Nebraska Basketball: Team just can’t get out of their own way in loss

COLLEGE PARK, MD - FEBRUARY 11: Head coach Fred Hoiberg of the Nebraska Cornhuskers looks on during a college basketball game against the Maryland Terrapins at the Xfinity Center on February 11, 2020 in College Park, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
COLLEGE PARK, MD - FEBRUARY 11: Head coach Fred Hoiberg of the Nebraska Cornhuskers looks on during a college basketball game against the Maryland Terrapins at the Xfinity Center on February 11, 2020 in College Park, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Thursday night, it was the same old story for Nebraska basketball.

I’m tired of constantly harping on the Nebraska basketball team. I know those boys are trying the hardest they can to be successful. However, I am also noticing a disturbing pattern this season. Nebraska basketball is missing layups with consistency. Not only are they missing layups, but they are also going through scoring droughts that are absolutely killing their momentum.

In Thursday night’s game against Ohio State, they just went cold. There was a point in the game where Ohio State missed 11 straight shots. At the time of the drought, the Buckeyes were leading by 14 points. Nebraska could not trim the deficit despite Ohio State missing 11 consecutive shots. This has been a problem all season. They will go through stretches where it looks like they have it all together. Then, they will just go ice cold.

More from Husker Corner

Nebraska went 3-for-16 from beyond the arc. That is certainly not helping their statistics from that range. Over the last six games, Nebraska is shooting 24.6% from three-point range. That is a bad number any way you slice it. I finally have come to the conclusion that Nebraska does have scorers, but they aren’t the type of scorers that can hit consistently from beyond the arc. They are more likely to score on the drive. That’s okay, but you definitely need a player or a couple players who can score from distance.

Thursday night’s game just nailed home the point that Nebraska basketball has had trouble scoring. I’ll chalk it up to the fact that they are young. But that’s not entirely the reason for it. I’m not sure if they get into their own head or if they legitimately had trouble scoring. However, it is evident that this is a recurring problem night after night.

In any event, Thursday night’s game was frustrating. Nebraska actually managed to hang in towards the end of the first half, but it just was not to be. Hopefully, they can finish out the rest of the season strong, and take that with them into the Big 10 Tournament.

This team has a ton of potential, however you can tell that they are not quite as polished yet as they need to be. That’s okay, many of them are extremely young and as a group, they are still getting used to playing with each other. As long as there is some progression evident next season, I will chalk up games like Thursday’s to growing pains.