Huskers Head to Omaha to Face No. 8 Creighton

Nebraska has a quick turnaround to finish non-conference action, as the Huskers will travel to Omaha for the annual matchup with Creighton on Friday night. The game with Creighton is the Huskers’ first road trip of the 2020-21 campaign.

Tipoff between the Huskers and Bluejays from CHI Health Center is set for 6 p.m and will be carried nationally on BTN with Kevin Kugler and Shon Morris on the call. The game can also be streamed via the web, smartphones, tablets and connected devices through the Fox Sports app.

 

Fans can follow all of the action across the state of Nebraska on the Learfield IMG College Husker Sports Network with Kent Pavelka and Jake Muhleisen on the call. The game will also be available on Huskers.com, the Huskers app and TuneIn radio. The pregame show begins one hour prior to tipoff.

The Huskers (3-2) come off a tough 75-64 loss to Georgia Tech on Wednesday night. The Huskers led 52-51 with 7:02 left, but the Yellow Jackets took control with a 16-4 run over the next 3:33 as Jose Alvarado and Moses Wright combined for 14 points in the run for the winners. The loss overshadowed a strong performance from senior Kobe Webster, who came off the bench and led NU with 20 points, including 6-of-7 from 3-point range. Webster, who began his career at Western Illinois, is averaging 12.2 points per game while shooting 51 percent from the floor, including 42 percent from 3-point range.

The Huskers now turn their attention to a Creighton squad which is 3-1 on the season and ranked eighth in this week’s AP poll. The Bluejays are coming off a 73-72 loss to fifth-ranked Kansas on Tuesday. Denzel Mahoney led four Creighton players in double figures with 19 points, while Marcus Zegarowski added 16 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Friday’s matchup features an interesting point guard matchup with Zegarowski, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, and Nebraska’s Dalano Banton. Zegarowski is averaging 13.3 points, 6.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game, while Banton is averaging 14.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists per contest. Banton had 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists in Wednesday’s loss to Georgia Tech.

Following Friday’s game, the Huskers will be off until traveling to No. 13 Wisconsin on Monday, Dec. 21. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. and be televised on FS1.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT

Kobe Webster comes off a season-high 20-point effort against Georgia Tech on Wednesday. His six 3-pointers was not only a career high but the eighth time in his career he has hit five-or-more 3-pointers in a game.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

2 – Dalano Banton joins Illinois’ Ayo Dosunmu as the only Big Ten players averaging 14.0 ppg, 5.0 apg and 5.0 rpg as of Dec. 10.

 

3 – Nebraska has three straight 20-point performances, all coming in the last three games (Teddy Allen-2; Kobe Webster-1).

10.2 – Nebraska’s steals per game, a total which leads the Big Ten and ranks 16th nationally.

37- Nebraska is 37th nationally in tempo according to KenPom as of Dec. 10. The Huskers are one of two Big Ten teams (also Iowa) currently in the top 50.

41 – Nebraska’s 3-point attempts against Nevada was a single-game record, breaking the mark of 38 against Kansas in 2002. It ranked eighth in Big Ten history and was the most since Iowa took 42 attempts against Savannah State on Dec. 22, 2018.

102 -Nebraska’s 102 points against McNeese State was the first time NU topped the 100-point mark since the 2018-19 opener. It also marked the ninth time in school history that NU scored 100+ points in an opener.

125 – Fred Hoiberg picked up his 125th collegiate coaching win against South Dakota on Dec. 1.

SCOUTING CREIGHTON

Creighton comes into Friday’s contest smarting from a 73-72 loss to fifth-ranked Kansas on Tuesday.  Denzel Mahoney and Marcus Zegarowski combined for 35 points, and the Bluejays had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Zegarowski missed the third of three free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining for the final margin. Creighton held Kansas to 39.4 percent shooting, but the Jayhawks went 10-22 from beyond the 3-point line and enjoyed a 41-33 advantage on the glass. The Bluejays returned four starters and five of its top six scorers from a team that went 24-7 and won a share of the Big East regular-season title in 2019-20. Creighton opened the season with three straight wins – all coming by at least 11 points before the loss to Kansas.

