It’s time to accept that Nebraska basketball will never look “good” this year. This is a scrappy bunch that can do some special things at once but doesn’t have the kind of shooters or offensive skill players that will ever really have an attack that looks pretty.
However, the Nebraska basketball team is scrappy enough that there are wins to be had with the rest of this schedule. They showed that on Wednesday night during a 63-60 win over Ohio State.
Yes, the Buckeyes are reeling. They’ve now lost five in a row. But in the Big Ten, a win is a win is a win. And the Nebraska basketball team managed a win to improve to 3-5 in the conference and jump ahead of OSU in the standings.
Nebraska Basketball Wins Ugly
Keep in mind that the Huskers were without both Juwan Gary and Blaise Keita. And they still managed to hang right with the traditional Big Ten basketball power from the opening tip to the final buzzer.
Granted, a lot of that was the Buckeyes being held down by a defense and approach that just never really allows a team to get into a rhythm.
At the half of this game, Ohio State led, 22-21 and shot 26 percent from the field. The Huskers finished the first 20 minutes shooting a little better than 30 percent.
In the second half, both teams basically doubled their offensive performance and the Cornhuskers were able to score 42 points in the second half despite no one really seeming like they’d come alive.
Kesei Tominaga and Sam Griesel were the only members of the Nebraska basketball team to score in double digits. Griesel had 15 and Keisei had 11. On the other side, it was clear that if Hoiberg’s Heroes wanted to win on Wednesday they needed to stop Brice Sensabaugh and for a good bit of the first half they did exactly that.
The OSU star finished the game with 18 points but he had to work for it. He started the game 0-for his first-6 and by the time he got going, it was late enough and the Huskers had enough control that he wasn’t able to take the game over.
The Nebraska basketball team will next on the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon.