University of South Dakota Preview
Date: Saturday, November 3rd - 1:00pm - Pinnacle Bank Arena - Lincoln, NE
2015-16 Record: 14-18 (5-11 Summit League)
2016-17 Record: 6-3
Record versus Nebraska: 6-30
Head Coach: Craig smith (3rd year)
Nebraska heads back to Pinnacle Bank Arena on December 3rd to take on the Coyotes of South Dakota. This will be the first game at home for the Big Red since November 19th when they defeated the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech. Since then they have gone on a four game road trip where they went 1-3.
The Coyotes are bringing in a 6-3 record with losses to Houston and Hofstra in the Gulf Coast Showcase Tournament and the University of Missouri Kansas City on December 1st. They are lead by third year head coach Craig Smith. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Smith followed Miles from Colorado State to Nebraska as an assistant until the head coaching job at South Dakota came calling. It will be the first meeting between the two coaches since the transition.
In fact, there was actually a little incident when he was assistant here with former Husker Shavon Shields. I’ll let the tweets give you an idea of what happened.
With South Dakota coming to town we're looking to get back on track by figuratively beating @CoachSmith_USD #Nebrasketball pic.twitter.com/A4P6W6Oqmj
— Husker Hoops Central (@HuskerHC) December 1, 2016
This doozy was courtesy of @shields3uno swinging elbows in practice. Imagine how his elbow felt! #GATA https://t.co/4mgLsys9ju
— Craig Smith (@CoachSmith_USD) December 2, 2016
They are lead by sophomore guard Matt Mooney who is averaging 14.2 ppg and 3.4 rpg. The transfer from Air Force had a season high of 23 points against UMKC and will be the main scoring threat the Husker will face on Saturday.
Mooney is followed by senior forward Tyler Flack who is averaging 13.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg, and 1.9 blocks per game.
While the Coyotes haven’t always been the tallest team on the court they do have been rebounding fairly well on the season with 40.6 rpg. This is good enough for 47th best in the nation. The Huskers will have to be quick down low as they could easily be out rebounded in the game.
Could the Coyotes beat the Huskers? Sure, maybe on a very off night but not this year. They are a good team and should be better this year than last but not good enough to take out Nebraska. The Huskers are coming home from losing 3 road games and will want to spill some blood on the court. This game means a lot, especially before they play in state rival Creighton on Wednesday.
Expect a blowout.
- GBR!