Nebraska Basketball: 3 takeaways from loss over Purdue

They put forth a good effort

This may seem like a weird take away given the fact that effort should be shown every game. The fact of the matter is, Nebraska basketball lacked effort over the past couple of games. Coming into this game against Purdue on the road, a good effort was needed to at least contend.

Nebraska basketball showed that effort Saturday. Although they did not come out on the winning end of things, they showed that they were ready to try and compete and be successful. Mackey Arena was rocking on Saturday night and there was little doubt that it was a hard place to play. In the first half, Nebraska basketball went to toe-to-toe with Purdue. At the end of the first half, they were only down by a 33-31 score.

As was the case in most of these games on this losing streak, the team fell apart in the second half. Purdue really began to take control and the crowd got into the game. Whereas in the first half, Purdue seemed like they were a little stiff offensively, they played their style of basketball in the second half. In particular, they ramped up their defensive intensity and smothered the Huskers shooters both behind the arc and at the rim. They outscored Nebraska by a 48-31 advantage in the second half and it looked like the team ran out of gas.

Purdue has been on a winning streak as of late in they showed why they’re the 15th ranked team in the country. They beat Nebraska both in the paint and beyond the arc and put themselves and even better position for postseason play come March. In the meantime, Nebraska’s effort should not be ignored as they played better than they have as of late, but it was not enough. Yet another loss was put in the books for Tim Miles and company.