Huskers Head to No. 9 Maryland

The Nebraska men's basketball team concludes its two-game road trip on Tuesday night, as the Huskers travel to No. 9 Maryland. Tipoff from the XFINITY Center is slated for shortly after 7:30 p.m. (central) and will be carried on BTN with Brandon Gaudin and Robbie Hummel on the call. The game can also be streamed via the web, smartphones, tablets and connected devices through the Fox Sports app.

Fans can follow all of the action across the state of Nebraska on the Learfield IMG College Husker Sports Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen on the call. The game will also be available on Huskers.com, the Huskers app and TuneIn radio. The pregame show begins one hour prior to tipoff.
 

GAME 24: NEBRASKA AT NO. 9/9 MARYLAND Date:     Tuesday, Feb. 11 Time:     7:37 p.m. (CT) Location:     College Park, Md. Arena:     XFINITY Center NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS 2019-20 Record: 7-16 (2-10 Big Ten) Head coach: Fred Hoiberg     Record at Nebraska: 7-16 (1st year)     Career NCAA Record: 122-72 (6th year) NO. 9/9 MARYLAND TERRAPINS 2019-20 Record: 19-4 (9-3 Big Ten) Head coach: Mark Turgeon     Record at Maryland: 199-96 (9th year)     Career Record: 449-255 (22nd year) BROADCAST INFO Television: BTN     Play-by-play: Brandon Gaudin     Analyst: Robbie Hummel Online Broadcast: FOX Sports App Radio: Learfield IMG College Husker Sports Network, including 590 AM (Omaha), 1400 AM (Lincoln) and 880 AM (Lexington)     Play-by-play: Kent Pavelka     Analyst: Jake Muhleisen Online Radio: Available on Huskers.com, Huskers App, TuneIn.com/Huskers and TuneIn App.  SiriusXM (Internet): Ch.  970        XM: Ch. 380

Nebraska (7-16, 2-10 Big Ten) wrap up a stretch of three straight games against ranked opponents Tuesday evening with potentially its toughest matchup of the season. Maryland is 13-0 at home, including 6-0 in Big Ten action, and will be the first top-10 team the Huskers have faced this season.

The Huskers are coming off a 96-72 loss to No. 17 Iowa on Saturday. In that game, Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza combined for 52 points and 15 rebounds as the Hawkeyes opened the second half with a 25-10 spurt to break open the contest.

For the Huskers, junior guard Jervay Green came off the bench for 18 points and seven rebounds to lead three Huskers in double figures. Green, who had 11 of his points in the first half to help the Huskers cut a 16-point deficit to four, has reached double figures in three of the Huskers' last four road games. Cam Mack and Dachon Burke Jr. added 13 and 12 points, respectively, as the Huskers shot just 5-of-25 from 3-point range, including just 1-of-10 in the first half.

Maryland (19-4, 9-3 Big Ten) leads the Big Ten race by a game and enters Tuesday's game riding a six-game win streak after a 75-66 win over No. 20 Illinois Friday night in Champaign. In that game, Anthony Cowan led all scorers with 20 points and seven assists to lead three Maryland players in double figures. The Terrapins overcame a 14-point first-half deficit to pull within 42-40 at the break and used an 11-0 run to take the lead for good.  Darryl Morsell scored 18 and Eric Ayala added 12 for Maryland, which handed the Fighting Illini their first home conference loss of the season.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT
With 148 assists, Cam Mack needs just five assists to move past former Husker great Tyronn Lue for fifth place on Nebraska's single-season list. Lue had 152 assists in the 1997-98 season, his final season at NU before embarking on an 11-year NBA career.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
1.28 - Nebraska's assist-to-turnover ratio which is on pace to rank seventh in school history. The Huskers are fourth in the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio, including second in Big Ten action. In addition, NU's 14.4 assists per game is on pace to be the Huskers' highest total since the 2007-08 season. 

2.28 - Cam Mack's assist-to-turnover ratio, which is fourth in the Big Ten entering this week's action. 

7.5 - Kevin Cross has been one of the Big Ten's top scoring reserves this season. He ranks fourth among players who have exclusively come off the bench in 2019-20, and is the only freshman in the group. Cross ranks sixth among Big Ten true freshmen in scoring this season as of Feb 9.
 

