Nebraska Basketball: Resiliency will be key for win at TCU
Nebraska Basketball will have to be strong in these areas if they want to beat TCU.
What an exciting couple of weeks it has been for Nebraska Basketball. After many people counted them out from the get-go, the Cornhuskers proved that March Madness is a great term to describe college basketball postseason play. From a thrilling Senior Day victory to an opening win in the NIT Tournament in front of a raucous crowd, this Nebraska Basketball team is showing that they do not have any quit in them. They will certainly need to show that resilience again on Sunday when they take on the top-seeded team in the entire NIT in TCU.
Both teams played well in their last games. Nebraska Basketball defeated Butler by a slim 80-76 margin, while TCU rolled past Sam Houston State by a 82-69 margin.
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Nebraska Basketball needs to be mindful of a couple of things as they take on the Horned Frogs. First, they have tremendous scoring ability. Junior guard Desmond Bane led the team in the 2018-19 regular season with 15.2 points per contest. In his last game against Sam Houston State in the opening round of the tournament, Bane played well. He finished the game with 13 points and was on the verge of a double-double, adding nine rebounds as well. He also chipped in with three assists, proving himself to be a versatile player.
Secondly, TCU has proven to be effective on the glass as well. One player that can take care of the rebounding duties is junior forward JD Miller. On the season, he averaged 6.6 rebounds per contest, and in the game against Sam Houston State, the senior from Dallas, Texas came up big. In 31 minutes, he recorded 15 points and eight rebounds. He also managed to swipe three steals as he proved to be a Swiss Army knife of sorts for the Horned Frogs. He will have to fill that role again if they want to win against a Nebraska Basketball team that has been surging as of late.
Game Information
NIT Game 2 : Nebraska vs. TCU
When: 8:30 PM CST
Where: Schollmaier Arena, Fort Worth, TX
TV: ESPNU
Stream: NCAA.com
Key to the Game
If Nebraska Basketball wants to win, they need to show resiliency. Not only do they need to show resiliency, they need to play as a team, just like they did against Butler. James Palmer wasn’t the only one who had a good night in front of a rocking Pinnacle Bank Arena. Isaiah Roby scored 28 points while Glynn Watson Jr. had 17 of his own. Tanner Borchardt and Roby proved to be monsters on the glass as they came up with seven and eight rebounds respectively. Against the top team in the entire tournament, they need to band together and play team basketball. Hero ball will not win this game. Isolated shots will not win this game. Playing together will win this game.
The resiliency part will come into play if they fall behind. Again, TCU is not some pushover team. They are the top team in the tournament for a reason and they have a bunch of weapons at their disposal. They need to show heart and fight throughout the entirety of the game and not just for certain stretches. Even in the NIT, we are getting to the part of March where any team can beat you on any given night and any team is a tough matchup no matter the venue, the seeding, or the players on the roster. They have done a great job of showing fight over these past couple of weeks, seeming to rally around head coach Tim Miles as speculation continues to grow regarding his job status.