After three days off following Tuesday’s loss to Wisconsin , Nebraska Basketball continues conference play on the road against Illinois .
Nebraska basketball is looking to right the ship against Illinois on Saturday in a game that they absolutely need to win. In the last time out against the Wisconsin Badgers Tuesday, Nebraska just could not seem to get anything going. That combined with the stellar play of Ethan Happ, who went five-of-eight for 10 points and Nate Reuvers who went four- of-seven for 10 points proved to be a dynamic duo. The real star of the show for Wisconsin on Tuesday was Brad Davison. He went five-of-12 for 13 points, including two-of-six from behind the arc.
All in all, it was a rough game for Nebraska as Isaiah Roby led Nebraska basketball in scoring. He went five-of-13 from the field for 18 points. Not far behind was James Palmer. He finished the night five-of-19 from the field and one-of-seven from behind the arc for 14 points. It was very obvious that Nebraska basketball was missing Issac Copeland, and that will certainly be a storyline to watch again on Saturday. It will be interesting to see if they can overcome the lack of scoring brought on by his absence. Tuesday night, they did not show it.
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In the last game for Illinois, they lost to Minnesota on Wednesday night by an 86-75 margin. One bright spot for them was the play of sophomore guard Trent Frazier. He exploded for 30 points in what was a very efficient night. He went 10-of-14 from the field and five-of-nine from the three-point line. Considering he played 35 minutes, he certainly made the most of them. Andres Feliz provided a spark off the bench for the Illini, as he chipped in 11 points on three-of-four shooting from the field in addition to making one three-point attempt on two shots.
Frazier leads Illinois in points with 14.8 points per contest. Freshman guard Ayo Dosnumu is second on the team in scoring with 13.8 points per contest. One of the things that Nebraska will have to watch out for in this game, as they have all season, is rebounding. Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Aaron Jordan both pace the team with 4.9 rebounds per contest.
According to the Kenpom rankings, Nebraska is slotted No. 24 in the rankings while Illinois is slated at the No. 84 spot. Simply put, Nebraska basketball has the advantage in this contest.
How to watch
Game 22: Nebraska at Illinois
When: 1:15 PM CST
Where: State Farm Center, Champaign, Illinois
TV: BTN
Stream: BTN 2 Go
Radio: Huskers IMG Radio
Key to the Game
One of the things Nebraska basketball has to make sure they do is take care of the basketball. Illinois is second in the Big Ten conference with 167 steals in 21 games. That averages out to eight steals per contest. The top team? Nebraska holds the top spot with 170 steals in 21 contests. That breaks down to 8.1 steals per game. They need to make sure that they do not get fancy with the basketball. Making crisp and clean passes will be important as the last thing Nebraska basketball needs is to have this game turn into a track meet. It will be fun to see who wins this particular statistical battle.