[Husker] Nebraska 74, Kansas State 63

Tue Feb 13 22:35:46 CST 2007

Hard to believe that one guy scores 41 of your team's points and it comes off as a tremendous team effort, but that's exactly what I witnessed tonight in the Devaney Center.  Center Aleks Maric ended up one point shy of Eric Piatkowski's school record as he scored 41 points, grabbed eight boards and blocked three shots.  If I heard correctly, he was 13 for 19 from the field and 15 of 25 from the free throw line.

Maric' teammates were outstanding in continually getting him the ball tonight.  That's what they were coached to do and they followed their coach's game plan to a tee.  They never wavered.  No one started throwing up ill-advised jumpers with a hand in their face.  NU never lost sight of their offensive game plan.

Kansas State coach Bob Huggins chose to guard Nebraska's 3-point shooters in an overplaying man-to-man defense, chasing them out around the arc all night.  That didn't leave much help for guarding the post.  I don't think I've ever seen a Nebraska team that was so disciplined on offense and never lost sight of where to go with the ball.  I doubt if Nebraska put up more than six or seven 3-point shots during the first three-fourths of the game.  Maric has his deficiencies, but he catches the ball very well for someone who's 6-foot-11.  NU was throwing the conventional "good angle" entry passes when they were there, but they were just throwing it over the top to the big guy when there was no backside help -- and there wasn't much to speak of all night for KSU.  Not a lot of turnovers either.  For as many entry passes as there were, they executed on a very high percentage of them.  Impressive.

It looked like Ryan Anderson was catching Sadler's wrath for some defensive shortcomings during the game, but Anderson hit some key intermediate "runners" off the glass to help NU increase the lead early in the second half.  Marcus Perry hit a three with three seconds left before the break to give NU their biggest first half lead at 29-23 (Maric had 18 at intermission), then Sek Henry hit a three when K-State went zone on the first possession of the second half to push it out to 32-23 just like that.  Shortly thereafter, K-State went back to the overplaying man-to-man and NU immediately started hammering it down low to Maric again.  I don't think K-State got closer than six the rest of the way with Nebraska keeping the lead around 8-to-10 for the majority of the second half.

I know I keep saying how well-coached Nebraska is, but somehow Sadler has crafted 15 wins out of this under-sized, over-achieving bunch.  Doc's gotta' be awfully proud of the way everyone contributed.  Seldom-used Mike Smith hit two big shots in the first half and covered well; Kyle Marks had a big tip-in, Marcus Perry had at least six assists ... everyone played defense and rebounded tough, especially late.  Charles Richardson has to get a ton of credit for his leadership and for the way the offense stayed focused, disciplined and delivered -- he's been exceptional for NU this year -- they could NOT compete without him and what he brings.

This was one of THE memorable games of the year for this on-looker ... Creighton, the Richardson buzzer-beater in Lubbock and this one.  It was huge in that it was sandwiched between A&M and KU -- a game the Huskers had to have.  How's that for a response following the adversity that accompanied the Jamel White suspension?  Sheesh, Doc ... I'm convinced!

The Cornhuskers are 15-9 on the year, 4-6 in league.  They've won three out of four following the adversity that accompanied the KU Big Monday downer of two weeks ago.

Anyone notice that Texas Tech beat Texas A&M 77-75 on the road tonight?  And Iowa State stung Oklahoma in Ames, 58-51.  Tech and Iowa State are two teams that NU is still competing with for a decent seed in the conference tourney.  The Big XII's pretty unforgiving.

One of NU's better performances of the year tonight against a team that'll more-than-likely make the Big Dance.  Nebraska vs. Kansas at Lawrence on Saturday afternoon.  Doc Rocks.

Dave Norris

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