The Nebraska basketball team had a chance to get a big win on Thursday night. They were taking on a Maryland Terapins team they almost beat on the road. However, a program on the rise with one of the best players in the country was too much.
The good news here is that the Huskers can afford to lose a Quad 1 game here or there. Though they can’t afford to lose too many more.
So what does the 83-75 loss mean for the Nebraska basketball team and the rest of the season?
The flu hit Nebraska basketball at just the wrong time
“Being sick” is never a really good excuse for a loss, but when both Brice Williams and Connor Essegian were really, really ill just moments before they tipped off against Maryland, that’s going to be a problem.
Williams was able to shake it off playing 39 minutes and scoring 20 points. But he was just 5-for-13 and 3-for-9 from deep. Essegian, however played just 9 minutes and missed all 6 shots he took. He was also 0-4 from beyond the arc.
Would the Cornhuskers have definitely won if Williams and Essegian were healthy? No. But had they combined for 3 more made shots from deep, they could have won.
NCAA Tourney chances took a hit
Entering Thursday night’s game against Maryland, the Nebraska basketball team was a consensus tourney team that according to ESPN’s revamped analytics, was sitting at around 80% of making it in. The loss dropped them to 70% so it certain;y didn’t kill their chances.
But it was a hit. Especially since there are only so many Quad 1 games left on the schedule. The Terps are a good, but far from unbeatable team and at PBA, this should have been a victory.
The Huskers’ defense, especially in the final moments just couldn’t hold Maryland off the board. NU cut the lead to two points several time inside of two minutes, but the Terapins kept answering, usually from inside the lane.
You can only hold down the best for so long
One of the impressive parts of this season for the Huskers was that they’ve gone against several guys up for “player of the year” awards and shut them down pretty convincingly. That did not happen last night against Derik Queen.
Queen was one of the big men NU had shut down in their first meeting, scoring 3 points and going 0-for-4 from the field. On Thursday night he scored 24 points and hauled down 11 rebounds. Needless to say, if they could have copied the formula they used in College Station, the Nebraska basketball team would have won on Thursday.