3 thoughts on Nebraska basketball’s blowout loss to Michigan State

It’s tough to win in the Breslin Center and Nebraska basketball got a reminder of that on Saturday. We’ll see what the 89-52 defeat says about the Huskers down the road.

Hopefully, it was a one-off. Plenty of teams have had bad days against Michigan State in that place. The Huskers struggled early and then cut the lead to 37-31 late in the first half.

Michigan State responded with a 33-5 run. The Spartans closed the half on a 4-0 run, then opened the second on a 12-1 spurt that left Nebraska baskeball down 21.

The competitive portion of the game essentially ended right there. Nebraska shot 18 percent from 3-point range, 33 percent overall, and gave up 11 offensive rebounds while grabbing just four. The rebound differential was as vast as the final score: 46-19 in favor of the Spartans.

Michigan State was one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the country coming in but made 9-of-23 against Nebraska. It was one of those games where nothing goes right and here are three thoughts.

Spartans erased Connor Essegian

Essegian made 12 3-pointers over the past two games for Nebraska but didn’t make any against the Spartans (0-for-2). It was clear that Michigan State was determined to take him out of the game. The Spartans only allowed him to attempt two shots in 20 minutes.

The weird flagrant foul took him out of the game a little bit, but one point in 20 minutes was never going to be good enough for Nebraska to win this game or even come close and they didn’t.

Poor shooting/rebounding is a recipe for disaster

It was one game, but the Huskers got pushed around on the boards. That wasn’t supposed to happen with some of these transfers. The poor offensive showing contributed to the rebound difference.

It was worrisome because Nebraska hasn’t played a Big Ten-type team yet. Creighton isn’t defined by being physical. Neither is St. Mary’s.

The Spartans rebounded 40 percent of their misses and they shot 60 percent on 2-point attempts. Add in the 3-point percentage and it was a recipe for disaster.

The loss won’t hurt Nebraska basketball unless it lingers

Last year, Nebraska had four double-digit losses on the road in the Big Ten — a couple by more than 20 points. It just happens but they still made the NCAA tournament.

It doesn’t have to doom the season. Nebraska needs to win the next game at home against Indiana, which won’t be easy. But you don’t want to start 0-2 in the Big Ten.

The Huskers have a road win over Creighton and that’s about it in terms of the non-conference resume, so they have work to do in conference play and Saturday wasn’t a strong start.

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