. This was much more the Petteway I expected to see and if he can keep a level head and a hot hand he’s going to take this team a long way.
– Perhaps the biggest thing that I took away from the game was how fantastic the free throw shooting was. The Husker basketball team stepped to the line 30 times and drained 26 of them including Shavon Shields going 10-for-10.
If Nebraska can stay aggressive and keep attacking the basket, fouls will come. 26-for-30 is a great way to start the season at the charity stripe.
– David Rivers continues to impress and if he can contribute double-digit points, he’s going to be a guy to watch out for. He was five for five from the floor and hit two free throws for 12 total points.
We gave up 15 offensive boards to those guys and that just can’t happen. – Terran Petteway
Rivers also finished with six boards, tied for the top spot on the team. What I like most about this team early on is the ability for the other guys on the team to pick up a guy who isn’t scoring well. In the exhibition game it was Shields for Petteway. This game it was Rivers for…
– Walter Pitchford. ‘Walt P for 3’ got his first triple of the year, but that was it. It didn’t seem like No. 35 was getting many looks drawn up but when he did he was out of sorts. That said, I can’t imagine he’s going to stay cold and NU will need his offense sooner or later. If 2013-2014 was any indication, it’ll come.
– If I had to pull out one negative it’d be the rebounding. I hate to say it, but this year’s version of Nebraska basketball is lacking a physical prowess, at least early on. They were out-boarded 36-33 including surrendering 15 offensive rebounds.
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Petteway noted after the game: “That’s something we really have to get better at. We gave up 15 offensive boards to those guys and that just can’t happen. If we want to be the team we want to be this year, we have to get better at that aspect.”
– Tarin Smith doesn’t look like a freshman to me. For those in attendance, you can attest to the fact the young man’s assist on the Petteway three-ball was a beauty. I look for him to get more minutes as the second man off the bench.
– Speaking of bench play, the sixth man, Benny Parker, continues to provide a spark on both offense and defense. His improvement has been fun to watch.
– The three point guard lineup (Parker, Webster and Smith) was intriguing and opens up some options for ball movement and speed on the floor. If NU goes small and wants speed, that’ll be a fun lineup, especially if Webster can keep scoring.