Look to Nebrasketball for Inspiration
10 comments so far
January 29, 2009 by
Last year, we saw a passionate coach take talent that had been questioned by media and fans and turn the team into a competitive nuisance for other Big 12 schools. I'm not talking about Bo Pelini, I am looking at Doc Sadler and the Husker Men's basketball team. Both men's basketball and football at Nebraska are in similar positions with respect to the Big 12. Both coaches have the task of returning their teams to a respectable position in this league. While Bo seems to have had a jump start in that department this year, both he and Sadler are nearing the same cusp. The Husker football team can look to basketball to be inspired to take their game to the next level.
First, the similarities between these two teams:
- Like their football counterparts, home court advantage is of critical importance. They are 11-2 at home and 1-4 on the road. Playing in Memorial Stadium should still be one of the toughest places for an opponent to go win a game, just like the Devaney Center is working towards.
- On offense, the ball gets spread around a lot. The high scorer for each game so far has had points in the high teens or low twenties, with the highest scorer reaching 21 in a game. The football team's offense gets everyone involved so that the opponent defense has to respect each skill position as a threat to score.
- Like the football team this year, the offense has to click almost perfectly for them to win. Having a high shooting percentage is necessary for Nebrasketball this year – they don't get enough chances at shots to miss too many. The games they lose, their shooting percentage reaches unfortunate lows.
- Defense is the key to each of their games. They keep themselves close enough to be in each game and hope to steal a couple. Oklahoma State was almost upset in overtime on Saturday night, only the second team to shoot better than 50% from the floor against the Huskers. Opponents are averaging less than 58 points/game – enough to be one of the top 10 defensive teams in the country.
- Sadler takes guys who are (according to every announcer in games we've played), unable to compete physically with bigger/faster teams, and scheme their way to making plays and being a nuisance.
Now here are the differences that the football team needs to look to for inspiration next year:
- Turnovers. Last week, Nebraska was third in turnover margin in the country. They protect the ball and take it away from teams, or force them to make mistakes. The football team should look at the hustle that our basketball team exhibits the whole game. They leave every bit of sweat possible out on the court.
- Competing with the whole Big 12. Conference play has just barely started for the Huskers, but they opened with a statement against Missouri, they handled Kansas State and took the Cowboys and Jayhawks down to the wire. Last year they had wins against Texas Tech and Oklahoma, and should probably surprise a few teams later on in this season.
Dr. Tom Osborne has the great task of managing an athletic department with the potential for division-leading programs. My money would probably be on the football team to win a conference championship first, but don't count out the basketball team anytime soon. If they can get a couple of big men like they had in Aleks Maric last year, the next few years could include a run that actually takes them to games in the month of March. Will the football team make it to a BCS bowl before basketball gets into a bracket? Only time will tell.
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Husker Mike Jan 29 09
I'm one of the Steve Pederson's biggest critics, but I have to give him all the credit in the world for hiring Doc Sadler. At some point very soon, Doc is going to bring a winner to Lincoln. With this lineup and the last ten years of Husker basketball for a history, I'll gladly take these moral victories.
zE bOp Jan 29 09
Yep, looks like Doc has us heading in the right direction, hope we can keep him around...
Aaron Jan 29 09
I'm getting tired of this Doc Sadler Stick. Its time for him to put up or shut up. He has screwed up on recruiting big time with Sallie. We need to see us be better then a team,that just wins every once in awhile. We need to show big improvement next year for me to be excited at all about Nebraska Basketball. If he has another bad year next year, he might as well be Barry Collier.
Husker Mike Jan 29 09
The Roburt Sallie fiasco had absolutely zero to do with Doc Sadler, and everything to do with the admissions office and the academic support process at UNL.
tom Jan 29 09
Into his third year, Sadler has done what he can - make the team competitive enough to defeat almost anyone in the Big 12 on a given night. He took them to the NIT last season, and I hope he can make that a habit. This year he has shown his drive by trying to play all guards when his big men either didn't get into school (see above) or are sitting on the sideline with injury. I am fine with the way it's going right now, but if he gets two guys like Maric last year, his style of play would have no excuse but to win 20+ games every year. I want to see him with those tools rather than get a new guy in that would take four more years to see any progress.
darren Jan 29 09
Wake me when we are talking about football again. :-) Kidding...
Seriously though, I couldn't name their starting 5. But I can give you the 2 deep on both sides of the football. Maybe 3 deep if I push myself. I think I'm like a lot of NU fans right now. Just being honest.
On this topic - I have the feeling that Tom will give Doc plenty of time. He's got them going in a good direction from what I can tell. The team is playing hard. But, they are losing close games. Feels like a habit to me. Is playing hard but losing okay? Yeah...for a while. Still, need to win a few more.
tom Jan 29 09
Sorry, had to get the basketball article out of my system. Here in Kansas City, they've only just begun to really be serious about their three local football teams the last few years (though I say four - I know more Nebraska fans than Wildcat fans). Once basketball season starts around here, it's college basketball on sports radio non-stop and I'm not complaining.
I've been a Husker basketball fan since the days of Tyronn Lue, Eric Piatkowski, and Cookie Belcher and I think we're just one big player and one year away from being a March Madness ready team.
me Jan 30 09
Inspiration from the BBall team? Surely you are joking!
tom Jan 30 09
Surely not. The coach is one of the most sincere, passionate, hard-working guys around. His off-court training took a bunch of guys who individually can't compete with most of the Big 12 and made them play like a team. If they had 1 center that was approaching 7 foot tall, they probably would have beat OK State, Kansas, and made a game out of the Oklahoma match.
Isaac Feb 03 09
If you haven't watched the Husker basketball team, give them a chance. It's really fun because they play their tails off. When the game starts, you see that they're completely outsized. The Huskers have their most athletic wing player often playing center. But then the game gets going and the Huskers just hustle constantly and completely disrupt the other team's offense. And those mismatches are again mismatches on the other end as Dagunduro (yeah, he's related) blows past some 7 foot stiff for another lay up.
Sure, the good teams eventually realize they can beat up the Huskers inside, and once they stop turning it over, they can keep Nebraska from putting up points. But Nebraska was up at half, and down 2 with 5 minutes left to OU. And they really would have beat KU if they could have made a couple shots in the 2nd half.
Look, Nebraska isn't making the tournament, but they're always trying hard, fun to watch, and they're annoying as hell to every other team in the big 12. AND they totally own Missouri in the last 3 years.