Zegarowski is the heart of the Bluejay attack, as he averages 13.3 points and 6.3 assists per game. He was the Big East Preseason Player of the Year last year, averaging 16.1 ppg and 5.0 apg.  Senior Mitch Ballock averaged 11.9 ppg last year, including 44 percent from 3-point range, while Denzel Mahoney averaged 13.3 points per game as the Bluejays’ sixth man. Christian Bishop leads Creighton in scoring, averaging 14.5 points per game while shooting 81 percent from the floor and grabbing a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game. He is one of four players averaging double figures and one of six players averaging at least 8.0 ppg in the first four contests. Greg McDermott is in his 11th year at CU after coaching at Iowa State, Northern Iowa, North Dakota State and Wayne State.

Series History: Nebraska and Creighton are meeting for the 54th time in series history on Friday night, as Creighton holds a 27-26 lead. Friday’s meeting will mark the first time that the teams will meet at the same site in consecutive meetings since the 2003-04 season. That year, Creighton won the regular-season meeting in Omaha before the Huskers turned the tables with a 71-70 victory in the NIT.  The home team has won 12 of the last 15 meetings, while Nebraska snapped a seven-game losing streak with its win in Lincoln in 2018. The Huskers’ last win in Omaha was the 2004 NIT win.

Last season: Haanif Cheatham had a team-high 14 points to lead five Huskers in double figures, but Nebraska’s start proved costly in a 95-76 loss at Creighton. Cheatham scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half as Nebraska shot 61 percent in the second half, but was unable to overcome a blistering start by Creighton in the first 15 minutes.  Thorir Thorbjarnarson had a career-high 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range, while Cam Mack (12), Matej Kavas (11) and Jervay Green (10) all finished in double figures for Nebraska.

Marcus Zegarowski led four Creighton players in double figures with 30 points, nine rebounds and six assists, as the Bluejays shot 53 percent on the day, including 13 3-pointers. Ty-Shon Alexander added 22 points in the victory. Damien Jefferson, who entered the game 1-of-15 from 3-point range on the season, drained a pair of 3-pointers in a 18-2 Creighton spurt to open the game that set the tone.

 

DID YOU KNOW

• No matter where the setting, Friday’s game would have been in front of a sellout crowd under pre-COVID 19 conditions, but the schools agreed to play in Omaha this year with no fans before returning to Lincoln in the 2021-22 season to continue the annual series which has taken place since 1977.

• Only four players on the 2020-21 Husker roster have faced Creighton (Thorir Thorbjarnarson, Yvan Ouedraogo, Akol Arop and Kobe Webster) in their collegiate career.  Thorbjarnarson had 12 points at Creighton in his first start of the season last December, hitting 4-of-5 from 3-point range. Ouedraogo had two points and three boards in 12 minutes, while Arop had two points, four rebounds and a blocked shot in three minutes of work in the loss in Omaha. Thorbjarnarson also played the final minute of NU’s win in Lincoln in 2018. 

Webster faced the Bluejays as a sophomore at Western Illinois on Nov. 6, 2018 and put up his first career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds in a 78-67 loss to the Bluejays in Omaha.

• Friday’s game will be the third head coaching matchup between Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg and Creighton’s Greg McDermott. In addition to last year’s game, Iowa State beat Creighton, 91-88, at the Global Sports Hy-Vee Challenge in Des Moines, Iowa on Nov. 21, 2010.

• Hoiberg was hired to replace McDermott when he took the Creighton job after four seasons in Ames in April of 2010, and took the Cyclone program to new heights. In Hoiberg’s first season, ISU won 16 games which was the most since the 2005-06 season before beginning a string of four straight NCAA appearances with the Cyclones.