No.	Name	School	PPG
1.	Izaiah Brockington	Penn State	9.0
2.	Jacob Young	Rutgers	8.3
	Alan Griffin	Illinois	8.3
4.	Kevin Cross	Nebraska	7.5
5.	Curtis Jones	Penn State	7.1

Min 50 percent of games played; 0 starts 

8 - Cam Mack is one of just eight players in Division I - and  just three in power conferences -  averaging at least 12.0 points, 6.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game. 

50 - Returning point total from last season, all by Thorir Thorbjarnarson. That is the lowest by any power conference team in the last decade.

SCOUTING MARYLAND
Maryland comes into Tuesday's game with a 19-4 record and was ranked ninth in last week's AP and Coaches polls (new polls will come out later Monday). Maryland, which went 10-1 in non-conference play with its only loss coming to Seton Hall, dropped back-to-back games at Iowa and Wisconsin last month, but has regrouped with six straight wins, including road wins at Northwestern, Indiana and No. 20 Illinois. In all three road games, the
Terrapins rallied in the second half, including 14-point deficits at Northwestern and Illinois.

Maryland is a perfect 13-0 at home this season. The Terrapins' strength has been at the defensive end, where they hold teams to 61.9 points per game on 38.3 percent shooting. Maryland has allowed more than 70 points twice
since conference play resumed in early January.

Coach Mark Turgeon's team is battle tested, bringing back four starters and eight letterwinners from a team that won 23 games and lost in the final seconds to LSU in last year's NCAA Tournament. Senior Anthony Cowan Jr. is one of the Big Ten's top playmaking guards, as he averages a team-high 16.4 points and 4.4 assists per game. The Wooden Award finalist also leads Maryland with 46 3-pointers. Jalen Smith is the Terps' other Wooden Award
finalist, as he averages 15.0 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. Smith has six straight double doubles and is averaging 19.2 points and 12.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game in that stretch.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Tuesday's meeting is the 10th meeting between the two teams, all since the Terrapins joined the Big Ten in 2014-15. Maryland leads the series, 6-3, with six of the nine meetings decided by five points or less.  Maryland had won the first five meetings while Nebraska has won three of the past five dating back to Jan. 1, 2017. Tuesday will mark the seventh time in 10 meetings that Maryland has been ranked at game time.

Last Meeting: The Huskers built a double-digit lead late in the first half, and the Huskers never trailed again in a 69-61 upset of No. 21 Maryland in the second round of the 2019 Big Ten Tournament. The Huskers held Maryland to 36 percent shooting and just 18 field goals, marking the Terrapins' fourth-worst shooting percentage of the season and second-fewest field goals.

Offensively, Nebraska got 58 points from its big three of James Palmer Jr., Glynn Watson Jr. and Isaiah Roby. Palmer hit 8-of-13 shots en route to a game-high 24 points, while Watson scored 19 points and Roby added 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks. But the victory was a true team effort, as the Huskers got two points and a game-high nine rebounds from Tanner Borchardt, a career-high five points and four rebounds from Johnny Trueblood and four points, four rebounds and a career-high five steals from Thorir Thorbjarnarson.

Anthony Cowan led Maryland with 18 points, while Darryl Morsell chipped in 14 points and Eric Ayala scored 12 points. Nebraska held first-team All-Big Ten pick Bruno Fernando to a season-low three points in 35 minutes.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza proved too much for the Nebraska men's basketball team on Saturday, as No. 17 Iowa salvaged a season split with the Huskers with a 96-72 victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Wieskamp scored a career-high 30 points, while Garza, the Big Ten's leading scorer, added his ninth straight 20-point game with 22 points. The duo combined for 52 points while going 19-of-28 from the field, including a 6-of-8 performance from Wieskamp in a 20-point second half. As a team, Iowa shot 49 percent and knocked down 11 3-pointers.

