The Nebraska basketball team lost to Penn State on Saturday afternoon, and the thing that stood out the most is that Fred Hoiberg continues to be an enigma wrapped inside a riddle. Every time it looks like the Huskers have found a way to package up wins against the mediocre center of the Big Ten, they come out and look bad.
Yes, the Nebraska basketball team is short a few players, which certainly doesn’t help their depth. But it’s hard to imagine that Juwan Gary and Blaise Keita would have led to a win on Saturday. The game might have been closer, but neither of those guys is the kind of impact player that can carry a team on their back.
Here are three big takeaways from the Nebraska basketball team’s 76-65 loss to Penn State.
Nebraska Basketball Continues To Be Awful At The Charity Stripe
There is literally nothing more confusing than why Fred Hoiberg squads are so bad at the basics, like free throw shooting. On Saturday, the Huskers lost by 11. They almost missed 11 free throws. (13 of 24). But Saturday was hardly the only time they’ve struggled at the charity stripe.
On the season, the Cornhuskers are shooting just 63.4 percent from the free throw line. Only Keisei Tominaga (96 percent) and Emmanuel Bandoumel (75 percent) are the only players on the team shooting better than 70 percent on the season with more than six attempts.
Last year they were actually quite a bit better but the Nebraska basketball team has regressed after shooting just 63.9 percent from the stripe in 2020-2021 season. No one expected the Huskers to hit 100 percent of their shots from the free throw line yesterday, but a 50 percent improvement makes this a game down the stretch rather than a double-digit loss.
Bando Likely Gone
As bad as the Huskers’ free throw shooting has been, it’s likely about to get worse. Emmanuel Bandoumel was injured on Saturday, and as head coach Fred Hoiberg said after the game, it doesn’t look good.
Emmanuel Bandoumel will get a scan tomorrow, Fred Hoiberg said, but the "initial evaluation doesn't look good."
— Amie Just (@Amie_Just) January 21, 2023
Bando hasn’t had a perfect season, but he’s fantastic defensively and can on occasion be someone to lean on offensively. And now it appears he’s going to be out a while, if not the rest of the season.
Losing Season On The Horizon?
The loss, as well as the absence of Gary and Bando for an extended period of time seems to have created a formula that means disaster for the rest of the season. According to KenPom, the Nebraska basketball team is favored to win just two more games this year.
The final projections by that site claim the Cornhuskers will finish 14-17. While that’s an improvement for the Hoiberg era, one has to wonder if another losing season is something the program can take without moving on.
A losing season isn’t a guarantee, of course. The Nebraska basketball team is already quite a bit better than KenPom’s projection for its record at the beginning of the season.