• Nebraska looks to snap an eight-game losing streak on the road against ranked squads. NU’s last road win against a ranked team was a 66-51 win over No. 25 Indiana on Jan. 14, 2019.  Nebraska’s last top-10 win on the road was a 60-51 win at No. 9 Michigan State on Feb. 16, 2014.

• Friday’s game against No. 8 Creighton begins a stretch where Nebraska could potentially play five straight top-25 teams.  NU opens Big Ten play at No. 13 Wisconsin before returning home to face a Michigan team which is the first team outside this week’s AP Top 25. NU will then travel to No. 22 Ohio State before hosting No. 4 Michigan State on Jan. 2.

LAST TIME OUT

Despite an early second half surge that saw the Huskers take a six-point lead, Georgia Tech rallied down the stretch for a 75-64 win Wednesday in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Jose Alvarado had 19 of his game-high 24 points in the final 10 minutes, including nine in a 16-4 spurt which gave the Yellow Jackets the lead for good.  Trailing 52-51, Alvarado hit consecutive 3-pointers to start the run and before his third 3-pointer of the run pushed the lead to 64-56 before Moses Wright’s 3-pointer pushed it to an 11-point lead. The pair combined for 14 of the Yellow Jackets’ 16 points in the run.

For Nebraska, Kobe Webster recorded a career day from beyond the arc, scoring a career-high six 3-pointers en route to his first 20-point game of the season. Webster was one of three Huskers to finish in double figures, as Dalano Banton added 17 points and nine rebounds, while Teddy Allen chipped in 10 markers.

In the first half, Georgia Tech used a 9-2 run to build its largest lead of the half at 32-24 after a Khalid Moore 3-pointer with 2:57 left. The Huskers closed the half on a 6-0 spurt on 3-pointers from Lat Mayen and Webster.

Nebraska trailed 34-32 early in the second half, but ran off eight straight points, including six in a row from Allen to take a 40-34 lead with 15:21 left. The Yellow Jackets trailed 43-37, but scored four straight to pull within two as neither team could build a margin until Georgia Tech’s late run.

Nebraska enjoyed a 43-34 advantage on the glass, but was hurt by a season-high 15 turnovers which led to a 15-6 advantage in points off turnovers.

HUSKERS GET JUMP ON OPPONENTS

Nebraska has shown the ability to get off to fast starts, which will be important in Friday’s game at Creighton. NU has outscored its four opponents by a combined score of 48-22 prior to the first media timeout, and has taken a lead into the first media break in four of the five games.  Last year, Creighton jumped out to a 13-2 lead at the U-16 media timeout and never trailed in the win over the Huskers.

 

Fast Starts

 
STEALS = BASKETS
Nebraska’s length on the defensive end has been disruptive during the early portion of the campaign. The Huskers enter the Creighton matchup ranked 16th nationally with 10.2 steals per game, a total which leads the Big Ten. NU has taken advantage of those turnovers, averaging 19.6 ppg off of opponent turnovers in the first five games.  The Huskers got just six points off turnovers in the loss to Georgia Tech.

• Nebraska had 10+ steals in each of its first three games, marking the first time since the 2016-17 season and just the second time since 2010.

• Teddy Allen (3.0 spg, second) and Dalano Banton (1.8 spg, fourth) rank among the Big Ten leaders in steals. Nebraska is the only Big Ten program with two players in the top five in steals in the conference.

• Allen is one of six players nationally – and two from power conferences – with a pair of five-steal games as of Dec. 5. The only other Husker to have multiple five-steal games in a season in the last decade is Glynn Watson Jr., who had three during the 2016-17 campaign.

• Nebraska is one of 26 teams nationally averaging more than 10.0 steals per game.  Of those 26 teams, only 15 have played at least four games as of Dec. 9.