 With the win, Iowa avenged its loss in Lincoln on Jan. 7, while Nebraska fell to 7-16 on the season and dropped to 2-11 in Big Ten play. Jervay Green led Nebraska with 18 points, while Cam Mack and Dachon Burke Jr. joined Green in double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Nebraska cut a 16-point first-half deficit to four and was within 36-30 in the final minute of the first half before the Hawkeyes took control. Iowa used a 12-2 spurt spanning the final minute of the first half and the first three minutes of the second stanza to stretch the lead back to 16 after seven straight points from Wieskamp, and NU was unable to pull close the rest of the evening.
 
STORYLINES
• Nebraska looks to snap a five-game losing streak against ranked opponents dating back to the 2019 Big Ten Tournament, including an 0-4 mark this year. Maryland, which was ranked ninth in last week's poll, is the highest ranked opponent NU has faced this season. If Maryland is ranked higher than ninth in Monday's AP poll, it will be the Huskers' highest ranked opponent since taking on No. 6 Michigan State on Jan. 17, 2019.

• The Huskers will be looking for their first top-10 road win since a 60-51 win at No. 9 Michigan State on Feb. 16, 2014, and first win over a top-10 team since a 77-68 win over No. 9 Wisconsin on March 9, 2014.

• Since Maryland joined the Big Ten, the three meetings in College Park have been decided by a total of eight points, including a pair of two-point decisions in 2017 (W, 67-65) and 2019 (L, 72-74).

• Tuesday's meeting is the third between Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg and Maryland's Mark Turgeon. The first meeting came in the 2010-11 season in the Big 12 while Turgeon was at Texas A&M. The most recent one came during Hoibeg's last season at Iowa State, when the Terps posted a 72-63 win in the championship game of the 2014 CBE Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City.
 
Previous Hoiberg-Turgeon Meetings

Date	Result (Location)
2/16/11	Texas A&M 71, Iowa State 66 (College Station, Texas)
11/25/14	Maryland 72, Iowa State 63 (Kansas City, Mo.)

 
• Nebraska looks to snap an eight-game losing streak on Tuesday. During the losing streak, Nebraska is shooting just 40.4 percent from the field in that stretch and is being out-rebounded by 8.8 caroms per game.

• ESPN's BPI has Nebraska with the second-hardest strength of schedule remaining as of Feb. 9.  In fact, the top nine toughest schedules are from the Big Ten.

• Cam Mack enters Tuesday's game needing just two assists to be the fourth player in school history with 150 assists in a season (Brian Carr-3x; Charles Richardson Jr. and Tyronn Lue).

• This Saturday's game against Wisconsin is the Huskers' annual Legends Weekend. As of Feb. 5, nearly 50 former players spanning six decades have RSVP's and will be back on campus for the game with the Badgers as well as a postgame reception.

• With 193 3-pointers this year, the Huskers' first 3-pointer on Tuesday will move the 2019-20 Huskers into a three-way tie for 10th on NU's single-season list. NU is also just seven 3-pointers from reaching 200 in a season for the 10th time in school history. The Huskers will look to bounce back after matching its season low for 3-pointers with five at Iowa.

• Nebraska is in the middle of a stretch where it plays 11 of 12 games against teams currently in the top 40 of the NET as of Feb. 10. NU's upcoming schedule includes games at Maryland (8), vs. Wisconsin (33), vs. Michigan State (11), at Illinois (34) and vs. Ohio State (21). In all, 12 of the 14 Big Ten teams are ranked in the top 55 of the NET as of Feb. 9.

• Nebraska enters Tuesday's game leading in the Big Ten in turnover margin with +2.7 per game. The Huskers are fourth in the Big Ten in forcing turnovers (13.9 per game) and third in taking care of the basketball (11.3 per game). NU is 24th nationally in fewest turnovers per game as of Feb. 9.  During his tenure at Iowa State, Hoiberg's teams ranked in the top three in the Big 12 in fewest turnovers per game in four of his five seasons at the school.

• Despite being undersized and having just one player who had played in a Big Ten game entering the season, Nebraska's play in Big Ten action is starting to resemble the team's that Coach Hoiberg had at Iowa State, especially with ball movement and limiting turnovers. In Big Ten games, NU is in the top three in six offensive categories entering the weekend, including assist-to-turnover ratio and 3-point shooting.
 
