Nebrasketball: Huskers Pay Tribute to Nebraska Weather with Cold Shooting

Fresh off a loss to Illinois, the Huskers looked to end their four-game losing skid hosting the 24-ranked Maryland Terrapins in Lincoln on Wednesday night.

To make a long story short, here’s the only thing Nebraska fans should want to see:

Look at that. Movement on offense, going to the hoop, and a lead over a higher-ranked opponent. What can go wrong? Well, take a look at the stats.

The high in Lincoln, Nebraska today was 18 degrees. Tim Miles must have told his team he doesn’t want Runza to be the only place to market off how cold Nebraska gets. Inspired by Runza’s Temperature Tuesdays, Nebraska shot a paltry 21.1 percent, a season-low.

How did we get there?

Well, the game started out pretty well. The Huskers got off to a 15-8 lead off of a 12-point outburst from Isaiah Roby. Where has that version been all season? At this point, Huskers take what they can get now.

Unfortunately what comes next is all too familiar for seasoned Nebrasketball viewers. A scoring drought. After a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 15-0 run for the Terps, the Huskers found themselves down 23-15. Offense was stagnant again, and the defense could not stop Jalen Smith if they wanted to.

Luckily, some free throws stopped the bleeding and Nebraska went into the half only down eight, 28-20. Yes, that is a low score, neither team had a great night shooting.

After Maryland opened the half with a three, James Palmer Jr. took over, with six of Nebraska next nine points, cutting the lead to two, score at 31-29.

The next six Nebraska points would come from a Tanner Borchardt free throw, a Thomas Allen three-pointer, and a Roby dunk. Unfortunately, Maryland scored 24 points in the same time frame. One of those points came from a Tim Miles technical, so. It took Nebraska over five minutes to go from 29 points to 35 points, which is probably a new low for offensive futility.

So now the Huskers trail 55-35 and we still have over six minutes of basketball to play. The Huskers closed out the game on a 10-5 “run” to come within 15 but the game clock ran out before they could complete the comeback.

Glynn Watson Jr. would shoot 0-10, which is why he didnot get mentioned up until now. That puts the trio of Watson, Palmer, and Roby at a combined 9-45 shooting, which is exactly 20 percent. That won’t get Nebrasketball into the big dance. And I’m beginning to think nothing will.

TLDR, here’s the only recap you need.

Huskers travel to West Lafayette on Saturday to take on the Big Ten’s hottest team, Purdue.

Final: Maryland 60, Nebraska 45