A UNIQUE POINT GUARD

It is not often that you a see a point guard handling jump ball duties, but Dalano Banton is not your typical point guard, and NU coach Fred Hoiberg is finding ways to incorporate Banton’s unique skills.  The 6-foot-9 sophomore provides a unique focal point to the Huskers’ attack and is averaging 14.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.

He comes into the Creighton game ranking among the Big Ten leaders in assists (fifth), steals (fourth), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.8-to-1, 12th), scoring (17th) and rebounding (15th). A former top-100 recruit, Banton has reached double figures in all five games and nearly posted a triple double with 12 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in the win over North Dakota State. In the loss to Nevada, Banton led NU in scoring (17), rebounding (seven) and assists (five) and had 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists against Georgia Tech.

TEDDY BUCKETS

Junior college transfer Teddy Allen has lived up to his billing as an elite scorer. The 6-foot-6 junior guard leads Nebraska and ranks sixth in the Big Ten in scoring at 17.2 points per game while also chipping in 5.2 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game.  Allen, who leads all Big Ten newcomers in scoring and steals, is the only newcomer listed in the top 10 of the Big Ten in scoring as of Dec. 10.

Allen, who averaged 31.4 points per game at Western Nebraska Community College last season, has been in double figures in all five games and posted 20-point games against both North Dakota State (22) and South Dakota (23). He now has five career 20-point games, as he had three as a freshman at West Virginia in 2017-18.  Against South Dakota, Allen scored 16 of his points in the second half after playing just six first-half minutes because of foul trouble.

 

NEWCOMERS MAKING AN IMPACT

Nebraska adds an influx of veterans in 2020-21, gaining the services of seven scholarship players with previous Division I experience. The group has combined for nearly 3,000 points along with over 1,000 rebounds and 600 steals during their careers and includes multi-year starters Kobe Webster (Western Illinois) and Trey McGowens (Pittsburgh). The Huskers also gain the services of three players (Dalano Banton, Shamiel Stevenson and Derrick Walker) who had to sit out the 2019-20 campaign after transferring to Nebraska.

• Nebraska’s top six scores are all newcomers, including four averaging double figures. In fact, 92.2 percent of the Huskers’ offense has come from players who did not play at Nebraska in 2019-20.

• Husker players lead all Big Ten newcomers in scoring (Allen), assists (Banton) and steals (Allen) entering Friday’s game at Creighton.

• All 21 of the Huskers’ double-figure efforts this season have been by players in their first season of competition at NU.

• Nebraska will add additional experience in mid-January when Derrick Walker becomes eligible in January. Walker is serving a 14-game suspension from a violation of NCAA rules that occurred while Walker was a member of the Tennessee basketball program in 2018-19.

HUSKERS LOOK TO PUSH PACE

When Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg talks about playing with pace, he means it. His first Nebraska team led the Big Ten and was the only conference program in the top-50 nationally in tempo in 2019-20. It was the highest finish of any Big Ten program in the KenPom database since the site began tracking in 2001-02.

In six seasons as a college head coach, his teams have ranked in the top-50 in tempo five times – that matches the entire number of times that a Big Ten program has done it since the 2001-02 campaign. Prior to Hoiberg’s arrival, the last time a Husker team was in the top-100 nationally in tempo according to KenPom was in 1999-2000 under Danny Nee.

 

Pace Under Hoiberg

 
HOIBERG HOPES FOR SECOND-YEAR TURNAROUND
Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg is looking to orchestrate a turnaround similar to his second season at Iowa State. That Cyclone team was similar to the 2020-21 Huskers, as they featured several sit-out transfers from the previous year and added them to a pair of returning starters.  The Huskers, like the Cyclones in 2011-12, have two starters back, and added several transfers.
 

 
HUSKER DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT
The added length and athleticism has helped the Huskers on the defensive end during the early portion of the season.
• Nebraska has climbed from 266th to 50th nationally in effective field goal percentage defense heading into Friday’s game.
• Nebraska is in the top half of the Big Ten in both opponent field goal and 3-point percentage after ranking 14th in both categories a year ago.
• Despite playing at one of the fastest tempos in the country, the Huskers have allowed just one opponent to score 70 or more points this season.
 
