Nebraska Basketball: 3-point struggles doomed Huskers vs Texas Tech
Nebraska basketball was simply outplayed by Texas Tech Tuesday night in Kansas City. Yet, the 5-of-23 performance from the 3-point line also really hurt.
There is the saying that you live by the three and you die by the three. Well, in Kansas City Tuesday night, against Texas Tech, the Nebraska basketball team died because of the 3-point shot.
More accurately, the Huskers were defeated in large part because of their inability to connect from beyond the arc. At halftime, Nebraska basketball had made just three 3-point field goals. When it was over, the Huskers made just 5-of-23 in a 70-52 loss to Texas Tech in the title game of the Hall-of-Fame Classic.
Losing to Texas Tech is nothing to be ashamed of. The Red Raiders are a really solid team that despite not as much national recognition, still ranked in the top 25 according to Kenpom, even before last night.
The Red Raiders have a really stout defense and that defense worked really well against the Huskers perimeter shooting, which has been a new emphasis for head coach Tim Miles. Nebraska basketball made 13 from beyond the arc against Missouri State Monday night in a big win. Yet, Tuesday, the Huskers shot just 21 percent from deep.
To be fair, Nebraska didn’t just struggle from the 3-point line. The Huskers shot just 35 percent from the field. Like they have all season, the Huskers attempted a lot of triples. But in the previous four games, they had made an average of 11. That’s 33 points a game. Tuesday, Nebraska scored 15 points from the 3-point line, which was a huge reason why it lost.
Nebraska also didn’t defend as well, as the Red Raiders were the first team to reach 70 points this season on the Huskers. NU also turned it over 14 times compared to just 11 for the Red Raiders. Texas Tech also shot 45 percent on 57 shots.
With the way Nebraska basketball defended, it was probably only going to win the game with a stellar performance from the 3-point line and that just didn’t happen. It’s not the end of the world though, but it does show what can happen when you shoot half your shots from beyond the arc and make just 1/5 of them.
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That’s not a recipe for winning games, but hopefully, it was just one cold-shooting night.