Nebraska Game
- Thread starter RW90
- Start date
Or to put it another way, it's not a game that Rutgers can afford to lose
We should blow them out of the water, especially since we beat them by 17 in Lincoln. But Rutgers could also come out discouraged by the loss at Iowa. Hopefully Pike keeps the team focused, and a loud Saturday afternoon crowd at the RAC spurs them on to a 20+ point win.
I agree with the OP on this one.....Purdue and Michigan are/should be desperate teams. Do NOT want to be 5-4 going in to the Purdue game.
I expect a blazing start and an easy win vs. Nebby - 68-50-ish.
Think Geo plays more than he has been since returning (at least first half) and gets a bit of a 'green light' to get out of his funk. I could see 16-20 points on 14-16 shots (6-8 TPAs), a couple free throws
Think Geo plays more than he has been since returning (at least first half) and gets a bit of a 'green light' to get out of his funk. I could see 16-20 points on 14-16 shots (6-8 TPAs), a couple free throws
I could see RU struggling for a while in this game. Nebby is somewhat similar to the bad Rutgers team over the years. Generally do not win but can scare people even on the road as they hang. The key is getting to the point where you close out the game by breaking their spirit to win. Sometimes it takes longer than it should on paper.
Nebraska put up a fight though the first half against Wisconsin and they’ve had a few fairly close losses. Can’t take any teams lightly in the BIG10 and need to be focused from the tip.
It's not a funk, it's his thumb and all it takes is a little bit to throw off one's shot and he's just way off. Since he came back, Geo is 4-18/1-9 from trey and 7-11 FTs, which is not a healthy Geo. He's playing because of his leadership and other things he brings to the table. I worry that the thumb is taking longer to heal because he's playing. Need him back at 100%. While we should win, NE is not going to just roll over.
Agreed, Geo is clearly still feeling the effects of his thumb, and he wasn't in the game last night for his offense.
One time, just one time I would like for Rutgers to be playing a close game and our opponent misses a wide open layup instead of us. One time I would like to know the joy and disbelieve of the other fanbase seems to feel in close games against us.
That said if we are who we hope we are we win these next two games by 10 plus and Iowa will be forgotten
That said if we are who we hope we are we win these next two games by 10 plus and Iowa will be forgotten
Game plan on offense should be the same as at Nebraska until they stop it: pound the paint. All game long. Attack inside over and over again. They couldn't stop it last time, why should that be different?
I expect us to come out ticked off that we missed out on a great resume building win and take it to the Huskers from the opening tip.
I expect us to come out ticked off that we missed out on a great resume building win and take it to the Huskers from the opening tip.
I don't know about blowing them out of the water. We put in a lot of emotion and physicality last night and only have two days to prepare. Do we win? Yes, I believe we do, but I also believe we need to regain our momentum and win the next two home games against Nebraska and Purdue. This is the same thing I stated before we played Indiana and Minny. We need to hold serve and regain our momentum and get our conference record up to 7-3 going into the Michigan game at the Garden.
If the Hoiberg was smart, he would install the 3-2 matchup zone that Iowa played for a large part of the game last night.
I know we scored 80 points, but part of that was that we hit a larger number of threes than we normally hit. That zone really took away our bread and butter, which is dribble penetration - completely neutralized Young and Mathis. We also couldn't even get a pass into the high post where Mulcahy would normally go in a zone. We were lucky that Ron and Kwasi had it going from deep.
I am sure he is less than 100% but if you do not think there is a psychological side to this, then we will agree to disagree. His wide open corner three that clipped the backboard yesterday (2nd half) looked to me like he was in his own head. Success breeds success for many shooters, and this is often compounded when dealing with an injury or something being 'off'. If we dominate the backboard Saturday then I think we'll jump on Neb and I hope Pike takes that oppty to see if he can get Geo's confidence back a bit. we'll see
This zone will give up more offensive rebounds to us especially with their size. Also we should be able to get the ball to Mulcahy, McConnell on the free throw line more easily which will create more opportunities.
Obviously, we can't look past Nebraska. But RU needs to take care of business in both of these games to keep the train on track. It will set the stage for a madhouse at the garden. Hopefully the guys are once again up to the challenge.
