Suspicions confirmed.
“I thought they’d be keyed up to be back home,” Nebraska basketball coach Barry Collier said. “And they were.”
Nebraska guard Cookie Belcher
Collier was talking, of course, about Kansas playing its first home game in a month and buzzsawing the Cornhuskers, 84-62, on Wednesday night in Allen Fieldhouse.
“They did a great job with a lot of energy,” Collier said about the Jayhawks. “Gregory, Gooden and Collison were really big for them.”
Kenny Gregory, Drew Gooden and Nick Collison combined for 53 points and 20 rebounds.
Asked if the Allen Fieldhouse atmosphere affected his players, Collier replied: “I think what got to them was Gooden, Collison and Gregory, and (Kirk) Hinrich running the break. But, yes, it was a great atmosphere.”
Kansas bamboozled the Huskers early with a variety of trapping defenses.
“They’ve got so many good players and a great trapping defense,” NU senior guard Cookie Belcher said. “They came at us quick. We didn’t know where the traps were coming from. They were coming from all over the place.”
Nebraska was guilty of four turnovers on its first six possessions. On their first 16 offensive trips, the Huskers gave the ball away eight times. At halftime the turnover total had reached 14. Overall NU had 23 giveaways.
Nebraska | 20 | 42 | 62 |
Kansas | 38 | 46 | 84 |
Technical foul: Boschee.Attendance: 16,300.
“We’re not exactly a zero turnover team,” Collier said, “but they were mostly forced.”
Nebraska came to Lawrence with an 8-7 record despite having a team shooting percentage of 51.0 percent. That doesn’t compute unless you factor that NU had committed 63 more turnovers than its foes.
“We were on a high after beating Texas last weekend,” Belcher said. “But they had too many offensive rebounds and we had too many turnovers. Turnovers killed us.”
NU scored only 20 points in the first half, but more than doubled that total (42) in the second half. Cary Cochran had a lot to do with that resurgence.
Cochran, a junior guard who came in shooting a blistering 50.6 percent from three-point range, boosted that glossy percentage by canning five of eight treys, four in the second half.
“I had decent looks,” Cochran said. “Even the ones I missed I felt I was just off. But at that point I thought we were just trading blows.”
Early on, though, Kansas was delivering most of the punches.
“They played really well,” Cochran said. “They’re the No. 5 team in the country for a reason. They’re a great basketball team. And I think they called the dogs off a little bit in the second half.”
Collier won’t be calling off the dogs in practice today and Friday as NU prepares for a home game with defending Big 12 champion Iowa State.
“We have to learn from this,” Collier said. “It’s a great learning opportunity when you play one of the top teams in the country. We’re not going to just chuck it in the back of the truck and keep going.”
Three-point goals: 6-18 (Cochran 5-8, Wortmann 1-1, Fields 0-1, Conklin 0-1, Robinson 0-2, Belcher 0-5). Assists: 14 (Belcher 5, Cochran 3, Augustine 2, Wortmann 2, Ffriend, Fields). Turnovers: 23 (Ffriend 4, Belcher 4, Augustine 3, Thomas 3, Bradford 2, Fields 2, Cochran, Thomas, Conklin, Wortmann, team). Blocked shots: 2 (Belcher 2). Steals: 9 (Wortmann 3, Bradford, Cochran, Augustine, Belcher, Thomas, Robinson). |
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Three-point goals: 3-10 (Boschee 2-4, Kinsey 1-1, Gregory 0-1, Hinrich 0-1, Nash 0-1, Axtell 0-2). Assists: 23 (Hinrich 9, Boschee 3, Gregory 2, Carey 2, Axtell 2, Gooden, Collison, Kinsey, Nash, Chenowith). Turnovers: 17 (Boschee 4, Gregory 4, Gooden 3, Chenowith 3, Collison, Hinrich, Carey). Blocked shots: 9 (Collison 6, Boschee, Carey, Chenowith). Steals: 8 (Collison 2, Kinsey 2, Chenowith 2, Axtell, Hinrich). |