[Husker] Nebraska 66, Missouri 61

[nustlnorris at aol.com]

Who'da' thunk that the Huskers would get off the mat following the Big Monday Massacre vs. KU to give Coach Doc Sadler his first Big XII Conference road win in Columbia?  Sadler had a lot to say about what happened today, too.  When he gets bigger and better players in here, I would be surprised if NU is not predominantly a man-to-man defensive team.  But with the current configuration of "Maric-and-the-munchkins," he's got to do some things to give his undermanned team a better shot at victory.
 
Nebraska showed Missouri a lot of zone and some box-in-one defensively in the second half.  Overall, I thought they handled Mizzou Coach Mike Anderson's full-court, over-playing pressure defense pretty well after the first 10 minutes.  That had a lot to do with senior point guard Charles Richardson.  The matchup of NU's floor general against Mizzou's Stefhon Hannah was a good one.  Richardson didn't play well against KU (who did?), and he's struggled recently from the outside after starting the season as a better outside threat.  But he hit about 10 for 10 down the stretch from the charity stripe and just held everything and everyone together all day long.
 
Nebraska got some enormous and unexpected boosts off the bench from a pair of freshmen -- guard Jay-R Strowbridge and seldom-used forward Chris Balham.  Ballham hit some free throws late and got a couple of big (and rare) offensive boards while subbing for Aleks Maric.  Strowbridge played with confidence and hit some big shots, including late in the game.
 
Marcus Perry continues to be one of NU's most consistent scoring threats this year.  With this team, it's hard for him to take an ill-advised shot.  The Huskers trailed 28-25 at the half and I think that Perry had 10 of our points.  He finished with a team-high 15. 
 
It's getting frustrating watching Maric struggle to finish on the inside.  Maric and Jamel White -- two of the three most experienced players coming into this season -- have had their hardships lately.  White had some careless turnovers today and Maric continues to struggle in the first half of these recent Big XII games.  Frankly, he's looked 'soft' at times and hasn't seemed focused on 'finishing' around the hoop.  To be fair, he did come around in the second half a bit (finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds) and he HAS been trying to do the work of about two-and-a-half men on the inside (continually drawing two-to-four defenders) ... but he hasn't been going real strong to the hoop.  Great hands but kinda' slow.  Not a lot of post-up moves/offensive prowess.  There should be no consideration of going "to the next level" just yet by Aleks.  I WOULD like to see what he can do with some baseline help next year.
 
I didn't see any final stats, but NU shot around 35 percent in the first half and really picked it up in the second.  Not many turnovers after the first 10 minutes either.  If Missouri had a rebounding advantage, it wasn't as enormous as we're used to seeing with this under-sized NU squad.
 
If I recall correctly, tomorrow is Doc Sadler's six-month anniversary as NU's head basketball coach.  Concerns that he was going to "lose his team" after the KU-killing were unfounded.  I heard that he went recruiting for two-and-a-half days after Monday night's drilling.  Recruiting was supposedly his strength when he was hired (both here and previously at UTEP).  I eagerly anticipate seeing what kind of athlete he brings in.  I think he's going to be a terriffic tactician/bench coach/motivator, based on what I've seen.  He needs more than six months to bring in some horses.  Looking back, the fact that he went 11 and 3 in the pre-conference was pretty amazing.
 
Gotta' appreciate and cherish wins (especially on the road) like today's for Sadler's first squad ... look at this itinerary -- Tuesday night at Lubbock (against the all-time coaching wins leader), Saturday in Lincoln vs. a Top Ten team (A&M and Doc's ol' buddy Billy Gillespie), then KSU in Lincoln (they've won five in a row and are really pushing Texas in Austin today), then at KU (yikes!) and at Baylor.
 
Nebraska improves to 13-8, 2-5 in league.  Mizzou drops to 13-8 and 2-6.  An unexpected and impressive way to respond after Monday.
 
Dave Norris
 
  
 
 
 
   
 
 
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