Nebraska Basketball: Total ineptitude rears its head against St. John’s

The Nebraska basketball team had gotten off to a 2-0 start, and some were hoping that perhaps head coach Fred Hoiberg had found the recipe for success in Lincoln. For the first 20 minutes against St. Johns, it looked again like Hoiberg had found some sort of secret recipe. Then the Cornhuskers came out for the second half and revealed the only thing they’d found was how to look totally and completely inept for 20 straight minutes.

After leading 27-20 at the half, the Nebraska basketball team was outscored 50-23 in the second half. And the really galling part is that it looked quite a bit worse than the final score indicates. Of course, the really galling part is that this isn’t close to the first time that a Fred Hoiberg-led Husker squad came out in the second half and absolutely collapsed.

However, this wasn’t just a collapse. It was ineptitude on display. It was a team completely unprepared. Despite the fact that the Cornhuskers were really only leading because the Red Storm were playing poorly, it doesn’t appear there were adjustments made. There was no preparing for any adjustments that St. John’s made. At times it looked like the players had no idea the Johnnies could do what they did. Despite witnessing some bad basketball in the Fred Hoiberg era, this was a bit shocking because of its level of bad.

To be clear, the Nebraska basketball team was supposed to lose. They were 10.5-point dogs earlier this week. But they didn’t just lose on Thursday night. They were completely dominated in a way that should embarrass Husker fans.

Just how bad did it get?

• After allowing just three points off turnovers in the first half, Nebraska basketball allowed 21 points off turnovers in the second 20-minutes. They had two for the whole game.
• St. John’s scored 13 of its 21 second-chance points in the second half.
• The Huskers outscored the Johnnies 7-0 on fast break points in the first period, St. John’s topped Nebraska 11-0 in fast break points in the second period.

The most damning stat of all was the way the Cornhuskers played down low. They actually outscored the Red Storm 14-12 when it came to points in the paint. However, the Big East squad turned the tables, outscoring the Nebraska basketball team 28-8 down in the second half.

The fact of the matter is that St. John’s was able to show everything that’s wrong with the Cornhuskers right now. The question is “how much worse can it get?” This was supposed to be a loss but not an ugly loss.

Now that it turned ugly is the rest of the Nebraska basketball season about to get even uglier? Signs are pointing to yes.