The Nebraska basketball team is officially 1-0 on the season. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Huskers didn’t look like a team facing off against an overmatched Maine squad. Of course, it was the first game of the season. It could be worse, the Cornhuskers could have lost to Bellarmine.
Thursday night, the Nebrasketball squad gets back into action against in-state rival Omaha, who started their season off with a loss, but looked like a decent team against the powerhouse Kansas Jayhawks. Both Nebraska and Omaha have something in common as they both limped to the finish line a little bit.
Defense a concern for Omaha Mavericks
When a Summit League team is going up against the Big Ten, there’s always going to be a concern about whether or not the smaller school can beat the Power Conference squad. But that’s even more of a concern for Omaha.
That’s because the Mavs were among the worst defensive squads in the country a year ago. In fact, their 83.5 points per game allowed was dead last, 350th out of 350 teams in the country. They allowed opponents to shoot 48 percent from the field, which was 344th and they allowed the opposition to shoot 39.5 percent from beyond the arc, which was 348th.
It’s hard to judge just how much improvement this year’s UNO squad has off the bat, thanks to playing Kansas. Though it should be pointed out that the Jayhawks could be better than all those insanely bad numbers.
KU scored 89, shot 52 percent from the field, and hit 42 percent of its 3-pointers.
What the Nebraska basketball team can do will tell the tale for Omaha and where they are going under new head coach Chris Crutchfield.
Last week, the Huskers shot 47 percent from the field but just 32 percent from beyond the arc. Not only are they going to hope to take some better shots against Omaha but will hope that the Mavs’ struggles on defense can give them some better looks.
Omaha players Nebraska basketball needs to stop
Much like the Maine Black Bears, it’s hard to pin down just exactly who the Huskers will need to key on, because of just how many new guys there are. That was demonstrated last week, when JUCO transfer Jaeden Marshall led Omaha with 13 points. It’s also demonstrated by the fact that four Mavs scored in double digits. Leading returning scorer Frankie Fidler had 11.
True freshman Luke Jungers showed the spark that Crutchfield is likely hoping to see right out of the gate. He threw in 12 points while also hauling down 6 rebounds. Omaha, at the moment is similar to the Huskers in that it is still trying to figure out who the scoring options are going to be.
What Nebrasketball needs to do on Thursday
The Huskers are 17.5-point favorites against Omaha. That’s after being 21-point favorites against Maine and failing to cover.
However, if things go right, the focus will be less on “if” Nebraska wins and more about how they do it. Right at the top of the list of things that need to be reinforced is whether or not Sam Griesel is really going to be the scorer that he showed to be on Monday.
Against the Black Bears, the South Dakota State transfer had 22 points and 9 rebounds. Most of those points came in the second half. Keisei Tominaga and Juwan Gary were the other Cornhuskers to score in double digits with 19 and 14 respectively.
What will be interesting to see is if Tominaga just had a nice day, or whether he’s going to be that kind of scorer more often in 2022-23. Then there’s Gary, who struggled a bit as far as shooting percentage but he was able to get those 14 points while also netting Nebraska basketball’s first double double of the season with 12 rebounds.
If the Huskers will have success later in the season, they will need to figure out who scoring options 2, 3, and 4 are. Tonight’s game might shed some serious light on that question.