Nebraska basketball: Purdue loss is discouraging and encouraging

The Nebraska basketball team’s loss to Purdue was both encouraging and discouraging. It was a game they could have won, but can still build on.

What if I told you the Nebraska basketball team was going to hold Purdue Center Isaac Haas to 14 points. What if I added that the Boilermakers, who are shooting nearly 50 percent for the season, shot 44 percent against the Huskers.

Purdue also turned the ball over 16 times while James Palmer Jr. scored 22 and Isaac Copeland added 16. You’d think the Huskers pulled off a massive upset right?

Nope. They lost by a dozen points.

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Nebrasketball came into the Saturday afternoon game against the Boilermakers as a 20 point dog. The most frustrating thing about the game was that at times the Huskers looked like that 20 point underdog. At other times, it looked like the favorite.

After looking like it was going to get run out of the gym, the Huskers’ team managed to close within 10 at the half. Unfortunately, Nebraska scored just one bucket in the first five minutes.

If they played their worst half of basketball this season against Northwestern, they gave that mark a run for its money in the second half against Purdue. That was far more frustrating because the Boilermakers played pretty bad basketball as well.

While the Huskers scored just two points in the first five minutes, Purdue scored just four. This was a game Nebrasketball could have seized.

The problem was that the Huskers also had 16 turnovers. They were also outrebounded 39-30.

The Huskers only shot 40 percent from the field. While Palmer and Copeland had a pretty good game, Glynn Watson had a bad one.

It’s become apparent that the Huskers will only go as far as Watson can take them. On Saturday, he shot just 2 for 10 from the field. He spent most of the game as a complete nonfactor.

Make no mistake, if most Husker fans were told they’d go 2-2 in the first four games of the conference season against Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern and Purdue, they would have taken it.

Now, the Nebraska basketball team has to find a way to take the next step and start winning these winnable games.