Resilient Huskers Turn To Defense

A petite woman on an elevated unicycle smiled as she used one leg to consistently and continually kick an increasing number of bowls from the tip of her toes to the top of her head while she carefully guided the pedal of the unicycle with her other leg.
 
While the always popular Red Panda never missed her target during her halftime routine Sunday afternoon, the Nebraska and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's basketball teams had combined to shoot 4-of-26 on 3-pointers in the first half.
 
You'd think one task would be much more difficult than the other, yet …
 
"I thought early we had some great looks," Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. "We missed a couple easy layups, we missed some wide open threes."
 
But here's what impressed Hoiberg in Nebraska's 73-52 victory at Pinnacle Bank Arena that closed the nonconference portion of the Huskers' 2019-20 schedule. When shots simply weren't falling, defense -- much like Red Panda's aim -- didn't deviate.
 
Check that as another sign of growth for a new team still molding, still learning.
 
"We stayed in it. We stayed together," Hoiberg said. "We kept guarding and eventually went on that run where we got up 18. You have to try to manufacture some points when that ball's not going in the hoop."
 
Hoiberg's biggest concern in last week's 75-74 home loss to North Dakota was a lack of urgency and resiliency when momentum swung the opponents' direction. Just the opposite had occurred in an overtime loss at Indiana and a convincing home victory over Purdue, part of an encouraging start to Big Ten Conference play.
 
"You have to find a way to be resilient when tough times happen," Hoiberg said. "Today, when the ball wasn't going in the hoop, we did a better job of continuing to guard. We scored at a high enough clip and an efficient enough clip against North Dakota to win, but we just could not find a way to get a big stop. They answered every run."
 
Defense became more of a priority Sunday. Nebraska (6-7, 1-1 Big Ten) held TAMU-CC (4-9) to 31.7 percent shooting overall from the field and collected a season-high 15 steals, part of 21 Islander turnovers. The 52 points marked a season low for a Husker foe.
 
Hoiberg was especially pleased with his team's ability to run TAMU-CC off the 3-point line and force the Islanders into mid-range jumpers.
 
"I think we've shown what we could do the first two Big Ten games," said senior guard Haanif Cheatham, who paced Nebraska with 17 points and surpassed 1,000 career points. "I think we've shown what we could do defensively, and that's a big key for us.
 
"We've got good guards that guard the ball. We got bigs that come out for the ball screens. We understand (opponents) are going to go on runs sometimes, but just sticking together on the defensive end can win us some ball games."
 
Meanwhile, Cheatham jumped started the offense by driving to the hoop and either scoring at the rim or drawing fouls. He was 8-of-9 on free throws, as Nebraska shot a season-best 20-of-28 on free throws, helping offset 34.8 percent shooting overall from the field.
 
The disappointing loss to North Dakota weighed heavily on players' minds throughout their short holiday break, Cheatham said.
 
"We understand the season is going to be a process, but that last game going on a little break was kind of devastating," Cheatham said. "I think we came in expecting to play better and it didn't go all our way, but we came in for practice these past two practices and locked in and just showed what we could do."


 
Freshman center Yvan Ouedraogo finished with career highs of 11 points and 14 rebounds for his first career double-double, the first by a Nebraska freshman since Shavon Shields in 2013.
 
"For Ivan to go out and get that double-double was huge. We have to have that," said Hoiberg, whose team held a 49-47 edge in rebounding, with Ouedraogo collecting six of his team's 15 offensive rebounds.
 
"Sometimes we forget Yvan's still a 17-year-old kid. You look at him out there, he's got a big, strong body, he's a big, physical kid, but in reality he probably should be playing in high school this year. We're asking a lot of him to go out and start in a conference that's as physical as any in the country."
 
And Friday, an upstart Rutgers team will bring a 9-3 record, including wins over Wisconsin and Seton Hall, to Pinnacle Bank Arena as Big Ten plays resumes in earnest. Hoiberg labels Rutgers among the most physical teams in a physical league, meaning Ouedraogo will face another challenge.
 
Then again, such challenges will become a nighty occurrence throughout the remainder of the schedule, as the Huskers begin a gauntlet of 18 conference games to close the regular season.
 
"We have to continue on an upward trend if we are going to have a chance to compete with the teams that we're about to face these next 18 games," Hoiberg said. "What you prepare yourself for hopefully is to be playing good basketball when you go into league play. You have to.
 
"We can't have lulls where we drop our heads or have poor body language because teams will take advantage of us, and they'll go on a big run, and then it's going to be too late. We've done that (avoided lulls) in our league games so far, and hopefully those two games are ones that we can build on." 
 
Cheatham recognizes Nebraska has performed at a noticeably higher, more consistent level in two conference games as opposed to most of the nonconference games at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
 
 "You wake up differently," Cheatham said. "Your mentality is different when you know it's big-time basketball now. In those past two Big Ten games, I think we showed like, we wake up for those games. You should wake up for every game, but sometimes, you know, it doesn't work like that sometimes.
 
"It's just for these next 18 games, we're going to wake up for all 18. I think we're going to play hard, play aggressive and play together."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.