[Husker] Nebraska 82, Missouri 77, in Overtime

Sat Feb 24 17:32:38 CST 2007

Coach Doc Sadler's Cornhuskers, over-matched all year in overall talent and short on numbers, showed huge hearts once again today in taking out one of the Big XII's hot, trending-up teams - the Missouri Tigers - 82-77 in overtime at the Devaney Center in Lincoln.  Coming in to this game, all signs pointed to a Missouri triumph.  They'd won three in a row and were being talked about as an NCAA tourney team (they'd progressed to fifth place in the Big XII standings).  NU was coming off of a punch-to-the-face from Kansas and a Baylor road loss and just looking, in general, like their tanks may be leaking.  Freshmen Sek Henry and Jay-R Strowbridge are looking like maybe they've hit that "in high school, we were done playing by now" brick wall.

But nevertheless, the Huskers survived Missouri jumping out to a 20-10 lead, sucked it up, focused on what they had to do with the ball on offense, played good D and rebounded about as well as possible - notching another improbable win in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Junior Center Aleks Maric paced Nebraska's productivity with 31 points and 19 rebounds.  He'll make you pull your hair out with some of the close-in bunnies that he misses, but he hit 15 out of 17 from the free throw line today (only six of 19 from the field).  Maric and senior guard Marcus Perry combined to hit a whopping 24 out of 27 from the charity stripe.  5-foot-8 inch senior point guard Charles Richardson didn't sit down today ... played all 45 minutes, scored 12 and dished out eight assists.  We'll have more talented point guards in the future, but this kid is as tough and big-hearted as they come ... indispensible to this team (and we won't be forgetting the buzzer-beater at Tech anytime soon).

After Mizzou got up by ten early in the game, Nebraska went on an unexpected 17-4 run to lead it 27-24 with 6:30 to play (I say unexpected because they hadn't really shown much life since the night Maric went for 41 against KSU, and Mizzou came in firing, looking like they meant business).  Walk-on Paul Velander hit a couple of 3s in that stretch.  Shortly thereafter, Mizzou went on a 12-2 run before NU answered with a 10-1 run of their own ("streaky" first half, to say the least).  

Missouri, led in the first half by the perimeter shooting of Stephon Hannah (17 pts. for the game), Keon Lawrence and Matt Lawrence, scored in the last few seconds to make it 41-41 at the break.  Maric already had 18 points and about nine rebounds at halftime.

The Cornhuskers started quickly in the second half, aided by back-to-back 3s by freshman Ryan Anderson to make it 49-42.  Missouri came back and the game stayed close for the remainder (I think the final overtime victory margin of five may have been the biggest lead the rest of the way).

Missouri took a four-point lead with about four minutes remaining before Marcus Perry delivered what I thought was the big shot of the game.  Perry's game ISN'T off-the-dribble shooting ... he's definetly more of a catch-and-shoot type of triggerman.  With a little over two minutes to play, Nebraska was behind and had the ball with the shot clock winding down.  Perry got it, dribbled a time-or-two to his right behind the arc and went up for a fading-to-the-right, semi-off-balance jumper that went down while he got fouled.  His legs were going all over the place when he shot it, but it did enable him to square up as much as possible before getting it off.  He made the free throw to give NU the 69-67 lead.  After Missouri tied it, the Huskers turned it over with seconds left while trying to force it inside to Maric.  But Mizzou wasn't ready to win it either as they sort of spontaneously combusted on the last possession of regulation.  

In OT, Maric got one to go to tie it at 75.  With about a minute to play, he missed a duck on a follow attempt, then blocked a shot on the other end.  He then went down to the offensive end, got the ball, missed another short one, got his own offensive board and got fouled.  Both free throws went down to put the Huskers up by two with :40 to play.  Missouri's Hannah then had a three-pointer go dang-near all the way in and then come out, Maric got the defensive board and got fouled (his career-high 19th rebound).  Strowbridge hit a couple of free throws with 1.2 seconds left for the final margin of 82-77.

I don't mean to make it sound like this team is the ultimate "little engine that could" story or overstate the over-used "this team plays like an extension of their coach's personality" slant, but there's some serious applicability workin' here.  

Ryan Anderson has a chance to really be a player, I think.  Good, heady player with some ball and rebounding skills.  His defense needs to improve, but there's time for that.  This team, short on talent, probably plays about as hard as any in the league on defense.  Perry and Richardson are having as good a senior years as you could've hoped for.  But then Doc gets somebody like Velander to contribute who, with all due respect 'cause I'm sure he's a great kid, should probably be playing at Wesleyan.  This is a great basketball conference.  How are they competing to the degree that they are with the overall lack of resources?  I think it's terribly impressive.  I don't think Sadler will forget his first team at Nebraska any time soon. 

Nebraska has limited physical talent and depth ... not a lot of offensive options.  One they DO have is the 6-11, 270 lb. Maric.  He MUST put up monster numbers like this because Nebraska needs him desperately and they allocate all of their limited resources toward his production.  There can't be a lot of coaches and sets of teammates that do a better job of staying disciplined enough to continually get the ball to him (I think they realize that if they go off individually and don't go with their one strength/advantage, they'll get beat by 40).  Doc's been critical of the Huskers NOT getting him the ball at times, but I think they do a pretty good job overall of remembering what they need to do with the ball on offense.  Maric is featured and assisted big-time so he's got to deliver or else.  That's a ton of pressure on him with no baseline help to speak of.  And he HAS done a decent job of staying out of foul trouble (potential suicide for NU) this year.

I try to remember the physical and mental demands on Maric (plays a lot of minutes for a big guy, gets beat on a lot and HAS to produce for his team to win) and how that may contribute to easy missed shots and the like.  It's frustrating in that, for a guy who catches the ball so well, Maric at times looks like he has clubs for hands or forks for fingers when he turns to shoot or goes to the hoop with the ball.  I try to remember that he IS carrying a heavy load.  He reinforced in a recent interview that he's going to be a senior next year at Nebraska - not going anywhere (wherever that may have been).  The thought of watching him with other big people along side next year and additional scoring threats is the kind of thing that makes for bar-raising expectations.  And Sadler's ready for the increased expectations.

This guy never concedes anything and just won't make excuses.  These are all "bonus" wins as far as I'm concerned, but he's still playing for the NCAA tournament.  I don't see that happening because I don't see Nebraska winning the Big XII tourney, but don't tell him that.  He's got a team that probably shouldn't have won 10 games this year, at 16-11 overall with competitive games yet to play.  In my opinion, Nebraska needs to do everything they can to give this guy whatever he needs to succeed and be happy here.  He's been just tremendous in this, his first year (hired on August 8th!).  Sadler's now beaten old rival Mike Anderson (Sadler at UTEP when Anderson was at UAB) twice this year.  Anderson was coveted by Missouri when they, the school with all the history and tradition, went looking for their coach.  They wanted Anderson.  He's good and I think he'll be successful there.  But I'll take our guy.

This on-looker's expectations have been met and exceeded greatly already this year.  Thanks for letting me watch, Doc.  Maybe there's more bonus wins to come.  He's got 16 and counting.  Iowa State will be tough to beat when they come calling Wednesday night in Lincoln.  

This was a big win for Nebraska basketball.

Dave Norris

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