Big Strides in Conference Play

Category	2019-20 (B1G)	2018-19 (B1G)	Times ISU Led Big 12 Under Hoiberg
3-Pt./GM	8.9 (1st)	6.8 (8th)	(3) 2011-12; 2012-13; 2014-15
Asst/GM	15.5 (3rd)	11.7 (10th)	(2) 2013-14; 2014-15
Asst-to-TO Ratio	1.5-to-1 (2nd)	1.2-to-1 (5th)	(2) 2013-14; 2014-15
Turnover Margin	+2.3 (3rd)	+2.0 (4th)	(0) None
Turnovers/Gm	10.2 (3rd)	9.6 (3rd)	(1) 2014-15

as of Feb. 9
 
• Nebraska has relied on its balance during the 2019-20 season. NU has put at least four players in double figures 15 times in the first 23 contests. The Huskers put five players in double figures three times, most recently against Iowa on Jan. 7. The Huskers currently have three players averaging double figures overall, including four in conference games.

• It is not surprising that Nebraska has relied on its 3-point shooting, as Hoiberg's Iowa State teams led the Big 12 in 3-pointers in four of his five seasons at the school. The Huskers, who are third in the Big Ten in 3-pointers per game, are on pace to average 8.4 3-pointers per game, a total which would rank second in school history and be the most since the 2001-02 campaign.
 
Most 3-Pointers/Game in School History

No.	School	Games	3-Pointers/Game
1.	2001-02	28	9.54
-	2019-20	23	8.39
2.	2006-07	31	7.87
3.	2018-19	36	7.50

 
• Cam Mack has made an impact in his first season at Nebraska. He is 15th nationally with 6.4 assists per game, which is on pace to be the most by a Husker since the 1984-85 season, and ranks 47th nationally with his 2.28-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Mack's assist-to-turnover ratio is on pace to be one of the best in school history.
 
Best Assist/Turnover Ratios (Since 1979)

No.	Ratio	Player	Asst.-TO	Year
1.	3.05	Brian Carr	201-66	1985-86
2.	2.73	Jamar Johnson	123-45	1993-94
3.	2.58	Brian Carr	237-92	1984-85
4.	2.54	Jack Moore	109-43	1981-82
5.	2.52	Charles Richardson Jr.	179-71	2006-07
-	2.28	Cam Mack	148-65	2019-20

min. 3.0 assists/gm
 
• Cam Mack is the only Husker in the last 30 years to have multiple points-assists double-doubles in the same season as he has four this season, including three in Big Ten play. From 1989-90 to the end of the 2018-19 season, it had happened just five times. Mack's consecutive points-assists double-doubles against Indiana and Purdue were the first since Brian Carr in December of 1985 (vs. UC-Irvine and Creighton).
 
Husker Points/Assists Double-Doubles (Last 30 years)

No.	Pts.	Asst.	Opponent
Cam Mack	15	10	vs. Iowa, 1/7/20
Cam Mack	11	12	vs. Purdue, 12/13/19
Cam Mack	15	10	at Indiana, 12/13/19
Cam Mack	13	11	vs. Southern Utah, 11/11/19
Glynn Watson Jr.	10	10	vs. Cal State Fullerton, 12/20/18
Lance Jeter	10	10	vs. Kansas, 2/5/11
Lance Jeter	12	12	at Kansas State, 2/7/10
Sek Henry	11	11	at TCU, 11/21/09
Tom Wald	11	11	vs. Appalachian State, 12/31/94

 
• Freshman Yvan Ouedraogo leads the Huskers in rebounding at 5.9 per game, which would be the highest season average by a Husker freshman in 15 years (Aleks Maric, 6.3 rpg in 2004-05). Ouedraogo's 14 rebounds vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 29 were the most by a Husker freshman since 2004 (15, Maric vs. UAB) and tied for the third-highest total by a Husker freshman in the last 20 years.

• Freshman guard Charlie Easley was put on scholarship for the spring semester. Easley has played in 19 games as a backup guard, including all 12 Big Ten contests, and has played double-figure minutes in nine of the Huskers' last 10 contests. He had seven points and a season-high three assists in 15 minutes at No. 17 Iowa on Saturday.

• Nebraska returned a national-low 1.9 percent of its scoring from last season and the 50 returning points is the lowest by any power conference team since 2009 according to noted statistician Ken Pomeroy.