FROM COLLEGE TO THE NBA AND BACK AGAIN
Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg is in an exclusive club, as he was one of just 10 current Division I coaches to coach in both Division I and in the NBA in 2020-21. He spent three-plus seasons with the Chicago Bulls, guiding the Bulls to the NBA Playoffs in 2016.  Hoiberg’s 270 regular-season NBA games rank second among the 10 former NBA coaches in the collegiate ranks. Hoiberg also brings five years of NBA front office experience, as he worked with the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2005 to 2010.
 

 
HUSKERS SIGN TALENTED TRIO
The three-member class that the Nebraska basketball program signed in November for next season has been lauded as one of the nation’s top recruiting classes. The trio of Wilhelm Breidenbach, Bryce McGowens and Keisei Tominaga has NU ranked 16th in the ESPN.com team ranking as of Dec. 10th. The class ranks third in the Big Ten to Michigan and Michigan State, and Nebraska is one of three Big Ten programs – joining Michigan and Michigan State – in signing a five-star recruit in the class of 2021.

• NU’s class features a pair of top-100 recruits in McGowens and Breidenbach, who are two of the three-highest-rated players Nebraska has signed in the 247 composite database, which compiles all of the major recruiting sites into one list. 

• McGowens is listed as a 5-star recruit by all three national publications (ESPN, 247, Rivals) and is a consensus top-25 national player (ESPN, 247 Sports, Rivals). He is the highest-ranked recruit Nebraska has signed since the current national recruiting sites began nearly 20 years ago. 

• Breidenbach is a four-star recruit by both ESPN and 247 Sports and is ranked No. 63 by ESPN and No. 87 on 247Sports composite rankings.

HUSKER NOTEBOOK

• Nebraska’s 2020-21 roster features players from six countries (United States, Canada, Iceland, England, France and Australia). Nebraska’s six international players tie for eighth nationally and ties for third among power conference programs (Arizona and Washington State-7 apiece).

• Nebraska is a bigger and more experienced team in Hoiberg’s second season. Last year, Nebraska ranked among the least experienced Division I programs and was one of the smallest teams in the Big Ten according to data from KenPom. This season, the Huskers have made significant improvements in both areas.

 

Adding Size and Experience

 
• Nebraska enters the weekend ranked sixth in the Big Ten and 84th nationally with 8.6 3-pointers per game. It is not surprising that Nebraska relied on its 3-point shooting, as Hoiberg’s Iowa State teams led the Big 12 in 3-pointers in four of his five seasons at the school. The Huskers averaged 7.9 3-pointers per game last season to rank second in school history. It marked NU’s highest per game total since the 2001-02 season.
 
Most 3-Pointers/Game in School History

 
• Nebraska signed a pair of top-20 junior college prospects for the second straight season. Junior guard Teddy Allen was rated eighth by JUCORecruiting.com, while forward Lat Mayen was tabbed 18th nationally by the publication.  The Huskers were one of three programs nationally to sign a pair of top-20 JUCO recruits (St. John’s and Southern Miss).

CUTOUTS ON SALE FOR 2020-21 SEASON

Husker fans can get their pictures in Pinnacle Bank Arena for the entire 2020-21 season by purchasing Nebraska Basketball fan cutouts at shop.fancutouts.com/products/nebraska-basketball. Nebraska Basketball fan cutouts are only $55 and all proceeds from the season-long campaign will support Husker student-athletes and allow Nebraska Athletics to address the areas of greatest need during this challenging time.

• At the end of the basketball season, fans will have the opportunity to pick up their cutouts free of charge. Fans who wish to have their cutouts shipped after the season will be charged an additional $25 per order at the time of purchase

• All sales are final. Cutout locations may be subject to change throughout the season depending on permissible fan capacity.